CCL Contest Ready to Roll

Forget the basketball rivalries. Let's beat the other Christian colleges at WRITING! Here's our chance to show the mighty power of Calvin writers. It's time to enter the Conference on Christianity and Literature writing contest. Deadline is May 13. Categories are poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, and academic essay. Look around the English department for posters to get all the details or check out the rules here. Prizes are modest but very nice. Mostly this is about honor and glory. To God. Of course.

Writers Market Online Now Available to You

Did you know that the library now subscribes to Writers Market online? You know that enormous tome that lists all the places you can publish your writing? Yeah, the one you hardly dare look through because it's so intimidating? Well, we do have a physical copy of that, but we now have a Calvin subscription to the searchable website as well.

If you would like to use it, just ask one of the librarians for the access codes. Or you could talk to Prof. Rienstra in the department.

Of course, we hope that you will also try out Calvin Writers Recommend, our own Calvin-student-oriented version of Writers Market. Much less overwhelming and aimed specifically at Calvin student writers. Check it out here.

Hamlet Happenings

In keen anticipation of CTC's production of Hamlet, which opens next weekend, the CAS department is sponsoring two events that may be of interest to writers and sundry Hamlet fans. First, the 2009 RSC film production of Hamlet, starring David Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as both Claudius and the ghost (!), will be shown Friday, April 1, from 2-5 in the Bytwerk Theater. Second, calling all photographers: look for the Hamlet photo contest running this weekend on campus. On Friday, a table will be set up in Johnny's to explain how it will work. Upload a Hamlet-related photo to CTC's Facebook page and you could win one of several really good prizes. There will be some suggested categories, but inventiveness will be rewarded. For more details, you might contact Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence, jfl4@calvin.edu.

Cash Prize for Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction writers, here's a chance to earn a summer free of that summer job. Earn your college funds by writing instead.

Check out the 2011 Norman Mailer High School and College Writing Awards for
Creative Nonfiction. Cash prizes of $5,000 to $10,000 will be awarded to
National Winners.

Visit http://www.ncte.org/awards/student/nmwa for more info and to download
a brochure.

The submission deadline is April 28, 2011, Noon CST.

Apply to be a Festival of Faith and Writing Volunteer

In just over a year (April 19-21, 2012), Calvin College will hold its biennial Festival of Faith and Writing (www.calvin.edu/festival). This event hosts more than seventy speakers and 2,000 attendees on Calvin's campus. Past Festival's have welcomed such luminaries as Anne Lamott, Salman Rushdie, Michael Chabon, Maya Angelou, Elie Wiesel, John Updike, Katherine Paterson, and Madeline LEngle, among many, many others.

In order to put this event on, we need a great deal of assistance from dedicated student volunteers willing to serve on the Festival's Student Committee. In return for this help, volunteers are given free admission to the Festival, and will have the opportunity to meet and interact with some of the writers involved in this event.

As a student interested in writing, you are invited to apply for the Student Committee for Festival 2012! Please pick up an application from the Festival office (CFAC 232). Students off-campus this semester may write to ffw@calvin.edu for more information.

Applications are due Friday, March 18, 2011. Applicants will be contacted after spring break for an interview. Questions can be directed to Shannon Jammal-Hollemans in the Festival office at ffw@calvin.edu.

Sincerely,

The 2012 Festival of Faith and Writing Planning Committee

Lew Klatt
Deb Rienstra
Dean Ward
Shelly LeMahieu Dunn, Director
Shannon Jammal-Hollemans, Festival Assistant
Kristin Otte, Festival Assistant

Writers' Retreat Coming Up in March

Get ready to register for the Writers' Retreat, coming up March 11-13. Come join a group of serious student writers for a time of focus, flights of fancy, food, friendship, and frivolity.

The retreat takes place in northern Michigan at the University of Michigan biological station. Profs. Schmidt, Vande Kopple, Hull, Rienstra, and Fondse will provide leadership--or something like that. We'll leave on Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. In between: writing, workshopping, relaxation, adventure, and the occasional stray snowball.

Cost will be $30, which covers everything, including meals and transportation.

Registration will open February 21 in the English Department. Be ready to sign up and pay right away, as space is limited (24 students) and we will accept people on a first pay, first served basis.

Dialogue: Submit!

The editors of Dialogue have asked me to remind you that they are always always looking for good submissions. Please rummage through your drafts, ideas, musings, and see if you have something that can be polished up for publication. They are looking for essays, fiction, poetry, and visual art. The Dialogue folk do a nice job of laying out your work beautifully on a printed page. Fame, glory: what's not to love?

For details on how to prep a submission, you can go to the Dialogue blog.

If you have questions, you can contact the editors at dialogue@calvin.edu.