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By sys2105, on January 6th, 2011 Check out WeBook, a site which calls itself a “Writing community for writers, readers and literary agents” where you can “submit works, read and rate writings.” On the PageToFame section writers can post their work (for a minimal fee) to be rated by WeBook users. In the first round the first page is reviewed by users on a 5-point scale, if it does well readers judge a 5-page sample, and then the full piece. A panel of professional literary agents will review the best-rated pieces. Is this a backdoor to being discovered? Not really, but it might be a good way to test the appeal of your work and push yourself to create a greater online presence. As a reader you are able to see the percentage of readers who voted like you after you cast your vote, and thereby compare your opinion.
Overall Impression: Writers are not judged on a professional scale until they make it through many rounds, and are given minimal feedback, and beginning readers are only able to compare their ratings to the general readership and not the professional agents’ opinions, but still Worth checking out and a much better way to waste time than Facebook.
By jy2434, on November 5th, 2010 Cute but pricy bookshop downtown I visit sometimes for their cafe (they’re also right next to a good cupcake shop..) holds pretty regularly some events, workshops, etc. An upcoming one: “Conversations on Practice with Carole Maso” this Monday Nov. 8, 7:00pm – 8:00pm. Glenn Kurtz will be the moderator. Should be interesting/fun!
For more info:
http://mcnallyjackson.com/index.php/component/option,com_events/Itemid,30/agid,735/day,08/month,11/task,view_detail/year,2010/
By lem2171, on October 30th, 2010
Quarto has been around for over 60 years now, but why not take a look at Quarto’s more recent past? The 2008-2009 issue marks the beginning of Quarto’s reflection on the question “What is literary?” an idea that continues to characterize the magazine.
Take a look at the very first piece for example, Sandra Susser’s Index for the Ruination of Suburbia, a poem in the form of an index, or Aaron Rotenberg’s Rejected Manuscript, in which we see something like a lab report format become a poetic structure. Two non-fiction pieces in this issue, Ben Reninga’s Letters Home and Break Up Letter by Adrienne Giffen introduce the idea that non-fiction, far from being limited to personal essays or reportage, can contain something such as a letter, a piece of writing not only on the subject of true events, but actually pulled straight from their functional purpose in everyday life and transformed into something literary. In fiction, Matt Herzfeld’s How To Observe a Common Black Housefly Closely, Matthew Ira Swaye’s The Administrative Assistant, and Jim Urbom’s A Faerie Tale all seem to explore the form of the short short story.
These nontraditional forms alongside traditional short story, narrative non-fiction, and poetry pieces speak of Quarto’s goal to publish the best writing regardless of the form in which it comes. Whether an idea fits best into a standard form or subverts it, whether it feels born to be a prose poem or an index, a comic or a narrative, a short story or a letter, a haiku or a lab report, a transcription of comical class notes, a play, or a six word memoir, be inspired by the 2008-2009 issue to realize that anything can be literary.
By Matthew Hamilton, on October 19th, 2010 For some reason, even while actually being upset and scolding all the common editors of everyday lexicon and typography, Stephen Fry makes a good point- all you sticklers out there, use your powers for good and funsiness!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY[/youtube]
By Matthew Hamilton, on October 12th, 2010 And so begins the first of many posts here at Quarto where we take a look at older pieces within our archives for the purpose of sparking thoughts and conversations about writing at Columbia.
The piece I chose this week is Call Me Uncas by Ralph Perry, in the 1965 Fall issue of Quarto. It also happens to be mirroring a funny comic done by Louise Gluck, a US poet Laureate and also Columbia alumni, and proud School of General Studies’ student, apparently. This short prose piece is a cool periscope view into the mannerisms, and social etiquette of the 60s, or at least what it was in the writer’s eyes. The story is about a guy named Mark and his date at a party, the people they meet, and how they eventually go home together. I was happy to be able to relate to the mention of The Last of The Mohicans, and was surprised at the sperm conversation in the beginning of it. Even as a child of the non-private and evermore explicit 21st century, I hardly think about my sperm going rancid on a daily basis, let alone enough to mention it in conversation. The eventual interplay between Mark and his date was peculiar, and I felt it lacked the emotion I would have imagined it. Perhaps that it’s my perspective on it, but I see it as fragmented, but nostalgic and friendly view of 60s relationships: short, seductive, and there’s a lot they’re not telling you. Check it out for yourself here:
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