PNWA E-Notes http://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent... Having trouble viewing this email? Click here You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails. PACIFIC NORTHWEST WRITERS ASSOCIATION MARCH E-NOTES March E-Notes MARCH 2010 E-NOTES: PNWA News E-Notes is your monthly electronic newsletter full of the latest news about the literary world. Our newsletter is a PNWA Member Benefit. Contests/Submissions Classes/Workshops Please send us an email if you would like to place an announcement in next month's E-Notes: [email protected] Events/Speakers Miscellaneous (Announcements must be received by the 19th of the previous month to be included). PNWA NEWS: MONTHLY SPEAKER MEETING: Thursday, March 18, 2010 Chinook Middle School @ 7:00 P.M. (2001 98th Ave NE, Bellevue, WA 98004) Topic & Speaker will be announced soon on the main page of our website (www.pnwa.org). PNWA Member Peter Bacho Leaving Yesler, Pleasure Boat Studio, Softcover $16.00 (250pp) (ISBN#: 978-1-929355570) Leaving Yesler encounters seventeen year-old Bobby Vincente in the wake of his older brother's military death; faced with the challenge of caring for his aging father, this young man from urban Seattle's housing projects is forced to take control of his life and identity as he traverses a period of life-altering change marked by new interests, new challenges, and ultimately, new life. Author Peter Bacho, a two-time winner of the American Book Award, explores themes of belief/disbelief, arrival/departure, and love/violence, through which he achieves a portrait of embodied strength in his protagonist. Bobby Vincente is sensitive, faithful, and determined not to be defined or limited by anyone other than himself. This struggle takes him to the boxing ring, where his physicality is awakened; to community college, where he studies in 1 of 17 3/9/2010 9:05 AM PNWA E-Notes http://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent... hope of passing the GED and avoiding the draft. Out of Bobby's sexual and emotional growth emerges a great capacity for forgiveness, a penchant for cooking, and a deep commitment to family. Bacho accentuates Bobby's stressful mental state by making use of a narrative style that is blunt and interrogative. He creates a stream of constant self-definition and re-definition that rides up along the emotional highs of love, success, and pride and down through the lows of rejection, loss, and shame, while also opening the story to a host of literal spirits. These ghosts, the majority Bobby's deceased relatives or neighbours, coax and provoke him to learn more about himself and about the kind of person he wants to be. Paulie Vincente, protector and tormentor of his younger sibling in life, continues to influence his brother by appearing and speaking to him even at the most inopportune moments. Readers will get the sense that there is a mission here, and Bobby's growth as a character owes a great deal to his flat-out acceptance of these apparitional lessons as a part of a larger reality. Though the novel takes place during the Vietnam War, this tale of a mixed race, impoverished, and soon-to-be orphaned American rings true to a contemporary setting. A critique of organized Christianity also weaves throughout the book that, combined with Bacho's technique of magical realism and the value placed on self-determination, presents with a strong message of non-conformity. Leaving Yesler is accessible, contains fears and joys to which young people can relate, and offers a great deal to ponder. (March) Patty Comeau PNWA Member Indu Sundaresan Indu Sundaresan announces the publication of Shadow Princess (Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, Hardcover, March 2010, $25.99; ISBN: 978-1-4165-4879-9). When her mother dies, Princess Jahanara bears the weight of her father's grief, assumes the responsibilities of an empress, and struggles to put a beloved brother on the throne. As Jahanara comes of age in this turbulent time, her father builds the Taj Mahal in her mother's memory. Meticulously researched, set amidst the splendor of the world's most opulent court, this is the tale of a lone woman who is powerful and wealthy, but who fails to influence India's history and who finds happiness in unconventional ways. Shadow Princess is the third book in Sundaresan's Taj Mahal trilogy-the first two, The Twentieth Wife (2002) and The Feast of Roses (2003) are based on Mehrunnisa, Empress Nur Jahan's life (she was Jahanara's grand-aunt; married to her paternal grandfather, Emperor Jahangir.) Foreign and translation rights to Shadow Princess have been sold to nine countries so far. For more information, visit: www.indusundaresan.com 2 of 17 3/9/2010 9:05 AM PNWA E-Notes http://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent... Readings and Events for Shadow Princess (www.indusundaresan.com/Events.aspx) Thursday, March 25th, 2010: (evening; time and place not confirmed yet) Reading and Book Signing Sponsored by the Seattle Asian Art Museum and Elliott Bay Bookstore, Seattle, WA Monday, March 29th, 2010: 7:30 P.M. Reading and Book Signing Powell's Bookstore 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR Monday, April 19th, 2010: 7P.M. Reading and Book Signing Northwest Author Spotlight Event Bellevue Library 1111 110th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA PNWA Fiction writers' group seeking new member. Our four current members submit every month via e-mail and critique the same way. We live in different states and countries and are all writing literary/mainstream novels. We occasionally critique shorter pieces such as literary short stories. We would like to add a member who is an experienced writer focusing on literary/mainstream fiction. Please contact Chris at [email protected] with information regarding your writing background and interests. CONTEST/SUBMISSIONS: Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition Entries are now being accepted for the 2010 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, created to enthusiastically support the efforts and talent of emerging writers of short fiction whose voices have yet to be heard. Writers will compete for a $1,000 first-place prize, $500 second-place prize, and $500 third-place prize in this internationally- acclaimed competition. Several honorable mentions are also awarded each year. As an added prize, beginning in 2009, The Saturday Evening Post will publish our first-place winner. Payment by The Saturday Evening Post for publication of the winning story will be in addition to our $1000 first-place prize. Stories in all genres of fiction are welcome. Maximum length is 3,000 words, and writers retain all rights to their work. The final deadline is May 15, 2010; winners will be announced at the end of July. 3 of 17 3/9/2010 9:05 AM PNWA E-Notes http://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent... For complete guidelines, please visit www.shortstorycompetition.com, e-mail [email protected], or send an SASE to the Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition, P.O. Box 993, Key West, FL 33041. The Writer's Workshop Review The Writer's Workshop Review is seeking submissions for its fourth issue. The online literary magazine publishes the best in creative nonfiction and fiction from established and emerging writers. We love strong narratives, compelling characters, stories told with style, verve and wit. Please click on the link below to see our latest issue: www.thewritersworkshopreview.net. We publish narrative nonfiction, personal essays, short stories, short shorts, as well as travel, food and wine writing with a strong narrative element. We prefer submissions of 1000 to 2500 words, with the exception of short shorts, and occasionally will consider something longer. We also publish one interview per issue on the art and craft of writing. We pay per story and per interview. We only accept online submissions. Do not send hard copy. For more on the submissions process, see link below: http://www.thewritersworkshopreview.net/submissions.cgi 2010 Beach Book Festival Call for Entries The 2010 Beach Book Festival has issued the call for entries to its annual competition honoring the hottest reads of the summer season. The top festival book of the upcoming season will win $1500 and a flight to New York for our June 11 awards ceremony at the famed Algonquin Hotel. The Beach Book Festival will consider self-published or independent publisher nonfiction, fiction, biography or autobiography, children's books, teenage, how-to, science fiction, romance, comics, poetry, spiritual, compilations and anthologies, history, business and health- oriented books published on or after Jan. 1, 2005. Submitted works will be judged for general excellence, i.e., the potential of the work to be an engaging beach read this summer season. More information on the festival and entry forms is at www.beachbookfestival.com. 12th Annual Scriptapalooza International Screenplay Competition Regular deadline: March 5th Why should you submit your script to Scriptapalooza? Grand Prize: $10,000 4 of 17 3/9/2010 9:05 AM PNWA E-Notes http://ui.constantcontact.com/visualeditor/visual_editor_preview.jsp?agent... All the reading is done by 90 production companies Entertainment Weekly Magazine calls us 'One of the Best' We promote the winners, runners-up, finalists and semifinalists for a full year We are considered one of the best screenplay competitions by agents, managers and producers Supported by the Writers Guild of America, West Supported by the Writers Guild of Canada About Scriptapalooza: The Scriptapalooza Screenwriting Competition, was founded in 1998, and has generated heat, publicity and a reputation that demands respect. Scriptapalooza, Inc., along with its various divisions, was created to nurture talent and create opportunities. Storytellers come from all over the world and from all walks of life, because of the simple fact that everyone has a story.