Dear Writer:
We could all use a lift this week, and what better way than to immerse ourselves in good news from the literary community?
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Hollywood is a State of Mind
The Lighthouse screenwriting crew has much to cheer about, including that longtime member (ten years and proud!) Lindsey Garroway’s script won the Grand Prize at the Table Read Your Screenplay Park City and was presented by the Sundance team of professional actors. “I want to give a shout-out to Lighthouse screenwriting instructors Joey Siara and Jenny Taylor-Whitehorn, who were instrumental in helping me get the script finished and polished.” (Note, both Jenny and Joey will be facilitating the Screenwriting Staycation, details below.)
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Meanwhile, Lit Fest 2015 visiting author Pamela Ribon’s animated short film, My Year of Dicks, was nominated for an Oscar. Years ago, she read some of this in the Lit Fest tent to rills of side-splitting laughter. Congrats, Pamela! She returns to Lighthouse in a couple of weeks for the first annual Screenwriting Staycation, February 11–12, which can be attended in person or virtually.
If you’re prepping to pitch your own show, consider applying for Lit Fest 2023 course Breaking the Story: Writing a Great Pilot, taught by visiting author Dean Bakopoulos (Made for Love). The course is for advanced screenwriters with a pilot ready (or with a pilot that can be ready by May) and meets June 12–16, 2023. The application deadline is March 11, 2023, with accepted participants submitting pilots in May. Apply for the class and the full-tuition Emerging Writer fellowship, judged by Mitali Jahagirdar, here.
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Raise a Glass to Lighthouse Faculty
Trent Hudley won the Peden Prize from the Missouri Review, selected by writer Alix Ohlin, for his story “The Cadence of Waves.” Way to go, Trent! Instructor Jesaka Long’s short story “This Grateful Face” was published in Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly Fall + Winter 2022 issue. And save the date for John Cotter’s debut event for Losing Music, his memoir coming out April 11. He will be in conversation with Executive Director Mike Henry at the Friday 500 on April 28, our first Friday 500 in the new building. Register here.
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Lit Fest 2023 visiting author Rebecca Makkai’s forthcoming novel, I Have Some Questions for You, has made the “most anticipated” lists put out by Time, NPR, Salon, Oprah, USA Today, and Newsweek, among others. The book hits shelves on February 21. A few months later, visiting author Andre Dubus III’s novel, Such Kindness, debuts with advance praise from Ann Patchett and Lily King, among others. Meanwhile, visiting author Jonathan Escoffery is a finalist for two PEN awards, the PEN/Jean Stein Open Book Award and the PEN/Bingham Prize, and was a recent guest on Fresh Air. If you’d like to apply to work with Rebecca, Andre, Jonathan, or any of our other visiting authors, consider applying for advanced workshops in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. (Deadline, March 11.)
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Other Member Goodies
Longtime member Teow Lim Goh, whose new book Western Journeys came out in October, will be featured on Turn the Page with Colorado Matters on February 23. Tune in for her chat with Ryan Warner, and then come to Lighthouse to hear Teow and longtime faculty Harrison Candelaria Fletcher (Finding Querencia) read from their work and converse about their books at the February 24 Friday 500. Make a weekend of it and join Harrison Candelaria Fletcher’s Form, Voice, and the Unmasked Self beforehand and Teow’s Cultivate Your Metaphors the next morning.
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Book Project member Candice May (‘23) has had a short story accepted by Ploughshares, set to appear in 2024. BP alum Corie Rosen (‘16) had a short story, “Your Heart Gets the Night Shift,” published in New Letters, the fall 2022 issue. Meanwhile, Poetry Collective alum Harriet Stratton received a Pushcart nomination for "Caught in Amber," a poem that appeared in RUMORS SECRETS & LIES: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice (Anhinga Press, 2022). The poem will also appear in Ear to the Ground, her forthcoming chapbook from Finishing Line Press.
In addition to her story collection, Development Times Vary, published as winner of the Moon City Press Short Fiction Award, Michele Finn Johnson continues to churn out more great pieces. Her flash creative nonfiction piece, “Ragamuffins,” drafted for Jenny Wortman’s online class, was published and nominated for a Pushcart by Vast Chasm Magazine. Her flash fiction, “The Skull is a Woman,” was published in Cotton Xenomorph–she drafted that one in Jessica Roeder’s online class.
Lighthouse member David Engelken has been contracted to write op-eds for the national news and opinion outlet My Rural America. Heather Ormsby has a short story, “Closed for Christmas,” published in the anthology, Magick and Mistletoe. Finally, cheers to Susanna Speier for launching a substack, the Immunocompromised Times, focused on making shared spaces more accessible to all.
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Yours in Writing,
Lighthouse
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