Archives for September 2012

Canada Writes Contests

Alberta Tourism

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CANADIAN SHORT STORY PRIZE

Canada Writes, with partners CBC, Canada Council for the Arts, Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and The Banff Centre, are pleased to announce the Grand Prize winner will receive $6,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and will have his/her story published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and on the Canada Writes website.

She or he will also be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony, and will be interviewed on CBC Radio. The 4 runners-up will each receive $1,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and their stories will be published on the Canada Writes website.

Submissions to the short story category must be between 1,200 and 1,500 words.  A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry. Deadline to submit: November 1, 2012. This prize is awarded once a year to the best original, unpublished short story, submitted to the competition. All Canadians can participate. The competition is blind. A jury composed of well-known and respected Canadian authors will select the Grand Prize winner and 4 runners-up.

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POETRY

The First Prize winner will receive $6,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and will have his/her poetry published in Air Canada’s “enRoute” magazine and on the Canada Writes website. He or she will also be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony, and will be interviewed on CBC Radio’s “The Next Chapter” with Shelagh Rogers.

This prize is awarded once a year to the best original, unpublished, poem or poetry collection submitted to the competition. All Canadians can participate. The competition is blind. A jury composed of well-known and respected Canadian authors will select a 1st place winner and 4 runners-up.

The 4 runners-up will each receive $1,000, courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts, and their stories will be published on the Canada Writes website. Submissions to the poetry category must be between 400 and 600 words.  A fee of $25.00 for administration purposes is required for each entry.

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Waterfall at Moraine Lake

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About the Banff Centre
The first-prize winners in the Short Story, Creative Nonfiction and Poetry categories in both English and French Literary Prizes will be awarded a two-week residency at The Banff Centre’s Leighton Artists’ Colony.  All meals at The Banff Centre are included, as is access to The Banff Centre’s events and performances.  Winners must use their residency within one year of the prize award, at a time that the prize winner and The Banff Centre both agree upon.

Writers have been polishing their words at The Banff Centre in the heart of the Canadian Rockies since the 1930s. The Centre is a hot-bed of creativity, providing time, tools, and mentor-ship for the creation of new work in all artistic disciplines. The Centre’s varied Literary Arts programs are led by some of Canada’s top writers, including Ian Brown, Daphne Marlatt, Nino Ricci, and Fred Wah — Canada’s Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Writers, emerging and seasoned, gain input and inspiration in a retreat setting. Programs are offered in fiction,
nonfiction, poetry, digital literature and innovative forms, and spoken word.

More Grants for writers in Canada:
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/grants/writing/ri127227329682968750.htm

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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3 Marketing Tips for Your Amazon Book

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Already have an Author Central  page on Amazon.com? Terrific, it’s a great start for your author brand on the internet!  Now to your next steps for maximum exposure: create your very own author website:

Your personal website AND your Amazon Author Central page work together and will help you to build your credibility as an author. Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines take the information from these two websites – which helps your name to come up every time when online visitors are searching for the subject of your book or for your author name. Moreover it is one important step in building your author brand and your platform. Read more about author brand and platform here.

This is a very good chance to tell readers something interesting about yourself, include any details about your (writers) background, awards, other books you have written and personal details customers might want to know. Your author photo should be a professional, high-resolution image for quality display. You can share your book trailer, video interviews, book signing videos or the new Google Search Story trailers with readers. Your videos should focus on specific features of your books or your experience as an author.

IMPORTANT: Use the same words and language on both your Author Central page and your personal website. Key word consistency is essential to assure you are optimizing your search engine results.
The links to and from your Amazon Author Central page to your personal website and your book’s page will tell search engines that your book is relevant to people searching either for you or the content of your book.

A web page or blog and an author website on Amazon’s Author Central are the marketing basics for every writer. Don’t delay creating these.  When writing a guest blog (e.g. for this blog) do include links to your websites.

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on each page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris

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2 Great Writings Contests

LADIES HOME JOURNAL Personal Essay Contest

NO ENTRY FEE !
Tell Us About the Day That Changed Your Life
Ladies’ Home Journal is a community that shares stories — and we’re dying to hear yours. If you win our essay contest, we’ll give you $3,000 and the chance to have your essay published in the Journal. You’re free to interpret the topic in whatever way you like, but remember that we value creativity and clarity above all. Essays will be judged on their emotional power, originality, and the quality of their prose. The manuscript may not be previously published and may not have won any prize or award.

They should be no more than 2,000 words and ideally typed or written in a Microsoft Word document. You can enter the contest by e-mailing your submission as an attachment (with your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address) to LHJessaycontest@meredith.com or by mailing a copy to Personal Essay Contest, Ladies’ Home Journal, 805 Third Ave., 26th Fl., New York, NY 10022.
Deadline is December 7, 2012.
Rules for this contest: http://www.lhj.com/lhj/file.jsp?item=/contests/2012-essay-contest

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 New Orleans_SourcePDPhoto

New Orleans_SourcePDPhoto


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Tennessee Williams / New Orleans Literary Fiction Contest

$25 Entry Fee
Our Annual Fiction Contest accepts submissions by mail and online from June 1 through November 15 each year.  Grand Prize:

  • $1,500
  • Domestic airfare (up to $500) and French Quarter accommodations to attend the next Festival in New Orleans
  • VIP All-Access Festival pass for the next Festival ($500 value)
  • Public reading at a literary panel at the next Festival
  • Publication in Louisiana Literature
  • Top ten finalists will receive a panel pass ($75 value) to the next Festival.

Open only to writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Published books include self-published books with ISBN numbers. Those who have published books in other genres besides fiction remain eligible. A submission is one original short story, written in English, up to 7,000 words. Do not include professional resumes or biographies with your entry. Entries are judged anonymously; the judges only consider manuscript quality.

http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/contests/2012-fiction-contest

Konrath’s Sales: the Numbers of Books

MUST READ:  A snippet from J.A. Konrath’s latest blog post:
Publishing can survive using this strategy, if authors are gullible enough to keep signing these one-sided contracts. Here’s how:

On a $6.99 paperback, the author makes about 56 cents. That’s close to what the publisher makes, after all expenses. While it is possible for publishers to get into the black before an author earns out her advance, earning out the advance is usually a good indicator the book is making money.

On a $6.99 legacy* e-book, the author makes $1.04 after agent commission. The publisher makes $3.67. So let’s play the advance game.

A publisher pays an author $20,000 advance. Author keeps $17,000 after the agent is paid. There is no paper version. The e-book, priced at $6.99, sells 12,000 e-books in five years, which is what my legacy e-book Dirty Martini has sold.

The author would still owe $7520 on the advance before earning another nickel. In the meantime, the publisher has made $44,000. Minus the $20k advance, the publisher has pocketed $24,000, and still will make money for a few more years without paying the author any more.

If the author self-pubbed his own book at $6.99, and sold 12,000 copies, he would have made $58,880.

If publishers keep signing authors for e-book-only deals, at the current royalty rates, they will get richer than they ever have, at the expense of authors. Before you sign any contract, understand what it means, what you are getting, and what you are giving up.

Read the whole blog: http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca/2012/09/konraths-sales.html

*legacy means big publishers

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How to Announce Your Book for FREE on Google

Market for Free on Google+

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Would you like to have your book cover and description seen by millions on the internet?
If your answer is YES, then sign up with Google plus – Google+ and use one of the best ways on the whole internet to announce your book for FREE – several times a day!

Once you are signed up with Google+, write a compelling “Profile” and add images of you and your books to it.  Start building circles and adding potential readers of your book into these circles. Unlike Twitter you can build circles with thousands of followers in a very short time. No 2,000 limit here…

No need to “hand-pick” these followers, just start out by adding already existing circles to your own. Type in: readers, writers, literary agents, publishers, librarians, book reviewers, book worms etc. or keywords of your books to find the right circles. Don’t forget your personal interests, sports and hobbies to have well-mixed community. Select the audience or the parts of your list that will be receiving your message according to your choosen topic of circles.

Create also a Google+ Business Account for each of your books – easy and free again. Google+ allows every business to act as an individual in many forms.

Like with any other social media, comment on postings of others, ask questions, give a “1+” on their postings and “share” them (same as “re-tweet” on Twitter). After some partizipating days, start your own posts, write short articles about anything your Audience might be interested in. After all it is called “Social Media”…
Add lots of photos and snippets from your blog or website. Post your book trailer – see 111 Tips to Create Your Book Trailer how to do this.  And add links to Amazon or other book sales pages.

Place images of your books and a short description along with your author bio – several times a day! Place your book trailer in separate posts to achieve even more buzz. Write at least five unique descriptions of each of your books, to avoid this “spamming look” on your posts and change the headline as well.

You can use Google Talk to chat with friends, potential customers and readers. In your sidebar, you have an option to connect with people in through chats. Again: As larger your audience on Google+ is, as more people you added to your circles, as more potential readers you will get and as better the result will be.

Best of all: Your Search Engine ranking increases exceptionally when participating on Google+.  Submit each of your blog post to your Google+ account. Google treats the information on its own platforms, aka Google Search Engine, pretty high. This means your SEO-ranking for your website or blog improves tremendously.

Take advantage of Google+, one of the best ways to market books or e-books which authors and publishers yet have to discover. Let me know about your Google+ presence and I will add you into my circles too. Mine is:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108229068198031646389/posts

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If you enjoyed this blog post, please feel free to check out all previous posts (there are more than 520 of them : ) if you haven’t already. Why not sign up to receive them regularly by email? Just click on “Follow” in the upper line on page – and then on “LIKE” next to it. There is also the “SHARE” button underneath each article where you can submit the article to Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, Tumblr and StumpleUpon.

Follow on Twitter: @111publishing

And don’t forget to spread the word on other social networking sites of your choice for other writers who might also enjoy this blog and find it useful. Thanks, Doris
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Writing About Love Spells


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Guest post by Rayne Hall
Love spells make great fiction, full of secrets, conflict, drama and passion. Your character can cast her own love spell, or she can seek professional help from a magician (from a witch, a ritual wizard, or other type of mage).

RITUALS
The most common ingredients used in the ritual are roses (often red or pink), something from each of the two people (usually a lock of hair, and in modern times, a photograph), red candles, a fruit (for example, an apple), a crystal (rose quartz is a favourite), herbs (such as dittany or balm ogilead), spices (especially cinnamon), and red wine, and a ribbon (red or pink).

However, the ingredients vary between different types of magic. For example, an Enochian may use different ingredients from a Wiccan. Also individual magicians have their own preferences. The actual ritual also differs. Typically, the magician may cut the fruit in halves, insert the locks of hair, and tie the fruit back together with the pink ribbon. Or she may brew a love potion which involves red wine simmering in a cauldron with rose petals, herbs and cinnamon.

If both people are present, the magician may link their hands and tie them with a ribbon or scarf.  If only one person is present, the spell won’t be complete until the second person has become involved, for example, by drinking the love potion.

CLIENTS
Most clients are besotted with someone who doesn’t requite their feelings. They are convinced that this person is the one for them, that they’re meant to be together, that they will not be fulfilled and happy until that person is theirs. They also believe that the love spell is in the best interest of that person, and that the relationship will be a happy one if only the person would return their love. They are desperate, can’t bear the pain of their unrequited passion any longer, and are willing to pay almost any price for a love spell.

Other clients are lonely and looking for love. They want a spell to help them find a mate. These include teenagers whose self-esteem is low because they don’t have a boyfriend, single women whose biological clock is ticking, and men who can’t get a date. On rare occasions, a couple may seek a magician’s help to save their crumbling marriage.  In historical fiction, parents and politician may resort to love spells to bring about an advantageous match, or to bring affection to an arranged marriage.

CONFLICTS
Most modern magicians consider it unethical to interfere with a person’s free will. Although they will happily help the couple who wish to strengthen their bond, and the lonely heart in search of a mate, they will refuse to force a specific person’s feelings.

However, not all magicians have the same qualms, and in earlier period, many made good money from love potions. Even today, many magicians advertise on the internet, promising to deliver one’s heart’s desire.

Some magicians compromise by creating spells which work only if there is already some affection between the couple. For example, the desired person must drink wine from the same cup as the client, immediately after he has drunk from it – something she wouldn’t do if she hated him. An ancient Egyptian love spell required the man to anoint his member with a potion before having intercourse with the woman of his desire – and for that to work, she already had to fancy him quite bit.

Other magicians try to dissuade the client from focussing on a specific person. Instead, they recommend a general love spell, one which will help the client find a suitable mate.

For the strictly ethical magician, requests for love spells can lead to terrible dilemmas. Here are some ideas you may want to play with:

* What if the client is suffering terrible pain from unrequited love, and the magician wants to ease his suffering? What if the desperate client is her own sister, her best friend, her son? What if turning down the request for a love spell causes a rift between them?

* What if if the client won’t take no for an answer? What if the client is the king, the chief inquisitor, or other powerful person? What if the client threatens to punish the magician for her refusal?

* What if the client is rich and willing to pay a lot for a love spell? What if the magician desperately needs money to save her lover or to feed her starving child?

* What if a ruthless magician agrees to waive his principles and grant the heroine the love spell she craves … but only if she pays a terrible price for it?

* What if the magician herself suffers from unrequited love? What if her ethics forbid her to manipulate someone’s will, but she is convinced that it is for that person’s own good? What if her need overrides her conscience?

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CONSEQUENCES
Love spells interfering with someone’s free will can lead to disaster. Here are some plot ideas:

* What if the love spell works at first, but wears off after the wedding? What if the person finds out that their spouse had trapped them with a love spell?

* What if the two people love each other, but their relationship is desperately unhappy – and they can’t out of it? What if they blame the magician for their misery?

* What if the client loses interest and wants to end the relationship – but the other person is still obsessively in love and won’t let them go? What if that person stalks the client for the rest of his life?

* What if the client regrets his action, and wants to undo the love spell – and it can’t be reversed?

* What if a pedophile uses love potions to seduce minors? What if a serial killer applies magic to lure victims to their doom?

* What if a fortune hunter tries to trick an heiress into drinking the love potion? What if she’s been alerted to his intentions, and has to be constantly vigilant to thwart him?

* What if the family hires a bodyguard or detective to protect their heiress daughter from love spell assaults?

* What if the victim’s family find out that the girl has been the victim of a love spell, and try to save her? What if they make great sacrifices to enable the spell to be undone – but she doesn’t want to be saved?

* What if the heroine discovers that her best friend’s intended is a ruthless man who forced her feelings with a love potion – and the friend refuses to believe it? What if the victim of the love spell is a man whom the heroine has secretly loved all her life, and now another woman has ensnared him with magic?

The fiction potential of love spells is endless. I hope this article has inspired your creativity. If you have questions, please leave a comment.

About Rayne Hall
Rayne Hall has published more than thirty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories), Six Historical Tales (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).

She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft and more.
http://www.amazon.com/Rayne-Hall/e/B006BSJ5BK/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
Her short online classes for writers intense with plenty of personal feedback. Writing Fight Scenes, Writing Scary Scenes, Writing about Magic and Magicians, The Word Loss Diet and more. https://sites.google.com/site/writingworkshopswithraynehall/

Freelance Writing Offers

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Features Writer, Seattle, WA
The Marketing Writer composes fresh headlines and tight supporting copy that both inspire the reader and sell product for Nordstrom’s online advertising program, as well as all marketing and customer service emails. This position works closely with the design, development and producer groups to develop effective and compelling creative that reflects the Nordstrom brand.
http://magazinejobs.org/jobsearch/display/206882193

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Sierra Magazine

Sierra is a bi-monthly national magazine publishing writing, photography, and art about the natural world. Our readers are environmentally concerned, politically diverse, and actively enjoy the outdoors. We are looking for painstaking reporting and smart writing that will provoke, entertain, inform, and enlighten this readership. Sierra is looking for strong, well-researched, literate nonfiction storytelling about significant environmental and conservation issues, adventure travel, nature, self-propelled sports, and trends in green living. Articles are 100 to 1,500 words in length; payment is $50 to $1,000 unless otherwise noted. Expenses of up to $50 may be paid in some cases. See guidelines for specific columns open to new submitters.
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/guidelines/writers.aspx

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Popular Woodworking Magazine
End Grain: This is a good entry-point for first-time freelancers. A one-page article, averaging about 600 words, reflects on the writer’s thoughts about woodworking as a profession or hobby. The article can be either humorous or serious. We purchase six of these columns a year. The writer does not need to be a professional woodworker. Payment starts at $250. Please send submissions to Megan Fitzpatrick via e-mail: megan.fitzpatrick@fwmedia.com
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/writersguidelines

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Useful Tips when pitching these Magazines:
– Learn to write for magazines and newspapers if you haven’t done it before
– Read their last 24 issues in order to pitch the right topic
– offer professional photos with your article

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The Silver Lining after a Bad Book Review

Margaret Kell-Virany: “Right now I’m on a high because I just got two four-star reviews for my Kindle book, A Book of Kells — the one that was called “Unable to Read” and awarded two stars by a reviewer last May.

At the time, the review was hard for me to take because I had just been pimping the book  like mad and given out 4500 free copies in a three-day promotion.  However, the review turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it alerted me to formatting problems I didn’t know about and wasn’t directly responsible for.
Amazon had offered to convert my paperback into a Kindle edition. They outsourced the formatting to Amazon Digital Services (this company doesn’t exist any more). I had trouble finding anyone at Kindle Support who could help me.

I corrected the mistakes (it was an awfully big job) and it is now up for sale again with perfect formatting.
Until quite recently no one who was not a personal contact of mine had reviewed the Kindle edition of A Book of Kells.  I had given up hope that people who downloaded free copies ever contacted the author.
But, interestingly, the readers who wrote the wonderful reviews {below) must have read the book in its “unable to read” state, since I’ve made no sales since the May promotion.”

The silver lining is also that my faith is renewed that the promo was worthwhile and I may do another one.  Meanwhile, I’m doing a little celebratory dance and hope you will join me. Here are the two reviews:

Brenda Lutz (MORRISTOWN, TN, US) July 16/12
” Different and interesting.
“Another book written from letters. Enjoyed this book and the historical background is always intriguing to me.Learned much about early Canada and their natives. Recommend this book.”
J. Corbett (Arizona) Aug. 31/12
“A Book Of Kells brought me back in time to when people were more concerned about God, country, and family than they are today. I often thought what was life was like back then for people working in the spread of Christianity. Well, this book does a very good job of explaining what it was like. The dedication of the people is amazing!
A book about real people, in real life situations makes for real interesting reading!
I loved this book!”

www.amazon.com/author/margaretvirany

http://www.margaretvirany.com/

http://www.cozybookbasics.wordpress.com/

Writers-in-Residency Colorado & Arizona

 You may have read recent blogs how to apply and where to find grants and free writers residencies, perhabs in Oregon, California or Washington State. Here are two more, both in National Parks, on in Colorado and one in Arizona.

Cabin @ Moraine Park

Rocky Mountain Ntl. Park, CO
The Artist-In-Residence Program at Rocky Mountain National Park offers professional WRITERS, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their artistic discipline while being surrounded by the park’s inspiring landscape. Selected artists stay in a historic cabin for two-week periods from June through September.
During summer and fall the William Allen White Cabin is the home of Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence.
The cabin above Moraine Park was the summer retreat of William Allen White from 1912 to 1943. A nationally recognized journalist and editor of the Emporia Gazette (Kansas), White’s spirit lives on with the contemporary artists who work in his cabin today.

The cabin has a high-beamed living/dining area with a large fireplace, one bedroom and bathroom, and a small kitchen. It is fully furnished including linens and kitchenware. Artists must provide their own groceries and may choose to bring personal amenities. During summer and fall the William Allen White Cabin is the home of Rocky Mountain National Park’s Artist-In-Residence.
Artists will present two 45-minute public programs during their residencies. This interaction can be tailored to an individual’s medium, interest, and experience using only a few hours of one’s stay. Programs can be demonstrations, talks, exploratory walks, or performances.
Be prepared to work in high desert, summer weather conditions that include high winds, low relative humidity and temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and lows reaching roughly 40 degrees at night. Deadline for 2013 is March 15, 2013.
http://www.nps.gov/romo/supportyourpark/artist_in_residence.htm

The Artist-In-Residence
Program at the Petrified Forest offers professional WRITERS, composers, and visual and performing artists the opportunity to pursue their artistic discipline while being surrounded by the park’s inspiring landscape. Selected artists stay in a historic cabin for two-week periods from June through September.
Artists will present two public programs during their residency. This interaction can be tailored to an individual’s medium, interest, and experience using only a few hours during the residency period. Programs can be demonstrations, talks, exploratory walks, or performances. In addition to the park, the nearby community college art department can be used as a public program venue. Entries are accepted for the 2013 Program with postmarks dated October 1 through November 15, 2012.
http://www.nps.gov/pefo/parknews/artist-in-residence.htm