Want to get in with a great journal from the start? Thinking of starting a journal of your own? Randi Shapiro and Jim Cronin, two founding editors, talk about their experience getting White Whale Review off the ground. They share their views on submissions, reading slush, and give great tips for all the writers out there trying to get a foot in the door.
Monthly Archive for February, 2009
Doug is director of the Creative Writing MFA at Emerson College, where he also teaches. He is the author of five books of nonfiction, most recently A Country Practice: Scenes from a Veterinary Life. In this segment, Doug talks extensively about MFA programs. He gives useful information for those thinking of applying, and those currently enrolled in any of the dozens of programs around the country. Doug also shares insight into the world of literary nonfiction. He explains the journey, both literal and figurative, that led to his first book: Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers, discussing craft, voice, and the never ending process of note taking.
Natalie is Associate Professor of English at Hope College. Aided by an NEH Fellowship, as well as a grant from the Massachusetts Historical Society, she’s written a biography of Clover Adams (forthcoming, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). In this segment, Natalie discusses her research methods, her evolving relationship with her subject, the art and roll of biography, and the mechanics of building a story from historical facts. She gives tips on applying for grants and fellowships, and offers a wealth of useful information for the biographers of tomorrow.
Megan has published essays and reviews in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Slate Online, the New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. Her biography The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism (2005) won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Massachusetts Book Award in nonfiction, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography and memoir. She has received Guggenheim and NEH fellowships. In this segment, Megan discusses her approach to writing The Peabody Sisters, including her research methods, her debt to great fiction, and the forces that kept her motivated throughout her nearly two decades-long project.