Literary Community During Pandemic: Thriving While Cancelled
Last year, no one anticipated the way literary, domestic, and economic life could change as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even our science fiction writers didn’t quite prepare us for life under shifting quarantine, with it’s sports-lacking spring and its absence of barbecue. Important literary events have been cancelled, including the Alabama Book Festival in Montgomery (which will take place next year) and Mobile Literary Festival (which will be rescheduled at some point in the future).
Some Alabama literary events are continuing in their usual form. For example, the Alabama Writer’s Forum High School Literary Arts Awards took place last month, with Lenore Vickery, Susie Paul, James E. Cherry, Caitlin Rae Taylor, and James M. Hilgartner serving as judges. Visit the website for an exciting list of up-and-coming young Alabama writers.
Other Alabama groups are building alternative venues for literary community which can be accessed online. The Huntsville Literary Association and the Alabama State Poetry Society have been sharing readings, writing prompts, and various other forms of craft fun in their Facebook groups. At times of social difficulty, emotional difficulty is not far behind. We, as a community of writers and readers, are working to find ways to be support, encourage, and nurture each other in hope and life.
The Economic Impact
For the writers whose livelihoods have been impacted by job loss or furlough, national organizations have made efforts to help provide financial relief. If you have been impacted, consider applying for Artist Relief grants. There are countless other organizations, both national and local, currently offering grants and aid to writers. Here’s a list. The Author’s Guild also offers free webinars and financial advice and assistance to working writers of every genre, including a #Support Authors Social Media Campaign for those struggling with the release of new books.
State Poet Laureate’s National Poetry Month Readings
Our beloved State Poet Laureate, Jennifer Horne, has been celebrating National Poetry Month by reading a different Alabama poet every day on social media. She hopes that we'll keep using the #ALreadspoetry hashtag for future events and announcements to link our Alabama poetry community, and encourages poets to include a link if they have a new book.
Magic City Poetry Festival
Birmingham’s fabulous Magic City Poetry Festival was scheduled for April until COVID changed the landscape. After mourning briefly, the Board quickly shifted some aspects online, though it currently plans to reschedule readings, workshops, and features. In the meantime, the celebration of poetry continues with the 2020 Virtual Book Fair featuring the work of poets in the 20202 festival as well as the brand-new, just-bloomed Shelter in Magic Reading Series, an online video reading archive of Birmingham-connected poets reading short poems in under three minutes. Stay tuned in for more on that.
And here’s the State of Birmingham Poetry Address by MCPF Director Ashley M. Jones.
PEN America in Alabama
Many of you know that the PEN America Birmingham Chapter opened last year. This put the national power of PEN in the state of Alabama, where we can promote and support writers covering difficult topics or writing against the grain. We are so proud of that accomplishment as well as its Co-Directors, Ashley M. Jones and Alina Stefanescu.
In addition to offering a Writers’ Emergency Fund to support those struggling with loss of income or livelihood, PEN America has been actively trying to promote free expression and support writers through a limited-run podcast, "The PEN Pod," to provide regular updates and conversations about literature & free expression, and provide an outlet for our canceled/postponed in-person events.
“What matters is that the poem gets written; it does not matter if I write it. You cannot humble yourself yourself. You must be humbled.”
Podcasts
Ear buds and headphones are the quarantined family’s best friend. Podcasts offer auditory engagement, whether for entertainment, craft, or personal development. A few podcasts that writers might find worthwhile:
The Longreads Podcast features interviews, essays, reporting and discussion from the home of the best longform stories on the web.
The S-Town podcast is a must-hear for local history buffs. Hosted by This American Life’s Brian Reed, S-Town is a podcast in chapters about a man named John who despises his Alabama town and decides to do something about it. He asks Brian to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, and the search for the truth leads to a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man’s life.
Paranormal Alabama is Will Hopper’s paranormal podcast about everything unexplained in Alabama. If you like ghosts, thumps, spooks, and uncanny objects, this is worth your listen.
The White Lies podcast follows the 1965 murder of Rev. James Reeb in Selma, Alabama. Three men were tried and acquitted, but no one was ever held to account. Fifty years later, two journalists from Alabama, including Birmingham’s Chip Brantley, return to the city where it happened, expose the lies that kept the murder from being solved and uncover a story about guilt and memory that says as much about America today as it does about the past.
The Moth Radio Hour is a weekly series featuring true stories told live on stage without scripts, notes, props, or accompaniment. Each Moth Radio Hour mixes humorous, heartbreaking, and poignant tales that captivate, surprise, and delight audiences with their honesty, bravery and humor. You can listen it on your local public radio or stream it online.
The PEN Pod provides regular updates and conversations about literature & free expression, and provide an outlet for our canceled/postponed in-person events.
If you’re looking for local book reviews by a bibliophile, look no further than Jacob’s Red Star Reviews. Who knows—maybe Jacob will review your book if you send him a copy?
Virtual Book Clubs & Library Events
Alabama librarians continue to serve their communities through online book clubs, readings, and workshops. Book collectives and clubs are working alongside them to keep books and words alive in conversation and social life. All the events below are free and open to the public.
Hoover Library hosts a First Thursday Fiction Book Club.
Burdock Book Collective has a fascinating Sci-Fi Book Club: Imagining the World We Want to Build.
The Emmett O’Neal Library hosts regular story-time readings for children as well as genre book clubs.
Thank You Books hosts a regular children’s story hour and will deliver books.
The Mobile Public Library has numerous children’s services as well as staff on hand to answer your phone calls and requests.
Writing Prompts & Free Workshops
Ernest & Hadley Booksellers is offering a free online writing workshop with Susan Zurenda on May 28th. Register online before spaces fill up. The workshop will cover both the basics of story and the importance of genuine emotion in stories. It will also examine how writers achieve success in creating human emotion in contrast to why writers sometimes fail in this essential endeavor. Ample illustrations will be provided, some from the Susan’s novel, Bells for Eli, and participants will be given writing prompts with time to write, followed by real time feedback.
Poetry Highway offers free poetry writing prompts.
Those wanting to explore poetic form can play with Jacob Jan’s free online Pantoum Generator.
There’s nothing like a walk in the woods to get the words moving again. If you decide to take a hike, please do it safely. Remember that social distancing rules still apply on trails and footpaths.
Submission Calls & Opportunities
COVID LIT, a new magazine, spreads art, poetry, and prose using the disease's name. What makes this project a bit different, however, is that rather than accepting submission fees, we require writers to donate at least $3 to a nonprofit of their choice. Write, submit, and assist with the same hand.
Pangyrus has launched an online series with quick turnaround: “In Sickness & In Health: Life in the Pandemic and Beyond.” Editors are seeking well-crafted, thought-provoking writing and multimedia storytelling in every genre. No deadline.
Sky Island Journal is seeking poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from around the world that provides culturally diverse perspectives on, and experiences with, the COVID-19 pandemic. Deadline: June 30th.
For its “Covid-19 in the South” call, The Bitter Southerner is accepting pitches and full pieces focused on individual and community responses to the coronavirus. How are people across the south coming together in response to the pandemic? No deadline.
Appalachia Journal is seeking essays responding to COVID-19 for its “Mountains and a pandemic” call. Thoughtful prose related to wilderness, mountains, and river adventure and environment during this time are being reviewed. Deadline: May 20.
The Center for Interfaith Relations is seeking “Sacred Essays” exploring “connection, contemplation, and common action in times of social distancing.” Deadline: June 2.