Wyoming Writers, Inc. conference good time for all

About 80 writers attended the annual Wyoming Writers, Inc. conference that took place in Casper at the Ramada Inn.

Manuscript pitches were made to Katie Dublinski of Gray Wolf Press and New York agent Peter Steinberg, and many writers were asked to send something along. That's always great to hear.

Poetry editor Chris Fishbach was there from Coffee House Press.

Keynote speaker at the Saturday night banquet was Lucia St. Clair Robson, historical fiction author, who was witty and entertaining.

There were some great readings at both open mike sessions.

The booksigning room was stocked with authors busily signing their books. Casper's "Run With the Herd" marathon, check-in was based at the Ramada, was also taking place, and a few runners visited the booksigning event.

Tom Empey closed the session on Sunday with a talk about written words and how they spark and give life to the performing arts. He had gathered several moving quotes for his theme, "Someone wrote those words."

Plans are in the works for next year's conference which will again take place in Casper.

A couple of rather new and interesting Wyoming magazines to mention.
The Wyoming Woman Magazine, based in Casper, was conceptualized by four young women -- Nettie H. Francis, Beth Worthen, Alicia Blevins and Amanda Helm. Their mission: "to connect the women of Wyoming through ideas, information, and inspiration." They accept submissions and ideas for articles and pay for the different features in the magazine. One of the nice features is the "Women at Work Directory," a list of women who are advertising their businesses -- anything from catering to travel tours. It's very reasonable to advertise there. Website: http://thewyomingwoman.com/

Wyoming's 307 Magazine, published by Celtic Media, LLC and also based in Casper, features articles and photos of Wyoming's great activities and spaces. Articles in the Winter 2011 issue: The Winter Angler, Detours (about the Continental Divide snowbile trail system), The Wiinter Time Hunting Blues, Saratoga, Cool Gear, Flint What? (about arrowheads), Mush (about the Wyoming International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race), an article on Corvettes, Born in New Jersy, Raised in Wyoming, Snowshoeing.
Website: http://www.307magonline.com/

New Jackson Hole Review launch party set for April 29

Matthew Irwin sent this:

I'm emailing to inform you about the re-launch of Jackson Hole Review, a biannual literary publication featuring literature and art from all over the country concerned with the American West. We're holding a launch party on April 29. We're in the midst of updating the website and the hard copies will be here a day or two before the party. Here are some of the details:

The party is 6-9 p.m., Friday, April 29, at Factory Studios, 1255 Gregory Lane, Jackson.

The JH Review's inaugural issue, themed "connect/disconnect," features contributions from writers, poets, photographers and visual artists from all over the country. Our featured contributor for this issue is Idaho essayist/poet/fiction writer Kim Barnes, who has generously given us an essay and submitted to an interview.

Sponsored by Teton Artlab and JH Weekly. $10 includes a copy of the Review, refreshments, entertainment and special prizes for attendees. Find out more about connect/disconnect at www.jhreview.com and at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31218906942

.
Sponsored by Teton Artlab and JH Weekly. Special thanks to the Teton Library Foundation, the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Grand Teton Music Festival, Falls Printing, Valley Bookstore, Jackson Hole Writers' Conference and the Jackson Hole Public Art Initiative for making JH Review possible.

Nancy Curtis featured in spring issue of The Wyoming Woman Magazine

The spring issue of The Wyoming Woman Magazine is out and it features a profile of publisher Nancy Curtis, recipient of a 2010 Governor's Arts Award. It was written by Saratoga writer Lori Van Pelt, winner of a 2010 creative writing fellowship in poetry from the Wyoming Arts Council. One astonishing fact from the article: Nancy was a founding member of Wyoming Writers, Inc., and WyoPoets, both of Wyoming's statewide writing groups (WyoPoets holds its annual meeting this weekend in Casper). She's also published three of Lori's books, and books by many other state and regional writers. Get more info at www.highplainspress.com

2011 Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal debuts at Green River Rendezvous July 7-10 in Pinedale

The fifth annual (2011) Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal will debut at the Green River Rendezvous July 7-10, 2011, at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale. For more information, see the 2011 Journal. The 2010 Journal can be purchased online in the Trading Post. Application deadline for papers for the sixth annual Journal is September 1, 2011.

Online article: "How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I"

This looks like an easy tutorial for those writers in Wyoming interested in publishing a Kindle book. Go to How to Publish Your Own Kindle Book: Part I

Call for entries: Copper Nickel journal

From Jake Adam York, director of creative writing at University of Colorado at Denver and editor of Copper Nickel:


Copper Nickel, the journal of art and literature my colleagues and students and I edit here in Denver, will open its second contest this coming week, and I'm hoping you'll help spread the word in your writing communities.

Daniel Alarcon will judge our fiction contest, and Kevin Prufer will judge our poetry contest. We'll accept entries through March 31, 2011. Entrants will get not only a shot at the $1000 prize (one prize in each genre) but as well a one-year subscription (2 issues) to Copper Nickel for only $15 (which is the cost of a normal subscription).

All the details are also online at http://www.copper-nickel.org/contest/

B.J. Buckley poems in HoboEye journal

Cheyenne native and Wyoming Arts Council creative writing fellowship recipient B.J,. Buckley has three poems featured on the online journal HoboEye. B.J. now lives in Lolo, Mont.


Read "Bitter," "Shakespeare's Monkeys" and "Cold Prairie" here.


Excerpt from "Bitter:"


Call it snow
but this dust from the moon’s basement
coats the windows of the
sky
until nobody can see out.

Pronghorn Press asks: Heard any good books lately?

Heard any good books lately?

We have!

Wyoming's Pronghorn Press has announced that some of its best-selling titles are available now as downloadable unabridged audiobook files. Also, if you check out the site, you can get a free download of one of Annette Chaudet's stories. Go to http://pronghornpressaudio.com/

Annette is Pronghorn's publisher and editor. She says that the press's newest title is Tom Ringley¹s Wranglin' Notes, A Chronicle of Eatons' Ranch 1879-2010. Tom Rea's book about the Hole in the Wall Ranch will be out next month.

She adds that the press will be converting a number of titles into multi-format ebooks after the first of the year. So stay tuned, Kindle users.

Author Diana Kouris earns laurels for her High Plains Press book

This comes from Nancy Curtis at High Plains Press in Glendo: Diana Kouris (left), author of Riding the Edge of an Era, has been doing High Plains Press proud. She was a finalist for both the Zonta Best Woman Writer Award at the Billings Book Festival and the Willa Award which was presented in Wickenburg, Arizona. Diana and I went to both events and had a great time. My friend and former co-editor Linda Hasselstrom (right) traveled with us and came home with the top award at both events. Here we are.

"The Imprint of Alan Swallow" by Laramie's W. Dale Nelson just published by Syracuse University Press

WyoWriter, the newsletter published by Wyoming Writers, Inc., is always filled with info on its members. WWInc member and WAC creative writing fellowship winner W. Dale Nelson has written a new book about the late Wyoming publisher Alan Swallow:

W. Dale Nelson's latest book The Imprint of Alan Swallow: Quality Publishing in the West is now out on the shelves, and proves to be a story in a story.

Published by Syracuse University Press, this project was taken over by Nelson after the tragic death of Colorado writer Thomas M. Auer, who had spent years researching Swallow's life.

The book tells of Swallow's experiences growing up on a homestead outside Powell, and how he became a fan of Little Blue Books, literary classics in prose and verse published in small volumes. Seeds were planted in Swallow's life, and he formed two convictions: he would be a poet and a publisher.

The Imprint of Alan Swallow: Quality Publishing in the West tells the story of how he succeeded at both, struggled with marital, health, and financial problems among others - troubles that brought him to death at the age of fifty-one.

Wyoming Writers, Inc., announces full slate of presenters for its 2011 conference in Casper

Laramie's Julianne Couch, board secretary for Wyoming Writers, Inc., sends this finalized list of presenters for the 2011 WWInc conference in Casper June 3-5. Start planning now:

Lucia St. Clair Robson, historical novelist

Chris Fischbach, poet (and poetry editor at Coffee House Press)

Peter McCarthy, VP of marketing for Random House Press

Editor, Katie Dublinsky, Graywolf Press

Agent, Peter Steinberg, Steinberg agency

Sunday morning inspiration -- Tom Empey, recently retired head of the Casper College Theatre Program.


FMI: See the updated website at www.wyowriters.org.

A very good question: "Why is Indie OK for Musicians and Filmmakers But Not for Writers?"

Why is Indie OK for Musicians and Filmmakers, But Not for Writers?

Writers "speed-date" Wyoming librarians, talk e-books

The Wyoming Library Association meets this week. During one of yesterday's sessions, an assortment of Wyoming writers "speed-dated" librarians, talking about their favorite writerly topics. Writers included Cat Urbigkit, Pinedale; John Nesbitt, Torrington; Mike and Kathy Gear, Thermopolis; and Mary Gillgannon, Cheyenne. Mary is writer and librarian and sees these topics from several angles. Here's the beginning of a post on her blog:

I spent last evening “speed dating” with Wyoming librarians. Six other authors and I went around the room and spoke to small groups of librarians about writing and publishing.  Since I don’t have a current book to promote, I mostly discussed e-books and changes in the market.

Read the entire post at http://marygillgannon.blogspot.com/2010/09/e-books-and-future-of-publishing.html

Deadline Oct. 15 for publishing seminar in NYC

The Center for Book Arts in New York City is now inviting applications for its upcoming Letterpress Printing & Fine Press Publishing Seminar for Emerging Writers (November 10-14). Deadline is Oct. 15.

Participants will attend lectures from printers, fine press publishers, book artists, and dealers to get a practical overview of letterpress printing and fine press publishing. They will learn the basics of letterpress printing, both traditional typesetting and options with new technology, by collaboratively printing a small edition of broadsides or other projects. This free workshop is most suitable for those with little or no previous letterpress experience.

Those selected must attend the entire five-day workshop. For further details and an application, click here.

Call for entries: Serendipity Poets journal

THE SERENDIPITY POETS OF CHEYENNE ARE CALLING FOR ORIGINAL POETRY FOR ITS 15TH ANNUAL POETRY JOURNAL.

SEND A G-RATED POEM NOT TO EXCEED 32 LINES WITH NAME ADDRESS, PHONE, E-MAIL AND A SHORT BIO. ENTRIES CAN BE MAILED TO SERENDIPITY POETS, 922 WEST 26TH, CHEYENNE, WY 82001 OR E-MAILED TO warsaw2muse@gmail.com

The deadline for submission is October 31.

Original poems with a creative or western theme will be given priority
though no subject is excluded.

A short biography of the poet must be included.

There is no charge for submissions.

Copies of previous journals 1996 through 2009 can be found in the poetry section of Laramie County Library.

FMI: Ed Warsaw, warsaw2muse@gmail.com, (307) 635-4725

Tough new world that has such publishers in it

Writers are having a tough time figuring out the new world of publishing. It includes print-on-demand, e-books, z-books, Kindles, social networking and all kinds of wild e-stuff. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear of Thermopolis, authors (together and separately) of more than 40 books, are discovering another byproduct of this electronic age.

This comes from their blog:

Yeah, it’s a tough new world. We heard from a couple of you that COMING OF THE STORM didn’t show up in your local news stand rack. For reasons that we still haven’t been able to ferret out, Simon & Schuster shipped fewer copies than normal of COMING OF THE STORM in paperback. Lots fewer. So please note: If you have been waiting to read the adventures of Black Shell and Pearl Hand as they hunt the foul de Soto, you’ve got order on line, or hit your local bookstore. Wal Mart still has copies, but they will be pulled within the next week or two.

So why is it a “tough new world?”

Bookselling is changing by the moment. In February ebooks made up 2% of the market. In July, they made up 11%. We haven’t heard today’s numbers, but they are growing. Prognosticators expect ebooks to top out at around 35% of the market. So, how many print copies does a publisher print? Not just of a Gear title, but of all the other paperbacks they are releasing that month?

COMING OF THE STORM fell into that chasm of uncertainty.

So, here it is: If you want it, you’d better scramble.

... If you’re a book person, a true bibliophile, welcome to the Tough New World!

PW Select to feature self-published books

From Publishers Weekly, via a Colorado Independent Publishers Association post on Facebook:

We are returning to our earliest roots. PW dates to 1872, when it was first known as Trade Circular Weekly and listed all titles published that week in what was then a nascent industry. We have decided to embrace the self-publishing phenomenon in a similar spirit. Call it what you will -- self-publishing, DIY, POD, author-financed, relationship publishing, or vanity fare. They are books and that is what PW cares about. And we aim to inform the trade.

To that end, we are announcing PW Select, a quarterly supplement announcing self-published titles and reviewing those we believe are most deserving of a critical assessment. The first supplement will appear in our year-end issue in December. Each quarterly will include a complete announcement issue of all self-published books submitted during that period. The listings will include author, title, subtitle, price, pagination and format, ISBN, a brief description, and ordering information provided by the authors, who will be required to pay a processing fee for their listing. At least 25 of the submitted titles will be selected for a published review. There will also be an overview of the publishing trends that can be identified from among the titles from that reading period. We will also focus on the opportunities that the self-pub world offers. A resource directory will accompany the section offering names of companies providing services in the DIY space.

--snip--

The first reading period for self-published books will be from September 1 until the end of October. All submitted titles will be registered online by the publisher at www.publishersweekly.com/diy; a processing fee of $149 will be charged. Once the registration process is completed, shipping instructions and a confirmation code will be issued. Additional copies of the supplement will be available for distribution.

--snip--

Titles submitted for our first supplement must have been published in 2010 and have a valid ISBN. We will not accept manuscripts or e-books (this time). Only final bound galleys or finished books will be accepted. Books cannot be returned; once finished the copies are donated to Housing Works Thrift Shop, a worthy local charity.

Please, please send your book in a bio-sensitive package (i.e., no bubble wrap or plastic envelopes). Also, please use packaging appropriate to the book you are submitting: no boxes full of packing peanuts or paper stuffing. We recommend reusable and recycled paper envelopes. An acknowledgment of the book's arrival will be issued via e-mail upon receipt.

We look forward to finding the gems worthy of attention, the sleeping indie giants—after all, books are our business.

George W. Slowik Jr.
President

P.S. The $149 processing fee also includes a 6-month subscription to the digital edition of PW.

Self-publishers writers: What do you think of this?

Call for entries: Matter Journal's "Animal" issue

Matter Journal is looking for writing, photography, and artwork that speaks to the animal in all of us. We like well-written stuff best, especially if it comes with something interesting to say and strives for deeper meaning. Prose that howls us into seeing the world a new way. Poems that knock our zebra-striped socks off. Photographs, illustrations, and paintings to drool over.

See our submission guidelines on our web site and then send your best work to Matter, P.O. Box 814, Fort Collins, CO 80522, attn: Matter 14 Animal. It can take 3-6 months for us to respond, so please be patient.

Matter 14: Animal Fiction Prize

If you would like your short story to be considered for the Animal Fiction Prize, include something to that effect in your cover letter and on the envelope, a $5 reading fee, and an SASE or e-mail address for notification purposes. Award is $250, publication, and 2 complimentary copies of the issue in which your work appears. All contest submissions will be considered for publication as well.

Deadline for both submissions and contest: Wednesday, October 15, 2010, postmark date.

Call for entries: Front Range literary journal

Thanks to our fellow bloggers at http://montanaartscouncil.blogspot.com/:

Front Range, an internationally-circulated annual literary journal, seeks submissions of high quality fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction beginning 1 August for our 6th (2011) issue. Deadline is 7 November 2010. We report results by end of December, publish first week of March each year.

For writers' organizations: Please feel free to pass this along to your memberships.

Strongly suggested: Take a look at a recent copy. Archives and submission guidelines on our website: http://www.frontrangemt.org/

We love Montana, and the Rocky Mountain West. We also love work from and about other places that juxtaposes our existence with that of the world at large.

Poetry: Up to 8 unpublished (preferably) poems, maximum 15 pages total, single or double-spaced, left justified.

Short Fiction: Up to 3 unpublished (preferably) stories, not to exceed 4,000 words each, double-spaced, following standard conventions of paragraphing.

Nonfiction: Up to 3 unpublished (preferably) creative nonfiction pieces, not to exceed 4,000 words each, double-spaced, following standard conventions of paragraphing.

Artwork: .JPEG files of paintings, drawings, or photography, each file saved with title of piece. Shock us, surprise us, or yank on our emotions. We publish two pieces in color each year (front/back cover); all others are converted to b/w. Color photos should be high res, at least 430 dpi.

While we have accepted previously-published work from established authors, this is normally by prior arrangement.

Please note requirement for separate identifying info and author/artist bio: Name, address, phone number/email of writer should appear on a separate cover sheet, no identification on the work itself. Please list title of each submitted poem or story on cover sheet. Artist/author bio should appear on cover sheet or in text of email.

Electronic submissions only, as separate email attachments in .doc, .docx or .rtf format (no other formats).
Simultaneous submissions accepted. All rights revert to author/artist upon publication. Payment in contributor copies.

Submit to: editor@frontrangeMT.org (preferred) or FrontRangeMT@hotmail.com
 
Please note: due to the volume of submissions we receive each year, those not conforming to submission guidelines will not be read or acknowledged.

Daily Yonder: "Wyoming Writers Circle the Wagons"

Check out this article by Julianne Couch of Laramie:

Wyoming Writers Circle the Wagons in the Daily Yonder

Julianne is on the Wyoming Arts Council's artist roster. Bring her to your community with an Arts Across Wyoming grant. More info at http://www.wyomingartscouncil.org/