Sandra Gail Lambert

Women's Wonderlands

 

Publishing works in geologic time.  And acceptances have more layers than I ever knew. 

University of Wisconsin Press called for submissions to an anthology - Women's Wonderlands: Good Lesbian Travel Writing.  I sent off an essay, and it was accepted by an editor.  I was excited.  Then it needed to be approved by another editor.  I was worried.  That worked out and then a committee needed to approve it.  The book, with me in it, passed.  I celebrated.

And now, it seems, as I should have known, there was one last committee.  And "outside readers." It turns out everyone approves, the outside readers raved, and the original editor says we should "break out the bubbly."  It's almost a year after that first acceptance, and the planned pub date is Fall 2009.

She did caution that there could still be changes.  Another committee?  You really do have to open your hands and let the wind take the pages, don't you?    

Sabal: Writers in Paradise

At the Writers in Paradise Conference I won an honorable mention.  This meant that I would receive a "notation" in the upcoming Sabal, a journal with all the "best of" pieces from the conference. 

I wasn't quite sure what that meant, but today my copy arrived.  It is fun to read everyone's pieces since during the conference you don't have access to any of the other workshops' writings.  And I got to reread "Itch" by Lorin Oberweger from my own group.  It is just so good. 

And here's my "notation" by Thisbe Nissen (our workshop leader).  "Ambitious in voice, scope and power, Sandra Lambert's novel immerses us in a world so rich with detail that reading is a visceral experience."  

Just to balance things out, in the same trip to the mailbox, I received a rejection from a journal that said my submission to them "lacked momentum." Ahhh, the writer's life.  

 

Women's Wonderlands

Last November, I saw a call for submissions for Women's Wonderlands, a proposed anthology of lesbian travel writing, from the University of Wisconsin Press.  I sent off an essay about kayaking.  The very next day one of the editors, Gillian Kendall, sent an e-mail saying that she liked the piece.

She had some suggestions, we worked back in forth in this lovely way, and the piece got better.  Then I waited.

This morning, nine months later, I woke up to an e-mail saying that it's on.  And I'm in it.  This is such good news and perfect timing.   

Atlantic Center for the Arts and Kelly Cherry

This October I'll be spending three weeks with a slew of other writers at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach.  They feed us, they give us lodging in architecturally stunning buildings set among scrub oaks and palmettos at the edge of a bay, and they bring in writers like Kelly Cherry as master artists. 

A few years ago it came to me that I had to go learn about writing somewhere outside my comfort zone of friends and books.  The very first place I went to was the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  It made all the difference for me.  I finished my first book (as yet unpublished, but that's not the point), and I still have writer friends from those weeks we spent together. 

I am excited.

Disability and Poetry

Here's a little something for the poets. 

First check out Wordgathering.  It's a journal of disability and poetry produced by the Inglis House Poetry Workshop.  In their own words it's a "literary journal with the mission of developing poetry and discourse around disability literature."

Then go over to the blog Dispoet where there is all sorts of discussion about poetry and disability.  

And Breath and Shadow, a journal of disability culture and literature, always offers poetry as well as prose (including, in the past, two pieces of mine.)

So, does anyone else have other links to add? 

Oh, p.s. and by the way - if you link to the 2008 Inglis House Poetry Contest winners, you might find a familiar name.    

Lambda Literary Awards - and the winner is . . .

The 20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced, and First Person Queer won for the best anthology.  Whoo Hoo! 

Which means that my essay "Theories about Bodies and Truth" is part of an award-winning book.  (Can you tell that I'm practicing how to bring it up in a cover letter?) I  hope that my few pages added a little, but the big congratulations go to Richard Labonte and Lawrence Schimel, the editors, and to Arsenal Pulp Press for being independent and wonderful.    

The week of reprints - Khimairal Ink does Lemon on the Side

What a week.  Now Khimairal Ink, an online journal, has reprinted my short story "Lemon on the Side."  Isn't the cover art they provided for the piece great?

This whole issue of Khimairal is about lesbian love - very fun (even when it's not).  I encourage you to read each and every submission, and then you'll understand when I say that I'm going to find a scary amusement park ride or two. 

Babel Fruit and Theories About Bodies and Truth

  The new issue of Babel Fruit is out, and they've reprinted my essay "Theories About Bodies and Truth."  It was originally published in First Person Queer from Arsenal Pulp Press.

Babel Fruit is a beautiful online journal that publishes an international array of authors.  As they say in their masthead - "Writers are history's storytellers, and each story must be told, heard, and retold until each becomes our own story of human experience." It's an honor to be included. 

I especially like that for one of the poets, Leslie F. Miller, you are able to listen to her reading of her work.  Here's an example of technology offering back an old form of intimacy - the pleasure of being read to. 

20th Annual Lambda Literary Awards

First Person Queer, in which I have an essay, is nominated for a "Lammie."   Seventeen years ago, when I was one of the Lammie judges and writing was an early twinkle in my pen, I never imagined.

The anthology is also a finalist for the Forward Book of the Year - an award celebrating "some of the best work from today's independent press community.

I'm not going to rant again (for right now) about the importance of independent publishers and bookstores, but check out these award sites to see what might not ever be written/printed/sold if we don't support, by which I mean spend money on, independent press books.   

Connie May Fowler! Dorothy Allison!

I've been accepted for a week-long fiction intensive with Dorothy Allison and Connie May Fowler!  And I have to choose which one to work with!  This is impossible!  Should it be the author of exciting writing like Trash, Bastard Out of Carolina, and The Women Who Hate Me, books that were a thrill to sell in my former life as a feminist bookstore person?  Or a woman whose every book is a love letter to Florida, whose novels River of Hidden Dreams and Sugar Cage have inspired my writing?  What a delicious dilemma.

The intensive isn't until June, but I have to have 30 pages ready to submit by April Fools Day.  Six weeks.  Yikes.  I'm working every day.  I'm at that place where, once again, I have to figure out some sort of plot.  This is always my bugaboo.  I know someone murders this chapter's (set in the 1530's) character, but who and how and why?      

Whoo Hoo! The First Acceptance of the New Year.

Khimairal Ink wants to reprint my short story Lemon on the Side in their May issue. They're a lovely on-line magazine connected with the publisher Bedazzled Ink.  Check them out.

Of course, I poked around their site and read about the women who do all the work.  My favorite part was reading about the publisher's science fiction influences as a child.  When she mentioned Podkayne of Mars, it just made me happy.  I loved that book the way only a lonely, elementary school proto-dyke can love a book. Should I reread it?  After forty-five years, will the magic exist?

P.S. No, I'm still not working on that new chapter.  Shut up. 

Acceptance, but mostly rejection

I'm back.  Good writing and good research was done.  The event was amazing.  Sometimes at these things you can feel as if you're in a white survivalist camp, and sure, some of those attitudes were there, but they had to exist alongside the Black Seminole and "Colored" Civil War re-enactors.  And Frederick Douglass was giving speeches.  And I talked for quite awhile to this 83 year old guy who had lived and worked all his life on the Ocklawaha and Silver Rivers and carved replicas of the old paddle and cat boats and pole barges.  This is exactly what the current chapter of my current novel-in-progress is about.  And I learned how to make butter.  How cool is all that.

Two days of mail, e and snail, contained 4 rejections.  'Tis the season.  In the bittersweet category, the Vermont Studio Center accepted me, but without a full fellowship.  Oh well.  But I'll definitely try again for next year.

Have you seen this?   Below Sea Level - a fiction writing workshop with Connie May Fowler and Dorothy Allison!  Right here in Florida!  This is so possible for me. I'm applying today.

P.S. And no, the books aren't here yet.  Can anxiety actually make your lungs explode?

Horror in the Okefenokee

The new issue of Breath and Shadow is out. The theme is "Naked."  I'm in it.

As part of a very fun fund raising campaign, they asked some of their previous writers (including me) to be part of a Write-A-Thon. Many thanks to my many supporters. 

Breath and Shadow is still taking pledges if there's a piece you especially like.   

First Person Queer

My ritual whenever I receive an e-mail from a publisher is to hold my breath and shut my eyes as it loads.  Today, when I exhaled and opened, I saw the PDF file of the not-yet-published First Person Queer.  And there I am! On page 100!  The whole book looks fabulous! 

I have to proof my piece and have it back by Thursday.  I'll bet I'm not supposed to revise a sentence that now looks awkward to me.  I'm going to try to slip through a little bit of it.