Thought for the Month

"There are years that ask questions and years that answer." - Zora Neale Hurston

Hello Writers and Readers,

Another year is drawing to a close. It is a time for seasonal celebrations with our families and a time to look towards our goals for 2008. It is also a time to take a few moments to congratulate ourselves on meeting our writing goals for 2007. We are often so busy living our daily lives that we forget to reward ourselves.

Together with all of the staff at the Windshift Press Group I would like to wish you and your loved ones the best of the season and much prosperity in 2008.

I would like to extend a large thank you to everyone for making this newsletter an important monthly connection to the writing and reading community for me.

Best wishes,

Sandra

Markets:

Boulevard seeks short fiction from emerging writers. Submission deadline: Postmark December 15, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.richardburgin.net/1boulevardsfcontest.htm

The Chelsea Award for Poetry seeks poetry submissions. Submission deadline:December 15, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.chelseamag.org/awards/guidelines.asp

Crazyhorse offers the Crazyhorse Fiction Prize for a single short story and the Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize for a single poem. Submission deadline:December 15, 2007. Submission guidelines:http://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/prizes.html

The Fiddlehead seeks short fiction and poetry for their forthcoming competition. Submission deadline:December 15, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/Fiddlehead/contest.html

Meridian seeks entries for their Editors' Prize Contest in fiction and poetry. Submission deadline:December 20, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://readmeridian.org/?page=contest

Toasted Cheese seeks entries for their 7th Annual Dead of Winter Writing Contest. Submission deadline:December 21, 2007. Submission guidelines:
http://www.toasted-cheese.com/index.htm

The Karen Fredericks and Frances Willitts Poetry Prize seeks entries. Submission deadline:December 25 ,2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.hotmetalpress.net/PoetryPrize.html

The Lunch Hour Stories annual VERY Short Story Contest is accepting submissions. Submission deadline:December 31, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.lunchhourstories.com/very_short_story_contest.html

North American Review seeks submissions for the Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize. Submission deadline:December 31, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.webdelsol.com/NorthAmReview/NAR/Vonnegut%20Fiction%20Prize.html

Perigee seeks unpublished poetry for its 2007 Poetry Contest. Submission deadline:December 31, 2007. Submission guidelines:
http://www.perigee-art.com/7389/poetrycontestsubmit.php

Press 53 Open Awards Writing Contest seeks entries. Submission Deadline:December 31, 2007. Submission guidelines: http://www.press53.com/Contests.html

Glimmer Train seeks submissions for its December competition. Submission deadline: December 31, 2007. Submission guidelines:
http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

December discount of 25% to all newsletter subscribers

Manuscript Evaluation -Treat yourself or a writing friend/relative to a manuscript evaluation from a publishing professional. This could include advice on a short story before submitting it to publishers or an evaluation of your novel or non-fiction book. Ask for details by e-mailing info@windshift.bc.ca. Please put 'manuscript critique' in the subject line.

Publishing News

The 2008 International Impac Dublin award long list covers an alphabet of authors from Adichie to Zaharieva. An astonishing 137 titles are battling it out for the richest literary prize in the world. Nominations have been received from 161 libraries in 121 cities worldwide.

The big hitters are well represented - Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Peter Carey, Cormac McCarthy, Thomas Pynchon - as are prize-winners of other recent awards, including Kiran Desai (last year's Booker), Lloyd Jones (Commonwealth prize for his Booker-shortlisted Mr Pip), and previous Impac title-holders such as Tahar Ben Jelloun (the 2004 winner).

Although the submissions will eventually be reduced to a shortlist (a maximum of 10 books) composed almost entirely of literary fiction, at this stage all styles get their moment in the Impac spotlight. There is everything from crime fiction - Harlan Coban's Promise Me - to chick lit, with My Best Friend's Girl by Dorothy Koomson.

At this stage, the award is little more than a numbers game: the longlist for the hefty €100,000 (nearly £70,000) prize spans 45 countries and 15 languages, with 27 of the titles in translation. As to which will make it on to the shortlist, few clues are forthcoming as the number of nominations each book receives from the participating libraries is not necessarily taken into account by the judges.

Aside from its remarkable diversity and considerable prize money, the Impac also stands out from the crowd for its long lead-time. Books first published in English between January and December 2005, or first published in a language other than English between January 2001 and December 2005, are eligible for consideration.

The shortlist will be announced on April 2 2008 and the winner on June 12 2008.

Home News:

We have had a terrific 2007. We published five new titles for a total twenty-one books across the Windshift Press Group. We have seven titles already planned for 2008 with more to come. We represent at least twelve titles of independent authors with further titles under consideration. We went to the London Book Fair in the Spring and the Frankfurt Book Fair in October and were warmly received. Look out 2008~!

Windshift Press authors did book events and tours across the country with great successes in Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary. This month we are celebrating seasonal events and attending Christmas Craft Fairs.

Throughout the year, we attended a number of local and regional book events meeting a wide range of old friends and new acquaintances. We sent books to a variety of North American academic conferences and meetings.

Please note that the Windshift Press Group offices will be closed from Friday, December 21st at 3:00 until Wednesday, January 2nd at 9:00 to allow for staff holidays. All urgent administrative requests will be handled and all book orders will be filled.

Note: While every effort is made to check the markets suggested in this newsletter, writers must use their own judgment when submitting their work.

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