Proved on the Pulses: On the Essay and its Literary Cousins

Archive for the ‘Calls for Submissions’ Category

Interview at The New Quarterly: Confessions of a Library Book Thief

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011

Hardworking Melissa Krone of The New Quarterly must have thought I was the rudest writer on their rosters; she kept sending emails asking to interview me and I kept “ignoring” her. The culprit was my spam filter. But at last we connected, and she’s posted an interview we did at The Literary Type and on The New Quarterly’s website. Thanks, Melissa, for your thought-provoking questions and for the opportunity to share my thoughts.

There’s still time to enter The New Quarterly’s annual contests: details on their site.

Publication in The Utne Reader

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

I’m delighted to say that an excerpt of my essay “Library Haunting” appears in the March/April edition of The Utne Reader. It appeared originally in The New Quarterly, where it won second place in the Edna Staebler Contest for the Personal Essay last year. Which reminds me: Enter soon! Details are available on The New Quarterly’s website; the deadline is March 28th.

The editors at The Utne Reader were wonderful to work with. Brad Zellar’s sensitive and respectful incisions are hardly noticeable. It’s an honour (or should I say honor?) to appear in this publication, which prides itself on selecting the best from the alternative presses.

They also picked up a piece by Laurie Block that originally appeared in Prairie Fire. Hooray for Canada’s “little” magazines.

The Pedestrian

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

Here’s an online quarterly that celebrates the personal essay, publishing classics side by side with new work on a given theme. The name pays reference to the essay’s rambling, roundabout path. For an upcoming issue, the editor would like essays on the theme of “quiet.”

Thanks to Joanne Epp for this link.

What Makes an Essay Personal?

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

See The New Quarterly editor Kim Jernigan’s smart and articulate take on this, here.

“First, what a personal essay is not: it’s not journalism. It can be about anything (religion, politics, natural history, art, music, literature, science, food, travel, play, you name it, and the tone can be equally disparate), but it is not written on assignment. It comes instead from the writer’s own fund of interests and obsessions, questions to be raised or answered, observations, fantasies, regrets, uncertainties, delight. It evolves from a desire to know or to understand, to make connections. It is often triggered by some sort of experience in the world. It will sometimes lead to research, always to reflection. Above all, it is engaged.”

Note that there’s still time to enter TNQ’s Edna Staebler Contest for the personal essay. Details here.

Best Canadian Essays - Call for Submissions

Friday, June 19th, 2009

From Tightrope Books: “Alex Boyd and Carmine Starnino are editing the first Best Canadian Essays, set for publication this fall with Tightrope Books. Along with print magazines, they’re interested to consider essays and articles posted online. If you’re a Canadian writer with an essay posted to a site in 2008, it’s possible to submit the piece by sending the link, a brief bio, word count and month the work was posted in 2008 to bestcanessay (singular) @ gmail.com — please put the essay topic in the subject line. They’re looking for more than just literary work here and considering all kinds of material.”