Stuff from all over...plus a major giveaway!
Introducing the nine writers joining me at Turning Points in New Mexico; an invitation to Raise the Rumpus; a second chance to talk all things hybrid memoir, plus a three-book giveaway!
Hello and happy Friday!
A warm welcome to new community members. We have a lot of people joining us here thanks to the class I ran for Jane Friedman on Wednesday on the topic of Hybrid Memoir. Though I was in a little hut with no AC and was visibly sweating, we had a ton of fun and truly learned a lot. The class was so popular (we had 540 registrants!) that Jane is keeping enrollment open until July 1st. More details on this later in the newsletter, but if you want the quick link to enroll, it’s here. Thank you to all who attended and to those attendees who followed me here to my Substack. Welcome.
Fridays are generally when I hold office hours or send general updates and news from the writing community—today is a writing community news day. First things first, I wanted to introduce you to the nine writers who will join me this October in New Mexico for our second annual Turning Points writing workshop. Because Turning Points is an “off the page” kind of workshop, (meaning instead of sitting around scrutinizing 15 pages of someone’s manuscript, we help develop the writer and their entire body of work) we receive the most fascinating applications from people ready to make tectonic shifts in their relationship to publishing and to their own writing.
Accordingly, it is exceedingly hard to choose the nine people who will join us at the Monte Prieto ranch. Each year, we look for the perfect alchemical mix of ages, backgrounds, writing experience, energy and creative goals, and the group of nine people you’re about to meet is it. Let’s give them a warm welcome to Turning Points 2024! Consider following the writers below who have Substacks—we all know how important it is to bring new readers to our work.
Introducing the Turning Points 2024 Writers:
· Staci Greason (Long Beach, CA) Author, screenwriter and former soap star, Staci mostly writes fiction but is grappling with a nonfiction project about her great-great grandmother Candace whose life ended tragically in a mental institution. Staci has been in something of a writing rut and is excited to recharge and change things up at Turning Points.
· Lorena Wenzel (Grand Rapids, MI) A citizen of the arts, Lorena runs the coffee shop “Scorpion Hearts Club” that supports the local art scene, founded (and executive directed) a nonprofit writing center for disadvantaged youth and is the widowed mother to three amazing girls. Lorena is wrestling with some fear around her current project; a book that she’s hoping to finish a draft of this year.
· Danielle Macedo (Austin, TX) Born in Texas but raised in Recife, Brazil, Danielle is returning to writing (principally science fiction and fantasy) after some time away from the practice. With a background in environmental compliancy and field biology, she’s currently working on two projects: one is a dystopian story set in the near future where academic freedom has eroded and researchers have to do their jobs secretly, and the second is a futuristic and magical retelling of the Portuguese royal family’s escape and subsequent exile to colonial Brazil during Napoleon’s invasion. Danielle is thrilled to grow her community of creative writers as she’s coming to writing and publishing from a scientific background.
· Alyssa Burgart (Los Altos, CA) A national leader in pediatric anesthesiology and bioethics and an award-winning advocate for reproductive justice, Alyssa is a working Doctor and a clinical associate professor at Stanford University frequently hired to help people and organizations navigate bioethics issues. Alyssa will be on a sabbatical in the fall and is hoping to make headway on her nonfiction/memoir hybrid exploring her journey from practicing medicine from an ableist viewpoint to becoming a disability advocate, while also chronicling the history of ableism in medicine. You can read her newsletter, Poppies and Propofol at alyssaburgart.substack.com and find her on socials as @BurgartBioethix.
· Kendall Moriarty (Montara, CA) A passionate advocate in global maternal health as well as a birth and postpartum doula, Kendall is working on a memoir centered on birth trauma and maternal health with a travel angle chronicling her own return to her body and herself. A huge believer that community is necessary in all endeavors, Kendall is looking forward to gathering with this dedicated group of women where she can prioritize her work and voice.
· Suzanne LaFetra Collier (Berkeley, CA) An accomplished writer with bylines in everything from The Sun Magazine to Smokelong Quarterly and residencies and fellowships to numerous writing centers around the country, Suzanne is working on a novel about late-stage capitalism and is hoping to secure agent representation this year. She’d also like to bring joy and play back to her work.
· Elizabeth Austin (Newtown, PA) An avid writer who is beginning to attract some agent interest in her memoir about solo parenting two daughters, one of whom is a cancer survivor, Elizabeth writes frequently about her family’s post-cancer years on her Substack @writingElizabeth. Presently, Elizabeth is feeling “lost in the sauce” and would like to reclaim a healthier and more balanced relationship to her art.
· Melissa Desa (Clarence, NY) Melissa is a NY-based psychiatrist—a line of work she chose during medical residency because psychiatry blends the precision of science with the artistry of storytelling. She worked for seven years in a state prison and has also worked for state hospitals in Kansas. An avid reader, Melissa is currently pressing pause on her agent search to revise her novel about the unraveling secrets of an Indian American family. As a working parent with children, Melissa is eager to carve out more time for her writing and to build her writing community.
· Elizabeth Maddock Dillon (Medford, MA) A professor of English at Northeastern University whose academic work touches on the 18th century Atlantic world, Elizabeth is under contract with Dutton for her nonfiction book “Sweetness and Ruin: The Story of Sugar in a Land of Milk and Honey.” On sabbatical in the fall, Elizabeth is hoping to get more comfortable writing in the more accessible tone necessary for a trade book, as she has been working in an academic voice for so many years.
We can’t wait to meet—and work with—all these writers in person!
For news on all things Turning Points, please follow our Instagram @turningpoints_writers Applications for our 2025 retreat will open in February of 2025.
Help us Raise the Rumpus!
I’m on the advisory council of the literary organization, The Rumpus, and we’re currently raising money to better compensate our contributors. We’ve launched a $15,000 fundraiser to directly support our contributors throughout 2024 and into 2025. Reaching this goal will triple our current monthly contributor budget from $400 to $1,250, allowing us to pay each writer or reviewer a minimum of $50 per post.
I donated this week, and am hoping some of you literary citizens can help our cause as well. Donations are fully tax deductible and can be made via this link.
We’ve lost so many fantastic literary magazines and resources over the last decade—it feels more urgent than ever to keep The Rumpus vibrant and alive! at the time of writing, we have raised $6,265, which has us about 9K short of our stated goal.
Chip in if you can, all amounts are welcome!
There is still time to take my Hybrid Memoir class with industry legend Jane Friedman!
I got the exciting news that there were so many people registered for my Hybrid Memoir class with Jane Friedman last week that they are keeping registrations open until Monday July 1st. The class has already happened, but you can still register to receive the 90 minute webinar in which I discuss not only what hybrid memoir is, but best practices for querying and pitching hybrid memior in 2024 and beyond. We also look closely at how hybrid memoirs with a dual timeline are structured with a breakdown of how much content is spent in one timeline or another. It’s a truly helpful class- you can purchase the webinar for $25 via this link.
Write a novel in a year with Michael Zapata!
I saw this pop up on my Instagram feed yesterday and had to share it because Michael is a gifted teacher and such an interesting writer. If you’re doing anything with time bending, magical realism, structural experimentation or anything a little out there, Michael is your guy. Note that this program is in-person so you’ll have to live (or be willing to relocate to) the Chicagoland area. I’ve taught at Story Studio many times and it’s a welcoming, friendly and inspiring place to be. Learn more or sign up here.
It’s Giveaway Time! Today, I’m giving away three signed copies of the beach read for smartypants, my second novel, TOUCH.
On Wednesday, I wrote about my somewhat secret past as a trend forecaster, and to complement that post, I’m doing a giveaway of my 2017 novel TOUCH that’s about a famous trend forecaster who suddenly finds herself at odds with her own predictions...and her heart. This novel was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Belletrist Book Club Pick, and one of NPR’s Best Books of 2017. It was supposed to become a movie, and then the pandemic happened, and the movie plans combusted. I’d love to see more people out there reading this book again as the trends mentioned in it are so pertinent to the issues of today. Here’s how the giveaway will work:
Giveaways are only open to paid subscribers. Please upgrade if you’d like to join us in our regular giveaways.
You must live in the continental US to participate.
I’ll run the giveaway until Monday July 1st at noon EST.
To enter, simply write in the comments about a time you tried to follow a trend to either disastrous, sad, or embarrassing results. From these stories, I’ll pick three winners at random and will send out a signed hardcover of TOUCH with a little note.
And that’ll do it! I very much look forward to reading about your trendy mishaps.
Thanks for being here, and have a great weekend!
xo
Courtney
at some point, puffy sleeves became all the rage - it seems every women's shirt, sweater, and blouse had puffed up sleeves. i kept giving them a try but i'm 5,'10 with an athletic built and every time i put them on, i looked like a linebacker with shoulder pads
Entering the book giveaway! During the pandemic, I wanted to be like all the cool girls, doing zoom yoga at home, and I did. However, around this time, I developed a weird rash on my face. I went to the doctor and they ordered a lupus test. To my horror, it came back positive. For months, I thought I had lupus. I was devastated. I kept doing the home yoga to calm myself. The rash came and went. Then I noticed a pattern. The rash was coming on the days after I did yoga... I considered how I didn't really deep clean the home yoga mat that I was continually pressing my face too, especially my forehead, where the rash kept manifesting. I deep cleaned the yoga mat, and I've never gotten another rash since. Then I paid out of pocket to repeat the lupus test with a more advanced specialist. Negative. It wasn't lupus; it was a false-flag fungus that transferred from my feet to my forehead via my dirty yoga mat!