The Great Gatsby, Cover of the first edition, 1925.

Happy 85th Birthday to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. May the green light always shine at the end of Daisy’s dock, and may we always reserve judgment. (Quoted courtesy our Assistant Editor, Pattie Reitz)

I remember when I first read The Great Gatsby. I was in college, reading it for enjoyment, not for a class. For the first twenty pages or so I was appalled at how self-absorbed the main characters were, and was tempted to throw the book across the room.

Very soon, though, Fitzgerald’s writing style drew me in, and I was hooked. His poetic and lyrical prose, his vivid descriptions — they blew me away! He could describe a sunset in such a way that no film version of this novel can compare. In fact, most film versions of this story have been highly unsuccessful, and I believe this is because the written words are what make this story so powerfully beautiful.

As such, this great American novel is one of the few that made me say, “I want to write like that!”

Happy Birthday to one of the greatest novels of all time, which features one of my favorite quotes of all time:

And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.

Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Haven’t read The Great Gatsby yet? Do yourself a favor and give it a whirl!

The Smoking Poet Second Annual Short Story Contest Deadline: May 31, 2009

About: The Smoking Poet is a literary ezine, established in 2006, and published online on a quarterly basis. TSP’s first annual short story contest is open to all writers, whether they have been past contributors to TSP or not, and in any genre.

Prizes: First prize, $200; second prize, $100; third prize, $50.

Winners: All of the winners will be published in the summer issue of The Smoking Poet, online in mid June, 2009.

Entry fee: An entry fee of $10 per submission is required, payment to be made through PayPal. Once you have sent in your submission and we determine it meets our contest guidelines, we will send you the PayPal link for payment with an invoice for your records.

How to format entries: Entries must be submitted as a Word doc file, one per e-mail, in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced. The author’s name, address, and telephone number must appear in the upper right hand corner. Word count must not exceed 5,000. Please include a bio statement, not to exceed 100 words, in the body of your e-mail.

Deadline: Submission deadline is May 31, 2009.

How to submit: Please send your submission with the subject line, CONTEST/Last Name, to thesmokingpoet@gmail.com. If the subject line does not state CONTEST, we will assume it is a general submission. We look forward to reading your best work!

Remember, this is from The Smoking Poet. Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this contest, as we are not affiliated with The Smoking Poet. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.

LoftLife magazine, a quarterly shelter and lifestyle publication, seeks experienced writers to submit stories for our back page—“My Downtown.” We want to hear about a memory or a reflection on a space, moment, place, monument, or institution that reminds you why you still call your U.S. metropolitan city “home.” Please submit an article with a strong voice, savvy grammar skills, and a plethora of descriptive and sensory details. We would appreciate an essay that is kept to a maximum of 450 words. Chosen pieces will receive $250 and publication in our print magazine. Check out the look and feel of our magazine at loftlifemag.com, “the loftstyle guide to life in the city.” Email your Word document submissions as an attachment to Kyra Shapurji at ks@loftlifemag.com with the subject line of “My Downtown.”

NOTE: Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this, as we are not affiliated with this market. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.

March prompts from The Teachers Corner

Virginia Donahue of Homeschool Blogger offers a download for her prompt calendar.

Here’s a list from James Wayne of Teacher.net.

Chris Dunmire offers some creativity prompts here.

Of course, Googling “spring writing prompts” will give you many, many more sources to search.

Have fun! And don’t forget to write, even when it seems like spring is buried beneath mounds of snow…

Writers, it’s always a good idea to try to use good grammar whenever possible. (With the invention of the Internet it can often be tempting to throw good grammar to the wind.)

And if you don’t know how to spell something, use a dictionary! (My husband is dyslexic, and he calls me his built-in dictionary.)

In honor of this glorious day I’d like to introduce you to the recipients of the 2008 SPOGG Awards. (SPOGG stands for The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, started by Martha Brockenbrough.)

So, without further ado… direct from the National Grammar Day website:

The 2008 SPOGG Awards

March 4 is National Grammar Day, and as part of our festivities, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar is handing out SPOGG Awards to the U.S. city and to the U.S. celebrity with the worst grammar.

The City with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to Columbia, South Carolina, where spelling is monumentally bad—at least in one particular cemetery. SPOGG member Chris Cole sent in the winning photo, which won by a substantial margin.

The mayor of Columbia, Bob Coble, had no comment. Read more…

The Celebrity with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to President George W. Bush, who does not realize the plural of “child” is “children,” not “childrens.”

He beat Paris Hilton, who produced T-shirts that say “THATS HOT” without the apostrophe, and Courtney Love, who generates so many errors per inch of text on her blog that even the best instruments known to grammar scientists have failed to record them all. (See the contestants in their full glory.)

SPOGG thanks its members for their submissions and votes. SPOGG would also like to note that this contest is completely unscientific, and that the SPOGG Awards have a cash value of less than 1/20th of a cent.

Till next year…

Don’t forget to visit the following sites:
Martha’s site
Martha’s blog
The SPOGG site
The SPOGG blog
The National Grammar Day website

The residency is free insofar as lodging and food are covered. We are seeking submissions from Midwest authors for the inaugural season. More info can be found at www.writersintheheartland.org. Below is the official announcement; feel free to share it with fellow writers and colleagues:

Writers in The Heartland is now taking applications for its inaugural season. Writers in the Heartland is a writing colony for creative writers in all genres. The colony is located in Gilman, Illinois, approximately 2 hours south of Chicago. It is located on a beautiful 30-acre wooded site with lakes and walking paths. A limited number of one-week residencies are available for September 4-11 and October 2-9. All lodging and food is included. For the inaugural year, we are only accepting applications from writers living in the Midwest region of the United States.

Applications must be received by April 15, 2009, to be considered. Decisions will be announced by July 1st. For further information about applying to Writers in the Heartland, see our website www.writersintheheartland.org, or contact us at writersintheheartland@gmail.com.

Best,
Writers in the Heartland
www.writersintheheartland.org

NOTE: Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this, as we are not affiliated with this market. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.

At NonToxin.com we believe that stories have an enchanting power to change people and the world.

If you’re the writer we’re looking for:
* You can tell stories with a purpose, stories that inspire change, stories that downgrade information and upgrade wisdom.

* You’re mesmerised by reading NonToxin.com and are inspired to write similar posts in your own unique style.

* You have a passion for collecting stories and quotes, and sharing these with the world.

We’re particularly looking for biography writers to tell inspiring life stories of little-known people.

Pay is $15 per post for 400-1,200 words. Quality, not quantity, will grab our attention.

Submit a post outline, including the stories you’ll tell and an Action Summary to david.masters@yahoo.co.uk.

Note: Only post outlines will be considered. All other correspondence will be ignored.

NOTE: Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this, as we are not affiliated with this market. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.

If you think you have what it takes to write stirring poetry and short fiction,
now is the time for you to enter the
2009 Whittaker Prize Competition

details and rules

http://therighteyeddeer.webs.com/

opens March 7, 2009! read details at website above.

(Note: The Right Eyed Deer = The Write Idea)

NOTE: Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this contest, as we are not affiliated with this market. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.

Details:

Everyday Musings
Everyday something around you happens that is poetic if you notice. We want your best poems (up to 6 entries; entries can be sent together) covering life in a daily setting. All forms and styles of poetry will be considered.

Schedule: Submissions will be accepted between December 1, 2008 and February 28, 2009. Winners will be selected by March 31, 2009

Prizes: Winning poem will be paid $50.00, Second place $25.00, Third Place $10.00. The top 35 – 50 poems will be published in a poetry chapbook to be published in June of 2009.

Entry Fee: FREE!

For more information: http://www.readme.us.com/contest.html

NOTE: Please do not contact Writers Remember for more details about this contest, as we are not affiliated with this contest. Please follow all directions in order to have your entry included.