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Posts from the ‘contests’ Category

Jun 7

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Vote for Me or Roxane Gay, Please

Oops…as Roxane has pointed out, voting goes until JULY 6th. So take your time and spread the word–you’ve got a whole month.

Hi, everyone. I hate promoting myself and generally think it’s gross, but the prospect of money and the prestige of winning are sort of pushing me to do this. Roxane and I both made the Million Writers Top 10 list, and if we’re one of the top three winners after public voting we will get money and a nice sense of satisfaction.

So please go here: http://www.jasonsanford.com/jason/2011/06/million-writers-award-vote.html# and read our stories and then vote for me or for Roxane. (And I will be crossing my fingers for a first place win for her and a second place win for me!) Okay, self-promotion grossness over. :) Thank you.

May 9

Wigleaf
5 Comments

In which I struggle against my Midwestern roots and do a little bragging despite the hurt it causes.

It’s always triply exciting to win something you didn’t even know you were up for. So I was pretty stoked to learn that I’d made the Wigleaf Top 50 List of Very Short Fictions (selected this year by the lovely Lily Hoang, with long list help from Scott Garson and Ravi Mangla.) with one story, and made the long list with two others–and even more stoked because these three pieces (“The Dictator is Drinking Alone” in Annalemma, “Feral Children: A Collective History” in The Collagist, and “May We Shed These Human Bodies” in Art Voice. Thank you Christopher, Matt, and Greg, for originally publishing these pieces.) There are so many good writers on the shortlist and the long list, and so many wonderful fantastic amazing stories. Some of these I’ve read, some I’m just reading now, some I’m not familiar with at all and am eager to read. I’ve been reading the Wigleaf list for years now, learning my craft from the best of the best (or at least trying to) and so its unbelievably cool to see my own name on that list. Happy happy.

Tyler Gobble and Layne Ransom have put together this unbelievably cool little magazine as an offshoot of Stoked Press, and have launched it into the atmosphere with an excellent first issue that I am honored to be a part of. My story, “Some of Our More Useful Planets” appears, with awesome graphics that I most certainly did not, could not create. Thanks, Tyler and Layne–your enthusiasm and dedication to indie literature is pretty much boundless and you deserve some serious props for that.

Finally, trnsfr Issue 4 is out and it is one hell of a gorgeous magazine. I have a story in here, too; thank you to Alban Fischer for including “The World After this One” in this issue. You should get this baby now and also you should help out with funding for Issue 5 at this Kickstarter project because this really is a labor of love and a work of art, every issue.

Apr 20

Ooh, Heaven is an unspecified beachy place on an unspecified coast

By the always jealousy-inducing, extremely brilliant xkcd, of course.

Which is where I will be for the next five days. I won’t be much in pocket online, as this is a detox from work, and my work involves all things internetty. I’ll be checking in from time to time, of course, probably a few times a day still (okay probably more since I’m a sad, sad addict) but I will NOT be blogging. Because that really does take work. Read more

Nov 2

9 Comments

Thanks, PANK!

I’ve been shortlisted for PANK’s 1001 Awesome Words Contest, for my story “A Brief, Bright Fire to Sweep the World Clean.” It’s a huge honor to be shortlisted for anything by PANK, and especially in the company of such terrific writers. Congrats to the winners and all the other shortlisters, too:

Winner ($650, Publication in PANK 5)
Liana Jahan Imam, Mine Mine Mine

2nd Place ($150, Publication in PANK 5)
Lauren Becker, The Apple Dress

Third Place ($50, Publication in PANK 5)
Lauren Wheeler, Chinese Stores

The Shortlist (Publication in the March 2011 issue of PANK online)
Amber Sparks A Brief Fire to Light the World Clean
Desmond Kon Message in a Pointilist Bottle
Lydia Ship Rooftop Valkyrie
Tania Hershman That Small Small Inch
Kristina Born The Village Called Hurty
Robert Swartwood Crash Test Dummy
Robert Swartwood The Lonely Life of a Tertiary Character

Oct 4

2 Comments

Thank You to Splinter Generation!

Splinter Generation, a great lit mag that publishes stuff by writers of my generation primarily, has nominated a short fiction piece I wrote for the Dzanc Best of the Web! I feel awfully excited, honored and proud, particularly since this piece is a favorite of mine.

Thanks, Seth and the folks at Splinter Generation! You guys rock and now I’m blushing, hard. Damn.

Jul 29

Wired Readers School BP on the Proper Use of Photoshop

I love that half these readers sent in Godzilla-flavored mashups. Also love the MST3K reference.

Jun 9

1 Comment

On SJP’s New Art Reality Show

My first reaction on seeing commercials’ for Sarah Jessica Parker’s new reality show about the art world was, “Oh, awesome! Art on TV.”

My second reaction was, “Wait a second. Art isn’t made like sushi. Art isn’t a dress (though a dress can be art.) Hmm. This sounds like it could be horrifying.”

My second reaction was probably closer to the reality of this reality show. The Daily Beast has an interesting piece up about it, including this bit that I love:

As brilliant an auctioneer and entertainer as Simon de Pury can be, he needs to reconsider his snappy comment that “in a split second I can tell whether a work of art is great or not.” All I have to say to him is: Louise Bourgeois.

The artist, who died last week, was the antithesis of the sound bite, and didn’t “make it” until she was well into her 60s because no one saw the importance of her work until the next generation of (women) artists began to cite it as an important influence. De Pury should remember that some things happen slowly, and not all artists—or their work—can be recognized as “great” or “genius” in a split second. Art is about slowing down time, and thinking—neither of which television does very well.

Pretty much.

May 18

2 Comments

Million Writers Award: I’m Voting for Roxane Gay

So, I try to stay very neutral in these contests, as somebody who works for a literary publication and writes myself. But in this case I just can’t help it. You can now vote for the winner of the Million Writers Award, and while I’m sure all the writers listed are wonderful (they’d have to be, wouldn’t they?) there is one writer that beyond stands out to me, and that’s Roxane Gay. This particular story is great, yes–and so is this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and…

My point is that Roxane is one of the hardest-working, most talented writers out there today, and I know that I’m not the only one who thinks that. Her internet writing has been prolific and great, so I’m happy to see her on this list, getting her due, and would love to see her win this award for the same reason.

So while I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, I will tell you that I think the clear choice is Roxane, and that’s why I’m voting for her.

http://kneejerkmag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:gravity-at-the-end-of-the-world-by-roxane-gay&catid=13:stories