DISQUIET: Dzanc Books International Literary Program Now Accepting Applications

"Every writer in the world will meet in Lisbon, of course—lovely Lisbon, with its uncertain winds." —Rabih Alameddine on The Book of Disquiet, at PEN 

The second annual DISQUIET: Dzanc Books International Literary Program in Lisbon, Portugal is now accepting applications and the contest and scholarship competitions are open!

We also have a brand new website: www.disquietinternational.org

2012 guest writers and faculty include: Junot Diaz, Denise Duhamel, John Frey, Robert Olmstead, Anthony De Sa, George Saunders, Richard Zenith, Kim Addonizio, Sally Ashton, Dan Bern, Deanne Fitzmaurice, Frank X. Gaspar, Philip Graham, Christine Hume, Joshua Knelman, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Josip Novakovich, Deb Olin Unferth, Terri Witek, Luísa Costa Gomes, valter hugo mãe, José Luís Peixoto, Jacinto Lucas Pires, Patrícia Reis, Gonçalo M. Tavares, Rui Zink, editors from Dzanc Books, Guernica, and Open Letter, and many others.

This year, in addition, to workshops in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry, we’re offering workshops in Songwriting with Dan Bern; Photo-Documentary Storytelling with Pulitzer-Prize winning Photojournalist Deanne Fitzmaurice; and Book Arts with Portland’s Independent Publishing Resource Center.

Last year's inaugural program was a resounding success, with more than fifty North American writers gathering in Lisbon for workshops, seminars, talks, and frivolity with contemporary Portuguese writers and artists.

This year's program will take place from July 1 – July 13, 2012 and will include, in addition to the workshops, literary walks and other excursions, craft talks and readings from North American and Portuguese writers.

The International Literature Award: A full scholarship (airfare, tuition and lodging) is available for the winner of the Dzanc Books / Guernica International Literature Award, judged this year by Colson Whitehead. This multi-genre contest seeks poetry, fiction, or non-fiction that broadens the landscape of North American literature beyond the boundaries of North America. The winning work will also be published in Guernica, one of the best literary and cultural magazines on the web.

Full and partial scholarships are also available through a partnership with the Luso-American Development Foundation for North American writers of Portuguese or Luso descent.

The deadline for contest and scholarships is January 31, 2012.

Further details available at our website, http://disquietinternational.org. Please direct any questions to disquietinternational@gmail.com.

Interesting reading: The Academy of Urbanism in the UK recently voted Lisbon the European City of the Year.

We look forward to seeing you in Lisbon! 

The DISQUIET Staff

Dzanc Holiday Sale!

No need to wait for Black Friday this year to begin your Holiday Shopping—we've got everything you might want here at the Dzanc Website. First up, we heavily suggest a gift subscription to the Dzanc Books eBook Club—you can buy those on your list a 3 month, 6 month, or 12 month subscription at rates that are substantially lower than the price of buying 3, 6 or 12 eBooks. The next year's selections will see story collections and novels by newcomers and classic authors like Nadine Gordimer and Stephen Dixon, alike. From what we hear, a hot discount this year will be eReaders of all types. Get your eBook subscription now and then on Friday go out and find the device of your choice to give away as well.

Maybe the person on our list is a writer looking for critical help? Gift a Dzanc Session—an 8 or 10 week online class that begins in January with many options to choose from including multiple poetry workshops, multiple fiction workshops and even one on how to finish up your chapbook—or maybe a one-time Dzanc Creative Writing Session—a 1, 2, or 4 hour critique from one of many published authors or editors. Dozens of works that have gone through the DCWS have seen their way to publication with great words of credit to the program coming from their authors.  Any orders placed for these sessions will receive the gift book or eBook of their choice as well.

The person on your list a big reader? Send them some Dzanc titles, Buy One, Get One Free for the Holidays! Simply order one, and enter a note with the title of your free title (of equal or lesser pricing)—this works for both print and eBooks. And as a shopping bonus, every print book you buy (including your free one) that has an eBook available will see you getting that eBook emailed to you immediately. There are further deals on books here, including several gift bundles, with additional savings! And if you buy books written by Jeff Kass, Kyle Minor, Michael Czyzniejewski, Matt Bell, Peter Markus, or Steven Gillis, you can even get them signed for that special person you are buying for! Any orders of their books will receive the eBooks by email with a question of how you want the print books signed.

Dzanc Books Receives NEA Grant

Dzanc Books receives NEA grant to support the publication, promotion and national distribution of books of fiction.

Grant part of NEA announcement of 863 grants and $22.543 million in funding nationwide

November 22, 2011--Ann Arbor, MI—The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced that the agency will award 863 grants to organizations and individual writers across the country. Dzanc Books is one of the grantees and will receive a grant to support the continuation of our publishing, promoting and nationally distributing books of fiction. The 863 grant awards total $22.543 million, encompass 15 artistic disciplines and fields, and support projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Through the course of 2012, Dzanc Books will publish books by Josip Novakovich, Eugene Cross, Jac Jemc, Matt Dojny, Josh Russell, Henning Koch, Seán McGrady, and George Singleton, a combination of debut authors, mid-career authors, U.S. born, and foreign authors. These will be published in both print and eBook form.

“Art Works is the guiding principle at the NEA,” said agency Chairman Rocco Landesman. “And I’m pleased to see that principle represented through the 823 Art Works-funded projects included in this announcement. These projects demonstrate the imaginative and innovative capacities of artists and arts organizations to enhance the quality of life in their communities.”

“Dzanc believes with absolute conviction in the undiscovered talent of writers at work today,” said Steve Gillis, co-founder and publisher at Dzanc. “It is part of Dzanc's mission to uncover these great works that may otherwise slip through the cracks. Our editors focus on the quality of the work, not the amount of money the writing might earn. It is Dzanc's belief that great writing will find its audience if given a chance to be published.   We are determined to present deserving talent to a broader audience, and coupled with the charity work we do and programs we run nationally in the schools and communities, nothing excites us more than to publish and tour a talented voice. We appreciate the NEA’s belief and support of our work.” 

In March 2011, the NEA received 1,686 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $84 million in funding. The resulting funding rate of 49 percent of eligible applications reflects both the significant demand for support and the ongoing vitality of the not-for-profit arts community despite current financial challenges. Art Works grants are awarded based on the applications received by the NEA and how those applications are assessed by the review panels.

For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA web site at arts.gov.

                                                     About Dzanc Books

Dzanc Books was created in 2006 to advance great writing and to impact communities nationally with our efforts to  advance literary readership and our advocacy of creative writing workshops and readings. 

As a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization, Dzanc Books not only publishes literary fiction, but works in partnership with literary journals to advance their readership at every level. Dzanc is also fully committed to developing educational programs in schools.

For more information on Dzanc Books and its mission, imprints, books, authors, awards, and programs, please visit www.dzancbooks.org.

 

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Free eBook With Purchase of Print Copy

From this point forward (5 p.m. EST 9/22/2011), any purchase of a print copy of a title from the Dzanc Book site will have us a) packaging up that book to ship to you the next day, and b) have us sending you an email thanking you for your order and giving you a free download of the eBook version of that title.

This as a thank you for purchasing your title direct from us and to allow you to begin reading that title asap and not having to wait on the postal service.

{Two cases where the above will not occur--a) we don't have an eBook version of the title--there are very few of these and most of those are in the process of having the eBooks produced, but there are a few titles that don't have eBooks scheduled, and b) in cases where you are purchasing during a Buy One Get XX Free Sale, only the title bought will have an eBook sent, not the free titles received}

Two Great Readings in SE Michigan Including Dzanc and Collagist Authors

This Friday, September 23, 2011, there are two great reading events:

The One Pause Poetry Series presents Franz Wright.

7 p.m. 7101 W. Liberty Road, Ann Arbor, MI  At Copper Colored Mountain Arts

Free of charge

An evening with Pulitzer Prize winner Franz Wright.

Reception and book-signing to follow.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Franz Wright’s most recent works include Wheeling Motel and Earlier Poems. Walking to Martha’s Vineyard was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, and he has also been the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Fellowship, and the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, among other honors. He lives in Waltham, Massachusetts, with his wife, the translator and writer Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Kindertotenwald, a genre-bending collection of prose poems from Pulitzer Prize–winner Franz Wright brings us surreal tales of childhood, adolescence, and adult awareness, moving from the gorgeous to the shocking to a sense of peace. Wright’s most intimate thoughts and images appear before us in dramatic and spectral short narratives: mesmerizing poems whose colloquial sound and rhythms announce a new path for this luminous and masterful poet.

There is also a conversation with the author Saturday from 10:30 to noon

Detroit Artists Market Reading

7 p.m. 4719 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI Free of Charge

Readings by Anna Clark, Peter Markus, John Rybicki, and Norene Smith.

I've had the pleasure of seeing three of these writers read and have read extensively of the fourth writer's work and while none may have a Pulitzer yet, they are all well well worth your time. This will also be the first local event that Peter Markus' new collection, We Make Mud, will be available at.

Those of you in Ann Arbor and Detroit are damn lucky--you probably have pretty easy decisions. Those of us right in the middle in Westland have a decision to make. With an author to support in Detroit, I will most likely be there, but trust me, those of you residing further west than I will be in for a treat at the Wright reading and reception.