In 1948, an instructor at the University of Illinois strode into a classroom to tell his playwriting students everything he'd learned about writing for the stage and, by extension, the screen. His students were many things — ordinary college kids, men recently returned from the war, women who were the first in their families to pursue higher education. The professor had written a few plays and some screenplays. You probably wouldn't recognize his name. The book, compiled from his lectures and conversations with students, could have been a minor tome.
But it wasn't. The result was (and still is) the greatest book ever written about the craft of dramatic writing — or maybe just writing, period. Published in 1949, it's a uniquely American work, in both its preoccupations and its conception. It perfectly captures a country on the brink of a new world order that it would stand astride with relative confidence and ease.
The 2016 Northern Writers’ Awards, with £40,000 to give away to aspiring authors, poets, playwrights and screenwriters, opened for applications this week.
The awards, run by Newcastle-based New Writing North (NWN) with the support of Northumbria University and Arts Council England, are available to writers based in the north of England. They are viewed as the country’s leading talent development programme for writers.
Send query by post with SASE or by email, with synopsis and 30-page sample. Will not consider one-page proposals or full mss. No historical novels, science fiction, fantasy, westerns, horror, plays, scientific or technical reference, or books intended as textbooks. See website for full details.
In the first of a series on how publishing works, Sarah Bannan talks to a top Irish agent about what her job entails, what drives and what frustrates her.
Anna Caltabiano self-published her first novel at the age of 14. Now with three published novels under her belt, the 18-year-old author and student shares some marvellous writing tips for teenage writers and beyond.
Publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction related to jazz. Send submissions by post with SASE. No fax or email submissions. Reading period runs from September 1 to May 15 annually.
Both traditionally and self-published authors need to be “engaged”, traditional publishers have to be open to new voices from different backgrounds, tricky rights issues need to be tackled, but ultimately traditional and indie author communities need to come together.
Ebury m.d. Rebecca Smart said that traditional publishers need to “shout from the rooftops” more about the value and investment they provide for authors.
Smart was speaking at The Bookseller's Author Day after several speakers voiced frustration with traditional publishers on a number of points including author care, long-term investment and renumeration. She said that “she did not recognise” the traditional publishers that had been portrayed earlier in the day “but part of that is that we as an industry are not as always good enough at shouting from the rooftops” about the good things publishers do.
Novelist Kamila Shamsie has said that traditional publishers’ focus on the “bottom line value of pounds and pennies” has meant a shift away from building authors’ careers in the long-term and created a lack of diversity and new voices.
Shamsie, speaking at the The Bookseller's Author Day, compared the climate of today to that of the late 1990s, when she began her career, and was told by her then-agent Alexandra Pringle that her publisher would be hoping to invest in her in the long-term.
Free online journal publishing poetry and fiction (including translations), photography, prints and art. Send submissions by email in the body of the email.