Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
21 Jan 2013 at 11:59
Julija Šukys
Consulting, Creative Nonfiction, Editing, Funding, Memoir, Services, Uncategorized
As many of you know, I’m an experienced grant writer, and have offered successful group workshops on grant writing. Recently, I’ve had a number of writers approach me with individual requests to help to find funding, and to prepare and edit proposal drafts. In response, I’ve set some parameters for this kind of consultation. If [...]
13 Apr 2012 at 07:19
Julija Šukys
Academia, Contests and Prizes, Funding, Humanities, Research, Residencies and Fellowships, Uncategorized, Writing
Ah, the Guggenheims… Other than the MacArthur “genius” grants (which you can’t apply for), these are the most coveted awards among artists, writers, and researchers. Congratulations to this year’s winners, and especially to Ruth Franklin of The New Republic, whose pieces I’ve been reading with great interest ever since we got connected on Facebook. You [...]
16 Feb 2012 at 06:31
Julija Šukys
Archives, Biography, Children, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Epistolophilia, Friendship, Funding, Journeys, Letters, Libraries, Life-writing, Lithuania, Marketing, Memoir, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Research, SheWrites, Silence is Death, Uncategorized, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Writing
The day before yesterday I received a note from my publisher saying that copies of my book had arrived in the warehouse, and that I could begin announcing its publication. Though my official date of publication is March 1, 2012, the baby’s come early. It’s a strange and great feeling to know that my book [...]
29 Dec 2011 at 09:31
Julija Šukys
Biography, Contests and Prizes, Countdown to Publication, Editing, Epistolophilia, Funding, Journeys, Libraries, Poetry, Rejection, Research, Residencies and Fellowships, SheWrites, Uncategorized, Writing, Yiddish
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I couldn’t have written Epistolophilia without writers’ grants and research fellowships. A number of different arts agencies and institutions — these are listed in the Acknowledgements to my book — helped me pay for plane tickets, get paper for printing, buy time for writing, and (perhaps [...]
15 Dec 2011 at 07:52
Julija Šukys
Academia, Alternate Economies, Archives, Calls for Submissions, CNF Conversations, Contests and Prizes, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Essays, Friendship, Funding, Marketing, Publicity, Publishing, SheWrites, Uncategorized, Writing
I started my blog almost two years ago after attending a writers’ workshop on publishing in the digital age. There wasn’t much talk of e-books or self-publishing from the presenters. Instead, they hammered a single message into us all day: you, as writers, need an electronic presence . . . preferably a blog. It’s how you control [...]
Today I got my (I think) semiannual newsletter from Money for Women in the mail. Money for Women supports the work of female and feminist writers by giving relatively small grants for very specific purposes. One grantee this year was given funds to replace an old word processor with a laptop, and when I asked [...]
14 Nov 2010 at 19:47
Julija Šukys
Contests and Prizes, Creative Nonfiction, Funding, Lithuania, Personal Essays, Phillip Lopate, Vilnius, Writing
The Summer Literary Seminars-Litvak Studies Institute Jewish Lithuania/Litvak Experiences Program announce a new non-fiction contest: East-European Roots: New Writing on the Old World, held this year in affiliation with Tablet Magazine, the leading online magazine providing a “new take on Jewish life,” and judged by Philip Lopate. The theme for the contest is Eastern European [...]
Summer Literary Seminars is announcing its annual Unified (Kenya, Montreal and Lithuania) Literary Contest, held this year in affiliation with The Walrus Magazine. Jayne Anne Phillips will be judging the fiction, and Matthew Zapruder the poetry. Contest winners in the categories of fiction and poetry will have their work prominently featured online in Canada’s premiere [...]
26 Aug 2010 at 22:32
Julija Šukys
Beloved Profession, Epistolophilia, Friendship, Funding, Writer's block
It’s grant season, so I’m writing my yearly emails asking friends and mentors to act as references in various competitions. I’ve been particularly overwhelmed by the encouragement and unqualified support I’ve received on all fronts, even from writer-friends I’ve never met in person and only know through email. All this literary love, as it were, [...]
This morning Mira’s List announced a tantalizing call for grant applications called “Creativity in Motion.” I would love to apply for this award, but you have to be a US citizen, which I’m not. If you are, and have an interesting creative process, check out this $40,000 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Prize: https://cim.ou.edu/About.htm Good luck! [Photo: [...]
