Thought for the Month

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition." - Samuel Johnson, author

Hello Writers and Readers,

September always reminds me of 'seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness', if for no other reason than I spend large portions of the month canning and preserving the food that has grown in my garden. It is in these hours of kitchen labour that I get my best writing thoughts.
Happy foraging,

Sandra

Markets:

Toasted Cheese seeks entries to its forthcoming fiction contest. Submission Guidelines:http://tclj.toasted-cheese.com/contest.htm

Glimmer Train seeks entries to its forthcoming fiction contest. Submission guidelines:http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

The Lakeview Review seeks entries to its forthcoming contest. Submission guidelines:http://www.lakeviewreview.com/competition.cfm

Leapfrog Press seeks submissions for its fiction contest. Submission guidelines:http://www.leapfrogpress.com/contest.htm

PANK Magazine announces its first writing competition, 1,001 Awesome Words. Submission guidelines:http://www.pankmagazine.com/pankblog/?page_id=843

The Review of English Studies (RES) seeks submissions for the RES Essay Prize. Submission guidelines:http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/revesj/essay_prize_instructions_2009.pdf

Southwest Review seeks poetry submissions. Submission guidelines:http://smu.edu/southwestreview/Marr%20Contest.asp

Two Review seeks poetry submissions. Submission guidelines:http://tworeview.weebly.com/poetry-contest.html

WOMEN’S ARTISTIC NETWORK seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://www.womensartisticnetwork.org/15.html

Alligator Juniper seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://www.prescott.edu/alligator_juniper/submit.html

Boston Review seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://bostonreview.net/about/contest/

Chautauqua seeks submissions for its fiction contest. Submission guidelines:http://writers.ciweb.org/contest-information/

Georgetown Review seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://georgetownreview.georgetowncollege.edu/

Mississippi Review seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://www.mississippireview.com/contest.html

Missouri Review seeks submissions. Submission guidelines:http://www.missourireview.org/contest/editors_prize.php

September discount of 20% 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 Windshift. Please put 'manuscript critique' in the subject line.

Publishing News:

Man Booker prize shortlist puts veteran J.M. Coetzee against bookies' favourite Hilary Mantel

Heavy-hitting trio of Hilary Mantel, AS Byatt and Sarah Waters are joined on Man Booker shortlist by JM Coetzee, who could become first author ever to win a Booker hat-trick. JM Coetzee could become the first author ever to win a hat-trick of Man Booker prizes, after his latest novel Summertime was this morning shortlisted for the literary award.

In a lineup with a strong focus on historical fiction, favourite Hilary Mantel also made the final six, alongside Sarah Waters, but perennial Booker bridesmaids Colm Tóibín (who has been shortlisted twice before) and acclaimed Irish novelist William Trevor (shortlisted four times) failed to make the cut. Surprise longlist selection Me Cheeta, James Lever's "memoir" of the chimp who starred in the Tarzan films, was also overlooked.

Byatt won the Booker in 1990 for Possession, and is in the running this time for The Children's Book, set at the turn of the 20th century and centring on a "successful authoress of magical tales" for children.

But Coetzee will be facing tough competition if he wants to win the prize a record third time: Mantel's Wolf Hall, a piece of historical fiction set in the court of Henry VIII and centring on the character of Thomas Cromwell, has been so heavily backed by literary punters that its selection will cost the bookies dearly.

Coetzee, the first author to win the Booker prize twice – for Life and Times of Michael K and Disgrace - is shortlisted for the third volume in his trilogy of fictionalised memoir that began with Boyhood and Youth. Summertime tells the story of an English biographer, writing a book about the late author John Coetzee.

As well as Byatt, Mantel and Coetzee's historical reconstructions, judges completed their final six with Simon Mawer's Czechoslovakia-set historical novel The Glass Room, and poet-novelist Adam Foulds's The Quickening Maze, a reconstruction of the meetings of John Clare and Alfred Tennyson at a lunatic asylum in Epping Forest.

The winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be revealed on Tuesday 6 October 2009 at a dinner at London's Guildhall and will be broadcast on BBC News across television, radio and online. The winning author will receive £50,000 and can look forward to greatly increased sales and worldwide recognition. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer bound edition of their own book.

Home News:

The Frankfurt Bookfair will be upon us shortly so much of our effort is focused in getting books and catalogues off to Frankfurt as well as finalizing a number of individual book marketing campaigns.

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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