Get Published Weekly Roundup: September 25, 2017

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Book Barcode By Thepwnco [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Change made: from color to black and white.
While the whole country has been profoundly affected by the events that occurred here in Charlottesville several weeks ago, this weekend a group of musicians brought people here in town together for a fantastic series of performances, in order to promote healing and community. And an unannounced Stevie Wonder showed up at the end! Thank you, Stevie (everybody else, too, but c’mon, it’s Stevie)!
 
In this week’s GSF Roundup we highlight agent news, notices of approaching writing and submission deadlines, some Manuscript Wishlist Tweets, and a bit of this and that at the end.
 
We’d love to hear your feedback. Please let us know what you think in the comments and if there are certain types of information you would like to see in the Roundup. Also feel free to tweet at us (@freelancingrads) with any ideas or questions. Have a great writing week!

Agent and Agency News

One agent changed agencies, one editor changed careers

Agent Adrienne Rosado joined Stonesong Literary in September

Adrienne is seeking:

Fiction: For both Adult and Children’s: Contemporary; Mystery; Historical; Thriller; Fantasy

Nonfiction: Pop Science; Business; quirky History

“Anything with a wickedly dark sense of humor.  She’s especially drawn to multicultural fiction as well as lgbtq+ works. She is keen to work on projects that focus on marginalized people and people from atypical walks of life. She loves a story that makes her think differently.”

Adrienne is accepting queries via email at submissions@stonesong.com.  Click here for the agency’s submissions guidelines.

Ann Leslie Tuttle, former editor at Harlequin, joined Dystel, Goderich & Bourret as an Agent

Fiction: Romance, Romance, Romance! (you weren’t expecting Middle Grade Dystopian, were you?)

Nonfiction: Isn’t European History kind of a Romance? On the real, though, no. No Nonfiction.

“At the heart of every good romance is the sense of finding family, that identity and connection that gives purpose, hope and love to someone’s life. To me, the best romances have well developed protagonists who’ve truly been to hell and back and now must overcome their greatest fear, which usually involves an issue of trust or willingness to put their heart on the line again after a gut-wrenching loss.”

Ann is accepting queries via email at atuttle@dystel.com. For submission guidelines, click here.

Submission Deadlines

Writers, you've got about a week:

The University of Iowa Press The Iowa Short Fiction Award & John Simmons Short Fiction Award (yes, that Iowa)—Submissions must be postmarked by Saturday, September 30th (Short Story Contest—Publication)

Who: Writers who have not published a volume of prose fiction

What: 150+ page collection of short stories. Publication under their standard contract

To Submit: Submission by post only: Iowa Short Fiction Award/Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 507 North Clinton Street, 102 Dey House, Iowa City, IA 52242-1000. For rules and more information, click here.

Pigeon Pages Fledgling Prose Contest—Submissions due Sunday, October 1st (Prose Contest—$$ Prize)

What: Unpublished prose of up to 4,000 words, any genre. Winner receives $250, runners up receive $50.

“We love writing with a strong sense of narrative and invite you to tell us a true story, be in based in the real or fictional world. We believe that a story about dragons can be just as true as a piece of memoir, and are less concerned with traditional genre definitions than we are with resonant, evocative writing.”

To Submit: Submission via email at pigeonpagesnyc@gmail.com. For rules and other information, click here.

The African Poetry Book Fund Luschei Prize for African Poetry—Submissions due Sunday, October 1st (Annual Award, $$ Prize)

Who: African writers

What: Any book of original poetry published in the past year, in English or translation. Winner receives $1,000.

“The Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry is named for poet, publisher, editor, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Glenna Luschei, who has also endowed in perpetuity the literary quarterly Prairie Schooner. Her generous contribution established this annual award.  In recognition of their invaluable support of our work, Glenna Luschei has welcomed the use of her name for the Prize for African Poetry.“

To Submit: Download the entry form, then mail entries to The Glenna Luschei Poetry Prize: The African Poetry Book Fund/Prairie Schooner, 110 Andrews Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0334. (Shout out Andrews Hall, y’all!) For more information and rules, click here.

What Agents Want

Looking for friendship, love, and revolution. Not necessarily in that order.

Michael Bourret, Agent at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret 
Michael’s Tweet leaves ambiguous whether or not his MSWL manifests his personal hopes: “Smash the patriarchy, deconstruct toxic masculinity, destroy white supremacy, question capitalism/heteronormativity/EVERYTHING”  Source Tweet

Seeking: 

Fiction: Everything from Children’s to Thrillers to Women’s

Nonfiction: Science/Technology; Memoir; Leftist Politics

How to submit: Michael is accepting queries at mbourret@dystel.com. For submission guidelines, click here.

Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelBourret.

Jaida Temperly, Agent at New Leaf Literary Agency
Jaida wants all the feels: “A #MG contemporary sister or female friendship story along the lines of TRAVELING PANTS or PENDERWICKS <3.”  Source Tweet

Seeking: 

Fiction: Children’s and Adult: Literary; Magical Realism; Historical; Upmarket; Horror (not Children’s, c’mon, now); Speculative

Nonfiction: Select Prescriptive and Narrative

How to submit: Jaida is accepting submissions via email at query@newleafliterary.com. For the company’s submission guidelines, click here.

Follow Jaida on Twitter @JaidaTemperly.

Taylor Haggerty, Agent at Root Literary
Taylor wants to eat, drink, laugh, love: “I’m in the mood to fall in love. Send me your high concept women’s fiction, contemporary romance & romcoms.”  Source Tweet

Seeking: 

Fiction: YA; MG; Women’s; Romance

Nonfiction: Nada; Zip; Zilch; Zero

How to submit: Taylor is accepting submissions via email at submissions@rootliterary.com. For the company’s submission guidelines, click here.

Follow Taylor on Twitter @tayhaggerty.

Ejusdem Generis

Speaking of the Iowa Writers Workshop, here’s an interview with author John McNally from 2011, shortly after he published his novel, After the Workshop. He speaks about his experiences at the Workshop, his feelings about living as a writer and academic, and his take on the ins and outs of getting a book published. It’s both depressing and encouraging. Check it out.

While it comes from roughly eight months ago, John Irving’s (one of Iowa’s most famous alumni) call for Oscar winners to become more overtly political in their acceptance speeches seems pretty germane to this week. The Hollywood Reporter has his essay. I really liked A Prayer for Owen Meany. If I could have written any book, that would be one of my top ten choices. 

Finally, the pacifism of John Wheelwright in A Prayer for Owen Meany made me think about war and its effects on literature. Atlas Obscura describes the rise of the paperback as the result of a nation at war (I mean, yeah, I agree, generally it’s good for nothing, but paperbacks are pretty great). The dimensions of the books were determined by the size of the presses – they were intended for magazines, and so the printers had to print two books at a time, and cut the pages in half. How cool is that? Definitely check it out.

Grad Student Freelancers (GSF) is dedicated to helping authors take care of the details of the publication process. Part of the process includes sifting through huge amounts of information to find important news, events, and tips that can give you an edge in the publication process. Every week GSF will provide three lists of curated information focused on helping writers get published. Our goal is to gather what’s important from the web in the past week, so you can focus more on your writing.  

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