Genre: Creative Nonfiction

Hanif Abdurraqib on There’s Always This Year

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“It was good to write a book where I’m staring at time directly, in a very literal sense.” In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Hanif Abdurraqib talks about the unique writing process for his latest book, There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension (Random House, 2024), the power of nostalgia, and his life in Ohio. Abdurraqib’s new book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Applications Open for Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants

The Whiting Foundation is accepting applications for the 2024 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants until April 23. Up to ten writers working on “complex, imaginatively composed” nonfiction books will receive a grant of $40,000 each. The grantees will be announced in December.

Eligible writers will have already made significant progress on their books, which should be multiyear, original projects that involve deep and significant amounts of research and writing. Given at a “crucial point mid-process,” the grants are intended to provide “an extra infusion of support” that can meaningfully improve the quality of the books. To be considered, projects must be under contract with a U.S., Canadian, or U.K. publisher. In acknowledgment of “additional structural hurdles to securing institutional resources to support such projects, “writers of color in particular are encouraged to apply.” 

Recipients of the 2023 grants were Nicholas Boggs for James Baldwin: A Love Story, Eiren Caffall for The Mourner’s Bestiary, Sarah Chihaya for Bibliophobia, Alexander Clapp for Waste Wars: A Journey Through the World of Globalized Trash, Kendra Taira Field for The Stories We Tell, Molly O’Toole for The Route: The Untold Story of the New Migrant Underground, Dom Phillips with collaborators for How to Save the Amazon: Ask the People Who Know, Carrie Schuettpelz for The Indian Card: A Journey Through America’s Native Identity Problem, Sonia Shah for Special: The Rise and Fall of a Beastly Idea, and Reggie Ugwu for Brilliance Is All We Have: Black Filmmakers and the Fight for the Soul of America.

To learn more, visit whiting.org/writers/creative-nonfiction-grant/about. The Whiting Foundation hosted two online information sessions to answer questions and offer guidance on applying for the grant; a recording of an info session is available here. Writers may submit an application via the online form by 11:59PM ET on April 23.

Face It

3.28.24

How do you tell the tale of your nose, lips, teeth, eyes, brows, and cheeks? This week, study yourself closely in a mirror, and write a memoiristic essay that relays the backstories of your facial features. Are there elements that have shifted, scarred, or been modified in some way with orthodontics, makeup, surgery, or the natural processes of aging? Have there ever been parts of your countenance that you’ve disliked or preferred, and has that changed over time? Take a long, hard look at yourself and reflect on the memories that come up and how your facial expressions and textures have evolved. You might decide to cover just one or two features, or be inspired to cover each part of your face and how they all have a story.

Fallon Book Club March Madness

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In this The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon video, the host reveals the return of the Fallon Book Club with a March Madness style bracket of sixteen books to vote for as a winner, including James (Doubleday, 2024) by Percival Everett, Wandering Stars (Knopf, 2024) by Tommy Orange, and Grief Is for People (MCD/FSG, 2024) by Sloane Crosley.

Daily Grind

3.21.24

Day Jobs, an exhibition currently on display at Stanford University’s Cantor Art Center in California, examines the impact of day jobs on artists. Showcasing the work of three dozen visual artists, the accompanying catalogue offers first-hand accounts of how their employment in places like a frame shop, hair salon, and museum helped inform their creativity. The exhibit deconstructs the romanticized image of the artist and draws attention to how one’s economic and creative pursuits are often intertwined. Write a personal essay that considers how one of your day jobs unexpectedly influenced your own writing projects. How might something undertaken because of financial necessity also provide valuable ideas to explore in your art?

Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat

The Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat will be held from September 22 to September 28 at a chalet in Chamonix, France, a resort area at the base of Mont Blanc, the highest summit in the Alps, near the junction of France, Italy, and Switzerland. The retreat features classes on all aspects of publishing, workshops, pitch sessions, query letter critiques, one-on-one consultations, and independent time to write for poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. Residents also receive a personalized publishing plan.

Type: 
RESIDENCY
Ignore Event Date Field?: 
no
Event Date: 
September 22, 2024
Rolling Admissions: 
yes
Application Deadline: 
May 11, 2024
Financial Aid?: 
no
Financial Aid Application Deadline: 
May 11, 2024
Free Admission: 
no
Contact Information: 

Foreword Writing and Publishing Retreat, P.O. Box 569, Kilauea, HI 96754. Carol Johnson, Managing Director. 

Carol Johnson
Managing Director
Contact City: 
Chamonix
Country: 
FR
Add Image: 

Jaded Ibis Press Accepting Submissions From Historically Marginalized Writers for Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award Until March 31

Jaded Ibis Press is currently accepting submissions of book-length creative nonfiction manuscripts, including memoir, essays, and reporting, for its Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award, given to a writer who identifies as a historically marginalized voice. The deadline to enter the contest, which awards $1,500 and publication by Jaded Ibis Press, is March 31

Using only the online submission system, submit 45,000 to 75,000 words of prose with a $20 entry fee. Myriam Gurba, whose most recent book is the essay collection Creep: Accusations and Confessions (Avid Reader Press, 2023), will judge. All entries will be considered for publication. 

Jaded Ibis is a feminist press committed to publishing socially engaged literature with an emphasis on the voices of people of color, people with disabilities, and other historically silenced and culturally marginalized voices. Recently published titles include Mei-Mei Holland’s poetry and prose collection Year of the Cicada and Nada Samih-Rotondo’s memoir, All Water Has Perfect Memory, both of which were acquired by Jaded Ibis acquisitions editor Lisa Pegram, who says she’s interested in “submissions from authors who have a distinctive voice and write books that explore the lives and concerns of those who identify as women and/or people of color.”

About the Uplift Voices Nonfiction Book Award, the editors say it “is more than a literary contest; it’s an opportunity have your book lovingly edited, designed, produced as both an e-book and print edition, marketed, and submitted to eligible literary awards and prizes.” They add: “Join us in amplifying voices that need to be heard, and submit your manuscript for a shot at making a powerful impact. Your story matters, so let it be uplifted!” Visit the website for more information. 

Morgan Parker on Her First Book of Essays

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In this event hosted by the Free Library of Philadelphia, Morgan Parker discusses her debut essay collection, You Get What You Pay For (One World, 2024), and the challenges of writing about mental health in a conversation with Shantrelle Lewis. Parker’s book is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Opposite Effects

3.14.24

In her groundbreaking 1962 book, Silent Spring, biologist Rachel Carson foretold of “a spring without voices.” Documenting the harmful effects of chemical pesticides used in the agricultural industry, her book sparked an awakening to the environmental crisis in the 1960s and 1970s and launched a movement that brought about the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency. “The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings,” she writes. “Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species—man—acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.” Write an essay that begins by examining how the environment, whether natural or manufactured, has molded you. Then consider how you have modified your surrounding environment—the nature of your world.

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