http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/index.cfm?forumid=1 FuseTalk Enterprise Edition http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=240 2008-10-03T17:31:39 -05.00 Jim Kendrall 2
Writing for the Young Reader
Monday, October 6, 2008
6:30 p.m.
Categories: Lecture
Location: Homewood
Contact: Bada Hebron
Email: bhebron@jhu.edu
Phone: 410-516-4842
Summary:

This course combines the craft of writing for children with critical theory and practical concerns. Reading classic and contemporary children's books as both readers and writers, participants will delve into the challenges and delights of writing for children. Through a combination of literary discussions, exercises, and writing workshops, students will explore today's children's book market - from picture books and poetry through middle grade and young adult novels - and develop techniques for creating an authentic voice without condescending to their readers.

Instructor: Elissa Brent Weissman, MA, has degrees in creative writing and children's literature. Her middle grade novels Socks and The Trouble With Mark Hopper are forthcoming in 2009. ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=181 2007-09-07T16:41:54 -05.00 Jim Kendrall 2 http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=158 2007-04-23T16:12:05 -05.00 Eileen Anderson 9
Monday, May 14, 7 p.m.
JIM CRACE
THE PESTHOUSE (Nan A. Talese, $24.95)
The newest novel from British author Crace, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, takes place in post-apocalyptic America. The soil is permeated by toxins, and a lethal airborne substance has struck whole populations. With entire political, economic, and social structures in collapse, those left alive are fleeing east to the new promised land, Europe.

Wednesday, May 23, 7 p.m.
Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street NW
MICHAEL CHABON
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNION (HarperCollins, $26.95)
Michael Chabon imagines an alternate history of Jewish life in "Alyeska," when following World War II, European Jews were resettled in Alaska. In a fearful climate of political unrest, Detective Meyer Landsman investigates the murder of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy, the son of Sitka's most powerful rabbi. This is a ticketed event. Two tickets with the purchase of the book at P&P or $12 per ticket.

Thursday, May 31, 7 p.m.
MICHAEL ONDAATJE
DIVISADERO (Knopf, $25)
Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) reads from his first novel in six years. Ondaatje's sensuous, panoramic story begins on a northern California farm in the '70s and ends in the present in south-central France. It is infused with his authorial premise as described by the narrator Anna: "We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories...." ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=155 2007-04-17T10:04:55 -05.00 Jerri Bell 2
By and large, JHU has been a "place of sanctuary and learning" for me; I hope that VT will be that again for its students some day. We had a simple suicide on my undergrad campus early in my sophomore year. Almost everyone on campus knew and loved the guy who killed himself, and it was such a small school that we were reeling from the shock for the rest of the year. But every positive action we took that year -- from a candlelight vigil right after we learned of John's death to an end-of-term "primal scream" on the night before the first final exams -- helped us to heal. Maybe just expressing sympathy and support will help in some small way to start the healing process at Virginia Tech?

I'd be willing to find a large card, put it at the lobby desk where the parking-ticket validation machine is (DC campus) on Thursday, and mail it after next Thursday's class.

Any other thoughts/ideas welcome.

Jerri ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=131 2007-02-13T16:29:18 -05.00 Eddie Jeffrey 9 Glimmertrain and noticed that my latest submission is #176--THOUSAND something. I've submitted 9 stories over the last 5 years and my first story was #13 -- THOUSAND something. That means since 2002, Glimmertrain has received more than 160,000 submissions!! That's like 32,000/year or roughly 2600/month. When you see numbers like that you really feel those odds stacking up on your shoulders... It just seems crazy... First of all, I want to know who's reading them all... IF at all...

But I guess compared to the odds of winning the lottery 1 in 170,000 is small potatoes. According to www.powerball.com , the odds of winning $10,000 are about 1 in 584,000; the odds of winning $200,000 jump to about 1 in 3.56 million; THE JACKPOT odds are a staggering 1 in 146 million.

But let's take a look at the odds of Getting Hit By Lightning, shall we?

According to NOAA (see table below), we've got a 1 in 5000 chance of getting hit by lightning in our lifetime!!!! Glimmertrain gets that many submissions every couple of months. And compared to The Atlantic or Playboy or Zoetrope they're small potatoes.

So this is a tough game. Don't ever let anybody tell you anything different. Next time somebody asks you what you do, tell 'em you're a writer with a chip on your shoulder like you play middle linebacker for the Bears.


ODDS OF BECOMING A LIGHTNING VICTIM
U.S. 2000 Census population 280,000,000

Odds of being struck by lightning in a given year (reported deaths + injuries) 1/700,000

Odds of being struck in your lifetime (Est. 80 years) 1/5000

Odds you will be affected by someone being struck (Ten people affected for every one struck) 1/500

SOURCE: http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/medical.htm ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=130 2007-02-07T09:42:32 -05.00 Traci Elder O'Dea 1
featuring Poetry alum Salimah Perkins, Fiction alum Ashlie Kauffman, and Poetry & Fiction alum Traci (Elder) O'Dea!

When: Friday, February 16th, 9:00 PM

Where: the Whole Gallery, H&H Building, 405 West Franklin Street, 3rd floor

Music!

Among Wolves
Red Headed Temper (members of Blonde Hair Blue Eyes)
Jazz saxophonist Russell Kirk

Round-robin poetry reading with eleven area poets!

Clare Banks, Piotr Gwiazda, Dan Jenkins, Ashlie Kauffman, Sarah Jane Miller, Freda Mohr, Traci O'Dea, Salimah Perkins, Dana Janelle Peterson, Heather Rounds, and Ryan James Wilson

Your $5 donation will benefit the Heart's Place Community Shelter in St. John's Church, on Saint Paul Street at 27th. The Heart's Place shelter is the only area shelter to allow men, women, and children at one facility, so that homeless families can stay together.

BYOB!!! ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=129 2007-02-04T15:06:07 -05.00 Juan Gaddis 3
I will start you off with a George Orwell quote which, in my opinion, really speaks to the importance of choosing your words carefully:

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clear? 4 . Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Thanks. ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=106 2006-11-02T10:14:09 -05.00 Eugene Chay 1
You can go to their website for more details: http://www.saltaf.org/

The headliners are Kiran Desai ("The Inheritance of Loss," Booker winner) and Tarun Tejal ("The Alchemy of Desire").

It appears attendance is free.

Where & when:

Saturday, November 4, 2006
10:00 am - 6:30 pm
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of
Natural History, 10th St. and Constitution Ave. NW,
Washington DC, (Federal Triangle Metro) ]]> http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=62 2006-08-23T09:00:11 -05.00 Eileen Anderson 15 http://advanced.jhu.edu/ft/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=3&threadid=35 2006-06-23T14:33:50 -05.00 Eileen Anderson 2