Author: Ted Wheeler

Down and Out at the NSWC

| Ted Wheeler
Demonstrating how to cultivate suspense with fellow workshopper Julia Lee McGill.

I was lucky to spend a week in workshop with Lee Martin earlier this month down in Lincoln at the Nebraska Summer Writers Conference. The workshop was great. It was a lot of fun and helped crystallize the main issue of what’s lacking in the first twenty pages of my novel. I’m excited to get to work on resolving that issue now and getting the manuscript out to agents by the end of the summer. I couldn’t have asked for more, really. The group I worked with was very giving; Martin is a skilled workshop leader. I won’t get into the details too much here–although a dispatch of my experience was published last week on the Prairie Schooner blog if you’re interested. Read Lee’s recap on his blog too while you’re at it.

A very nice experience it was. If you have the chance to attend the NWSC in the future, or work with Lee Martin, don’t pass it up. Many thanks to conference director Timothy Schaffert and his ace lieutenant, Sarah Chavez, for having me down there. It was worth the drive every morning, and then some.

My Interview of Justin Taylor Now on PS Blog

| Ted Wheeler

Check out my interview of Justin Taylor, newly posted today on the Prairie Schooner blog. We discuss a variety of topics, including literary “patriarchal bullshit”, the writing of place, self-awareness (in writers and characters both), among others. Justin also recommends a host of great books and makes a case for a revival of Saul Bellow’s work.

This was an interesting interview for me to conduct–as I reviewed Justin’s debut short story collection, Everything Here is the Best Thing Ever, a couple years ago for The Millions. It was pretty cool to get the chance to ask him some questions about his work too.

Anyway…check out the interview!

TW a Finalist for “Top Artist” Writing Competition

| Ted Wheeler

Word arrived today that my unpublished novel, The Uninitiated, is one of ten finalists for Tarcher/Penguin’s Tarcher Top Artist competition!

You can read more at Tarcher Top Artist. Here’s some of what the web site says: “The competition consists of two parts – writing and drawing […] entries will be judged on their technical merit as well as their artistic expression.” (Fyi, I’m a finalist for the writing portion, not the drawing.) Finalists were selected based on 10-page samples; the winner will be selected on the basis of a full-length novel, novella, or non-fiction manuscript. (Tarcher is generally a non-fiction imprint, whatever that says about my chances of winning. Also, it was for writers ages 14 and older, which is strange. It’s going to be depressing when I lose out to an eighth grader.) The competition is for unpublished works only.

The winner of the writing portion will be announced in August, and receive $5000 and a manuscript consultation with an editor from Penguin Group. There’s no publication associated with the prize, but getting prize money and retaining the rights to my work isn’t so bad either. Wish me luck.

PS: Briefly Noted Launches on Prairie Schooner Blog!

| Ted Wheeler

If you haven’t already, please check out the first issue of PS: Briefly Noted on the blog of Prairie Schooner‘s website. This is a feature that Claire Harlan-Orsi (Blog and Social Networking Editor for PS) and I have been developing for the past couple months–a book review in brief, with short reviews written by the staff of Prairie Schooner.

It’s really exciting to put something like this out there. Brent Spencer and Jonis Agee (two of my beloved writing professors and mentors, who also happen to be married to each other) instilled a strong emphasis on contributing to the community of writers, principally by teaching, creating opportunities for writers to read their work publicly, and reviewing. PS:BN isn’t all that fancy, but hopefully it gives back to a community that has given so much to me.

Plus, not only am I Co-Editor and Co-Founder of the feature–but I also contributed two reviews of excellent books! Specifically, there are reviews I penned of Richard Burgin’s Shadow Traffic and Ron Rash’s The Cove. Claire will be compiling the reviews for next month’s edition; she’s already limited me to only one review (Roberto Bolaño’s The Third Reich) which is kind of bullshit.

Let me know you think of PS:BN. I’m excited to see where it goes.

Happy Book Release Day: Margins of Tolerance

| Ted Wheeler

Congrats to Eric Sasson, whose book Margins of Tolerance is officially available today from Livingston Press!

Here’s more about the book

Margins of Tolerance focuses on gay men in flux traveling, in transit, or at a crossroads in their lives, seeking to understand their place in the ever-changing landscape of gay identity. This collection also focuses on loyalty and betrayal: between gay lovers, among the gay community itself, and lastly between the gay community and the at-large heterosexual community.

You can read more about Eric, his work, and how his book came to be, at his blog, All Things Sassy.

Way to go, Eric! Congrats!

Review of Jonah Man to Appear in The Kenyon Review

| Ted Wheeler

Incoming: my book review of Christopher Narozny’s Jonah Man has been accepted for publication by The Kenyon Review!

Contracts are still pending, so I’m not sure when the review will appear. Very excited about the new review pub though.

This will be my second appearance with the journal. My short story, “How to Die Young in a Nebraska Winter”, was in their Spring 2011 issue. It’s a pleasure to work with such genuinely nice people who are so enthusiastic about literature.

Jonah Man is new this month from Ig Publishing, a small press to watch out of Brooklyn. In addition to a stellar lineup of literary fiction and noir, their Best Dive Bars series looks like a winner to me.