Allyson Latta's Interview with David Gilmour, author of the memoir "The Film Club"

You'll find the interview under "More Links" in the sidebar.

Eve Claxton's Picks for the Top 10 Memoirs and Autobiographies

Eve Claxton, author of The Book of Life (Edbury Press, 2005), a collection of the best-written memoir and autobiography throughout history, shares her top 10 with Guardian.co.uk. Check these out at Top Ten Memoirs and Autobiographies.

London-born Eve Claxton studied literature at Manchester University before moving to New York in 1995. She has written for many publications in the U.S. and abroad, and is the author of The Book of Life as well as two guidebooks to New York. She lives in Brooklyn.

First Person Impressions Competitions: Deadline August 15, 2008

First Person Impressions: A National competition for Memoir and Documentary Writers, Filmmakers and Photographers.

Each day countless stories unfold. Take a real life experience of your own and tell it in a way that only you can. Craft your story with words, photos or video. Make the ordinary magical, or the exotic familiar. Shock us, amaze us or make us pause to reflect. The only rule is that it’s real.

All entries must be new works that have not previously been published, exhibited or screened, including on the Internet.

Categories
Film – up to 5 minutes
Essay – 1500 words or less
Photography – up to 5 images. Single images are welcome; multiple images must be related, as in a photo essay.

Prizes
The top three winning entries in each category will be presented at the First Person Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, November 12-16, 2008.

$500 – 1st place category winners
$100 – 2nd place category winners
$50 – 3rd place category winners

The 1st place writing and photography winners will have their work published in various publications including the Philadelphia City Paper. For a complete listing of publications go to impressions.firstpersonarts.org. The top five entries in each category will be featured on firstpersonarts.org

Judges
Documentary Video
Steven Rea, Film Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer
Samuel Adams, Contributing Editor, Philadelphia City Paper
Ron Kanter, Emmy Award-winning director of New Cops, Acting Out, Life and Death – Dawson, Georgia

Photography
Katherine Ware, curator of Photography, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Short Memoir
Daniel Jones, editor of the Modern Love column in the New York Times
Laurence Kirshbaum, Founder and agent, LJK Literary, former CEO Time Warner Book Group
Amy Salit, Producer, Fresh Air, WHYY FM

Enter at impressions.firstpersonarts.org

Video: http://www.viddler.com/explore/FirstPersonArts/videos/33/

For more information, visit First Person Arts

PRISM International Creative Nonfiction Contest Deadline Announced

The following is from Prism's website:

This year, all contest entries must be post dated by Tuesday September 2, 2008.

To enter, download a handy contest form, put it together with your finest Nonfiction work, and a cheque for $28 (the entry fee entitles you to a 1 year subscription to the magazine). Mail it to:

Creative Non Fiction Contest

PRISM international

Creative Writing Program, UBC
Buch. E462 - 1866 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1
Canada

For the first time, PRISM will be imposing a maximum word count of 6000 words.

Contest judge to be announced.

For further information and contest entry form, visit Prism International

Days Road Writers' Workshops site now incorporates features from former "Treasures in the Attic"

As of July 2008, my previous blog, Treasures in the Attic, a forum in which workshop participants shared their memoir writing, has merged with Days Road Writers' Workshops. "Treasures" is no longer publicly accessible. Its resources, however, have been moved here.

Student writing from the former blog is in the process of being transferred here too. Some stories already appear at the bottom of this page -- see clickable links under the section title "Treasures in the Attic" -- and there are more to come! Please note that students will no longer be able to post their own memoirs as they did on "Treasures." However, if you have a story that you'd like to share with readers, e-mail it to me at lattamemoirs@gmail.com and I'll create a webpage for it. These stories can be read by anyone on the Internet, either via this site or via the individual URL attached to each. (Click on the story title and open the page to view and copy the URL.)

Thank you for your patience with these changes, which I hope will make the DRWW site even more entertaining and comprehensive for visitors.

And thanks to all the current and former workshoppers who over time contributed their wonderful life stories to Treasures in the Attic.

Glimmer Train Stories journal seeking submissions for "Family Matters"

Glimmer Train Press, Inc., of Portland, Oregon, publishes a quarterly journal of literary fiction, Glimmer Train Stories. One of the categories is "Family Matters," and competitions for prizes and publication are held each year in January, April, July and October. Here's some information on the current competition:

"The July Family Matters competition closes July 31. We're looking for original, unpublished stories on family, word count range: 500 – 12,000. First-place wins $1,200 and publication in Issue 72 of Glimmer Train Stories. Second- and third-place winners win $500/$300 (or, if chosen for publication, $700)."

Of interest to memoirists, according to the Glimmer Train website, "This category has stimulated lots of questions about fiction/non-fiction/creative non-fiction, since many people have significant real-life stories they want to write. It seems to us that a substantial proportion of fiction submissions are heavily rooted in actual experience, which is entirely fine with us, but we do want stories to READ like fiction and anything we publish is presented as fiction. (Also, sticking too tightly to "truth" can limit the larger truth that fiction is able to reveal.) I would certainly recommend changing details that would allow the real-life people to say, Hey, that character is--without a doubt--me."

The press's main page is Glimmer Train Press, Inc.. Click on this link for general submission guidelines, Submissions, and this one for specifics on Family Matters submissions, Family Matters

Note: The Press also produces Writers Ask, a journal of advice from published writers.

Memoirist David Sedaris to sign at Toronto's Ben McNally Books, July 11

One of my favourite memoirists, David Sedaris, a man with an unerring talent for seeing the wacky humour in his own experiences and letting his readers in on it, will make a stop in Toronto this month to sign copies of his latest book. The following is from the Harbourfront Centre International Readings newsletter:

David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Presented in partnership with Ben McNally Books and H.B. Fenn & Company

David Sedaris is the #1 bestselling author of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, Holidays on Ice and Barrel Fever. "David Sedaris's ability to transform the mortification of everyday life into wildly entertaining art," (Christian Science Monitor) is elevated to wilder and more entertaining heights than ever in this remarkable new book. When You Are Engulfed in Flames is Sedaris's sixth essay collection.

Sedaris signs copies of When You Are Engulfed in Flames at Ben McNally Books, 366 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario, on Friday, July 11 at 8 p.m.