NY Writers Coalition

"With a novel, you are in total control: you’re a megalomaniac. With a film or television project, it’s a team. All you are is creating the coat hanger. So it matters if it’s a good coat hanger, but it’s just a coat hanger. Other people put the clothing on it; they add the bodies, they add the faces, they add the acting, they add the nuance and the directing." Writers Colson Whitehead and Margaret Atwood recently got together for TIME to talk about the workings of having their novels adapted to the small screen.

NYWC workshop leader Alisha Acquaye won Carve Magazine's 2020 Poetry & Prose Contest with her nonfiction piece "Fruit Snack Fairytale"! You can read it online now in Carve's Spring 2021 issue below. "the story behind that is I’m starting to believe being healthy is a myth and / that anything I put inside my body will eventually betray me / the story behind that is my body has been betrayed / I mean bitten into / I mean bitten in two / I mean there’s biters lurking all around / there are crimes within this figure I can map back to childhood /"

"In my new anthology, You Don’t Have to Be Everything, I’ve collected the diverse voices I wish I’d read as a teen, poets who speak honestly about gender, sexuality, bodies, mental health, and much more. The seven books on this list offer a similar sense of permission and possibility. Reading them helps me embrace my own queerness, heal my internalized biphobia, and set down the shame I’ve carried for too long." Check out Diana Whitney's essay and list in @Electric Literature of seven queer poetry books she wishes she could have given to her teenaged self.

A tremendous thank you to everyone who donated to and/or shared our Black Writers Program GoFundMe campaign! We've not only reached our goal of $10,000, but exceeded it, at nearly $11,500. We can't wait to share more about our Spring 2021 Program and upcoming plans for the BWP as we move forward.

RSVP for Urban Word NYC's 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate Commencement on Thursday, May 20 at 7 p.m. EST! The event features this year’s Regional Winners & National Youth Poet Laureate Finalists and will be streamed in partnership with The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. A celebration of the Youth Poets who are leaders in their communities, this event will also conclude by announcing the 2021 National Youth Poet Laureate!

Feel like diving into a detailed historical fiction novel or getting introspective with a new volume of poetrybut aren't sure where to start? The New York Public Library's latest service, Shelf Help, will provide patrons with personalized book bundles curated by librarians. Here's how patrons can access the tool.

We're excited to announce the launch of our Black writers pilot program, a new offering from NYWC that includes our staple generative workshops, professional development lectures, and craft and revision insights! The 8-week program will start on October 25 and sign-ups open this Wednesday. Click the image below for more information about signing up, our program offerings and workshop leaders, and our star panelists, including Jenn Baker (www.jennifernbaker.com), Kaitlyn Greenidge (www.kaitlyngreenidge.com), and Quressa Robinson (https://nelsonagency.com/quressa-robinson/)!

Join us this Friday for our Virtual Mic Check hosted by Jon Sands. Taking place on October 16th from 7-8 PM (EDT), participants from our virtual creative writing workshops will read their work aloud. Learn more about the event by clicking on the link provided and join us! Best of all it's free. Spend this Friday night by showing your fellow writers some support.

"I would prefer the notion that a poet turns ideas and abstractions into facts, rather than the other way around." Poet Louise Glück has won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Read her 2014 interview with Poets & Writers here: https://bit.ly/3npZDyN.

Join us tomorrow for our Virtual Mic Check: The Words Between Us / A Writing Series for Black Womxn. The womxn who took part in our most recent writing series will be sharing their work aloud, and we would love it if you came and showed your support! It takes place on October 9th at 7:00 pm (edt). Click on the link provided to RSVP as a guest! Share this news with anyone who may be interested.

"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." Toni Morrison became the firstand, to date, the onlyBlack woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 7, 1993. Read her compelling acceptance speech here https://www.nobelprize.org//literat/1993/morrison/lecture/ or listen to the audio recording here https://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/?id=1502.

Take a look at the short list for the 2020 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. How many of the books listed have you read already? https://centerforfiction.org//2020-first-novel-prize-the-/

Get ready to swoon: Nicola Yoon, the author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star, and her husband, author David Yoon, are launching a romance imprint with POC protagonists. "The Joy Revolution imprint is all about telling stories of big love. The characters in them have big ideas about the world and their place in it. I believe love stories are truly revolutionary. Because love has the power to unmake and remake the world."

Applications are now open for One Story's 2021 Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship! This educational fellowship offers a year-long mentorship on the craft of fiction writing to an emerging writer who hasn't published a book or attended an MFA program. The fellow will receive: Free tuition for all One Story online classes and programming offered in 2021. Travel stipend ($2,000) and tuition to attend One Story’s July 2021 week-long summer writers’ conference in Brooklyn, which i...ncludes craft lectures, an in-person intensive fiction workshop, and panels with literary agents and publishers. A full manuscript review & consultation with One Story Executive Editor Hannah Tinti (story collection or novel in progress up to 150 pages/35,000 words). The application deadline is October 30, 2020.

We love this article about Lucille Clifton, if you haven't read her poetry, search for it right nowyou won't regret it. "What is it about Lucille Clifton? Not enough people know who she is, the importance of her writing. She writes about you, it feels that personal. She is, a poet’s poet. The type of poet that most anyone would know is great."

Join us tomorrow night for our Virtual Mic Check. Participants from our numerous virtual creative writing workshops will be reading their poetry and prose aloud. Support your fellow writers while staying safe and socially distant. Click the link to find out more and RSVP as a guest.

9/10 at 7PM (EDT): Workshop leader Deborah Clearman in conversation with Eduardo Juarez on her latest release, Remedios. Order the book: https://deborahclearman.com/remedios/ Register for the event: https://bit.ly/3hpCDN2