Sam van Zweden

Sad news all over Twitter this morning, that Maurice Sendak (author of Where the Wild Things Are) has passed away, aged 83.

Here’s a great post saying goodbye.

Most kids owned a copy of Where the Wild Things Are – I did not. Instead, I owned a copy of a collection which had drawings from Maurice Sendak in it. His drawings (accompanying Else Holmelunk Minarik’s Little Bear Goes to the Moon) brought the story to life. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve admired Where the Wild Things Are for its ability to tackle things that kids don’t overtly understand, at the same time as telling an absolutely BRILLIANT, not-too-clean, exciting, wildly imaginative story. I’m sad that Sendak’s gone, but I know that his books will always sell, because nobody would want their children to miss out on his work.

RIP, Maurice Sendak.

I hope that when you read the title you heard me screaming at you Mike Whitney style, because that’s how it was intended. (Aw. Looked for a Youtube clip to link to all witty-like, there’s none that I could find and that’s endlessly disappointing. I am sorry.)

Anywho, with the EWF program now up you can check out all the amazing things that are in store for those very special 11 days. And start booking, ladies and gents!

AND there’s a post up on the EWF blog today which details the event I’ve been working on, Down The Rabbit Hole. There’s also details up that lots of people have been waiting on, about how to register for the event. Registrations open on the 30th, which is Monday. I know the first Queensland event sold out in ten minutes, so get in quick!

Also, our online host Patrick O’Duffy has a great post on his blog about his involvement in the Rabbit Hole and why he’s so excited!

The amazingly driven Phill English (of toothsoup fame) last week launched a brand new prize for emerging writers.

With limited publication opportunities and paid gigs in this writing biz, The Toothsoup Prize is a fantastic opportunity for those of us trying to get a foot in the door. It will provide writers with a readership, a bit of cash, and a publishing record.

Phill was kind enough to talk to me…

SvZ: So you’ve started a prize – tell us a bit about that. Who’s it for, what kind of submissions are you looking for, and how do we get involved?
PE:  Well, it’s called the toothsoup prize (or The Toothsoup Prize, whichever format floats your boat!) and it’s intended for Australian short story writers who have an unpublished story between 1,000 and 2,000 words. I wanted to be as broad and inclusive as possible, so I tried to make the guidelines pretty open.
At the risk of sounding obvious, I’m looking for great stories! More specifically, I’d love to read stories that are original and fascinating and creative and unexpected and moving and all those great properties that the short story format is able to possess. I want to be able to return to these stories again and again and be inspired by them.
You can get involved pretty simply by submitting your short story! But if you want to share the love, more exposure via Twitter, Facebook, blog posts, interviews such as this one would be greatly appreciated. You can also contact me directly via email (phill[at]toothsoup[dot]com) if you wish to make a private donation to the kitty (like one awesome person already has).

SvZ: What will happen to the pieces that win?
PE:   Each winner will be featured on the prize’s website as a past prize winner, and I’m hoping to be able to perform an interview and a reading with the author and host them in the same space. Eventually it’d be nice to put together an anthology of winners and honourable mentions after a year or so, but that’s a little way off yet. We’ll see how the first couple of rounds pan out first!

SvZ: Why start a prize? Aren’t there plenty of opportunities for writers already?
PE:   There are certainly a lot of opportunities for writers to get published, for sure. We have a thriving literature journal culture here in Australia, both in print and online spaces. But of the competitions out there, many are either formidably large, genre-gated, or invite so many entries that it may seem to writers to be a bit like a lottery. I’m hoping that the toothsoup prize will slot into the gap between those extremes and provide writers with incentive to write great stories and give them the thrill of being in the race for a nice little cash prize.

SvZ: In this weird, unstable atmosphere with arts funding cuts and speculation around major prizes’ future, do you think private, grass-roots competitions like yours will be the way things will happen in the future?
PE:  I think there will always be major prizes for established authors, for sure. But in terms of encouraging new and up-and-coming writers, the grant system can only support so many out of the thousands of talented individuals out there. Grass-roots comps like this might help to encourage those writers to get their work out there and read by their peers.

SvZ: You launched the prize last Wednesday – what’s the response been like so far?
PE:   Well I’ve already seen three entries hit the reading pile before the weekend, and two of those three donated to the prize pool. Adding to that a private donation of $20, and the prize has already been raised to $80! I’m sure I’ll see plenty more entries rolling in over the next couple of weeks, plus the usual avalanche closer to the closing date. I cannot wait to read them all.

Thanks, Phill!

I know all you Melbournites are waiting with bated breath for the online launch of the EWF program tomorrow, and fair enough. It’s exciting stuff.

On that note, a teaser went up today for the event I’ve been working on… Just to get your curiosity running WAY overtime. Oh my, what could it BE!?

Some days I just like to plug a thing that a friend is doing because it’s damn good work.

Today, that friend is Tully Hansen, and the thing he’s doing is Reading Log. Tully has some pretty impressive technological smarts, and a solid aesthetic sensibility, and that’s resulted in a very attractive website layout. It’s based on Otlet’s Shelf, which you can read about here. At Reading Log, Tully… logs. His… reading.

In very punchy, very short reviews, Tully manages to succinctly say what I often faff about trying to say in many more words. He picks up on themes and ideas and puts them into neat, accessible reviews. Well worth having in your RSS for a two-minute (if that) piece of insight in your day.

Talking to a work-mate, I told him I’d been writing a review and wanting to make it great to impress an editor.

“But how can you write a good review?”, asked work-mate. “It’s just an opinion!”

My indignation, dear reader! I had to explain to this colleague that writing a good review is an art. Writing a great review is incredibly hard. The aim being to write something that is as entertaining as the book itself. Something that is enjoyable to read, even if you’re not interested in the book.

I’m wondering now whether people who don’t write reviews, but do read them, realise that it’s a hard thing to do…

Book Affair on Elgin Street are closing down. Not moving, just closing down. So that’s pretty damn sad.

BUT, before they shut their doors they’re having a sale – all books are $2.

Between classes today I managed to pick up five books for just $10. A friend of mine, who has a ridiculous knack for used-book store sales, picked up something like thirty books…

I’m not sure when the sale ends, so you’d better shimmy on down there quick-smart before all the good stuff goes.