Northwest Authors Judging Literary Contest
Though Amazon.com boasts a nation- … no, make that a world-wide profile, it’s pretty obvious that the online bookseller is based in Seattle. If we didn’t otherwise know that, the PEN/Amazon.com Short Story Award would provide ample evidence.
Two of the three judges of the contest, which is being co-sponsored by PEN American Center, are Northwest literati: David Guterson and Sherman Alexie.
The third is Jamaican-born writer Jamaica Kincaid.
Full details about the contest, which offers a $10,000 grant and publication in the Boston Book Review as a first prize, are available online at, of course, Amazon.com.
More on Sherman
Amazon.com’s biographical note on Wellpinit native Alexie, which the Web bookseller is running in conjunction with its short-story contest, poses an intriguing rhetorical question: “Could Sherman Alexie be one of the most versatile writers on the planet?”
Maybe, considering that he’s published poetry, short stories, novels, screenplays and essays.
But online columnist Jonathan Miles takes exception with Alexie’s self-appointed role as defender of what Miles dubs “cultural imperialism.” In writing a reaction to Alexie’s damnation of Ian Frazier’s nonfiction book “On the Rez” in the Los Angeles Times Books Review, Miles wrote, “Alexie’s position is a reactionary one, inimical not only to art and journalism … but also to science.”
The position Miles alludes to concerns Alexie’s insistence that only members of a specific cultural group can write with any real truth about that group.
Furthermore, Miles points out that Alexie himself co-opted the mythical figure of blues guitarist Robert Johnson, whom Miles describes as “a pinnacle of Southern black culture,” into his novel “Reservation Blues.”
“At least Ian Frazier spent time on the reservation to research his book,” Miles wrote. “Sherman Alexie just went to the video store.”
Mile’s full article, which was published online Tuesday, can be found by accessing www.salon.com and using the search function.
On the big screen
Spokane-area writers Megan Breen and Michael Donohue, co-authors of a screenplay titled “The Last Bandit,” are among the 12 semifinalists of The Washington Screenplay Competition 2000.
According to the Washington State Film Office, which is sponsoring the contest in conjunction with Clear Blue Sky Productions, the next round will pare the list to six finalists by late April.
The final three winners will be announced in June. The overall winner will receive $1,000 and a professional read-through of the script at the Market Theatre in Pike Place Market on June 26. The two other finalists will receive $500 apiece.
One more contest
The prize isn’t the grandest ever handed out, but $100 is more than most people will ever earn through their writing. And that’s what the George & Mertie’s Place 2000 writing contest is offering.
The Spokane-based literary journal’s no-fee contest is open to poetry (no more than three poems) and fiction (no more than 2,000 words) and only one entry in each category per person. The deadline is July 1.
For further information, write to GMP Writing Contest, P.O. Box 10335, Spokane, WA 99209.
Reading postponed
Loretta Anawalt’s reading from her book “Dream Prints” has been postponed from Wednesday night to April 10. For further information, call Auntie’s Bookstore at 838-0206.
Book clubs
Sue Grafton’s “O is for Outlaw” and Sarah Paretsky’s “Blood Shot” are the February selections of the Dark City Book Group, which meets at 7 p.m. Monday at Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington.
Arthur Golden’s “Memoirs of a Geisha” is the February selection of the Friends of the Cheney Community Library book-discussion group, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Cheney Community Library, 610 First St. (235-7333) Alan Ayckbourn’s play “The Norman Conquests” is the featured selection of the February meeting of the Barnes & Noble Drama Club, which meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the store. Host Michael Bowen will choose readers from among the first to show up. Barnes & Noble is located just east of the Spokane Valley Mall. (922-4104)
What’s your signing?
Phil Colozzi, author of “Budget My Money, Are You Nuts?” will sign copies of his book beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Lincoln Heights Hastings, 2805 29th. (535-4029) Cynthia Shaw, author of “Grouper Moon,” will sign copies of her book beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble.
The reader board
Dick Scott is the featured reader at the ongoing Mootsy’s poetry series, which will be held at 6 p.m. tonight at Mootsy’s Tavern, 406 W. Sprague. (326-4169) Gerald and Dorothy Ruzicki, co-authors of “In Search of Ancient Scotland: A Guide for the Independent Traveler,” will read from their book at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Auntie’s Bookstore.
G.W. Hardin, author of “The Wings of Heaven,” will read from his book at 7 p.m. Friday at Barnes & Noble.
John Dalmas, science-fiction author of “The Lion Returns,” will read from his book at 7 p.m. Saturday at the North Side Hastings, 7706 N. Division. (483-2154)