Read "A Little Stranger" and then visit Kate's website to read more of her pieces.
June 29, 2010. New York. Today, on the one-year anniversary of She Writes founders Kamy Wicoff and Deborah Siegel will announce The Passion Project, a contest open to an emerging author and member of She Writes with a nonfiction book project in the works.
The Passion Project enables a hand-picked A-team of writing and publishing experts to choose a book project by a first-time author and to donate their time to its advancement, giving it every possible chance to succeed.
"She Writes was founded on the premise that writing can be life- and world-changing for women, that no woman writer is an island, and that publishing expertise should be available to every writer, not only those who can afford to pay," said Wicoff. The contest embodies the company's mission.
The Passion Project borrows its name from a common term used inside publishing houses to refer to a book an editor loves with a passion, even if it's not a lucrative project. Judges include literary agents Betsy Lerner and Erin Hosier; Brooke Warner, publisher of Seal Press; author and journalist Alissa Quart; and Wicoff and Siegel themselves. The Project's co-directors, Lea Beresford and Amanda Johnson Moon, are editors who hail from inside of traditional publishing (Random House and Basic Books, most recently).
The winner will be selected on the basis of the merit of her entry, which consists of a cover letter and a 2,000 word excerpt. She will receive thorough and supportive consultations from a team of experts designed to help her prepare a complete proposal for submission to agents or publishers. Entries are due August 1st, 2010, and finalists will be announced and their excerpts posted on August 27th, at www.shewrites.com. A winner will be announced on August 24th.
"She Writes offers aspiring authors and published authors a safe space to discuss their work and their goals with like-minded women who share a passion for the written word," said Moon. "The Passion Project celebrates the power of collaboration at a time when many writers are looking for a new spin on the traditional publishing model. Through blogging about the contest, soliciting community engagement, and updating our members about the process itself, we are providing writers with a different way to think about sharing their work, and still offering them the tools they need to navigate an ever-changing publishing world."
"It's a wonderful prize," noted Beresford. "I think any author would love to have a cadre of experts to call upon. But it's a prize for She Writes' editors, marketing experts, and social media mavens, too. Here's our opportunity to work on something we really love."
www.shewrites.com
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For more information about the Passion Project contest, please visit the Contest page at She Writes.
Join NYWIFT and Women Make Movies for two films that question the price of child-rearing in North America . LATCHING ON, by Katja Esson, director of the Academy Award-nominated FERRY TALES, explores the politics of breastfeeding in the US . After Esson's sister gave birth in Germany , she was able to breastfeed her baby anywhere, at any time. When Essen returned home to New York , she found that the breastfeeding her sister enjoyed was largely unseen, so she set out to learn why. Her frequently funny documentary highlights the intersecting economic, social and cultural forces that helped replace mother's milk with formula produced by a billion dollar industry. Similarly, in MY TOXIC BABY, new mother and award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee discovered that baby bottles leach a chemical byproduct linked to impaired health and serious diseases, so she set off on a journey that exposes the hidden dangers lurking in infant bath soaps, diaper rash creams, teething toys and many everyday products.
The event is FREE and will take place on June 30, 6:30 pm, at Tribeca Film Center , 375 Greenwich Street (at Franklin ).Both filmmakers will be in attendance. RSVP at http://bit.ly/94XAcQ.
In May, we asked, "If you could profile your mother, what salient features would you include -- her smell; her habits; her laugh? What did you love about her? What did you hate? What part of her is within you and obvious when you parent your own children?"
Margaret Hundley Parker wrote:
When I was seven months pregnant with my second child, we almost left Brooklyn to buy a house next door to my mother's in Chapel Hill -- my entire family lives in North Carolina and has since the beginning of time. But instead, we moved farther north to a town in the Hudson Valley known for making Union weapons in the Civil War.
From LM's Essential Reading list for Father's Day:
ANDREA RICHESIN, MIKE ADAMICK, NICK TAYLOR, and ROBERT WILDER present What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On To and Letting Go of Their Daughters.
Location:
Books Inc. in Laurel Village
3515 California Street
San Francisco, California 94118
One of our Literary Mamas has lost her son.
Katie Granju, a former editor for Literary Mama, watched her 18-year-old son, Henry, die in intensive care Monday.
Katie has faced the trauma with characteristic transparency - revealing what others might want to hide. Despite knowing the criticism she would face, she went public with the specifics during a month-long hospital vigil. How her son was addicted. How he went on a drug buy. How he was attacked with a tire iron. How he didn't receive needed medical attention. How more drugs were given to him despite severe injuries to body and brain. How he rallied, then failed, in the hospital. How her mama hope failed to protect her boy.
Since her first post of "Please pray for my Henry," I've been watching the story from the sidelines. Facebook. Blog posts. The New York Times article. Each day, I logged in, trying to find out how Henry was doing. I told my husband all about Henry. I told my friends. I kept talking about it, though everyone was a bit confused by my concern.
You see, I never met Henry. In fact, I have never met Katie face-to-face. I came to know her through an online support group she hosted called "writer mamas" years ago. I worked with her at Literary Mama. And, I've followed her writing ever since. No real world time. Nonetheless, knowing someone through online communities creates its own kind of intimacy. Its own kind of power. And now I can't let it go.
I hurt to think of Henry, his body, his pain. I hurt to think of Katie, with her mother bear strength, watching her son die and being able to do nothing. I hurt to think of the judgment of the world on her son, on her. I just hurt.
And I completely understand her desire to make the story public. In some ancient communities, the family is asked to tell the story of the death to each and every person attending the funeral. By the last person, the story doesn't hurt so much to tell. The old ones knew the importance of telling our stories, as whole and awful and bloody as they are. If I take it out of me and put it out there, it has less power over me. And Katie needs that now.
We need to listen. We need to be witnesses to this crime, this pain, this horror. For Katie. For Henry. For ourselves. We are part of a community, the Literary Mama community, and this is how a community honors its dead, and helps the living to continue on.
To show your support at the Facebook site set up to honor Henry, click here.
Other information:
A Knoxville news article about Henry's death
Katie's blog
The New York Times article
Former LM columnist Sophia Raday will be reading from her memoir, Love in Condition Yellow at:
Orinda Books, Orinda, CA
Thursday, June 03, 4:00
Village View Court
(925) 254-7606
Read Sophia's column Mommy Athens: Daddy Sparta
And LM's profile: "A Conversation with Sophia Raday"
As well as a review of her Memoir: Love in Condition Yellow: A Memoir of an Unlikely Marriage.