The Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award

I met Amanda Davis in 1999, and, as I’ve written before, she was not just a wonderful writer but a gracious, welcoming member of New York’s literary community, and her death in a tragic plane crash in 2003 was felt keenly by everyone in the publishing community who knew her. Her friends at McSweeney’s established an bi-annual $2,500 grant in her memory:

“This memorial award is intended to aid a young woman writer of 32 years or younger who both embodies Amanda’s personal strengths—warmth, generosity, a passion for community—and who needs some time to finish a book in progress. The book in progress needn’t be thematically or stylistically close to Amanda’s work, but we would be lying if we said we weren’t looking to support another writer of Amanda’s outrageous lyricism and heart.”

Applications are now being accepted for the 2010 award. The previous winners are Shivani Manghnani, Hannah Pittard, and Jessica Anthony.

6 September 2010 | uncategorized |

If You’re in Decatur, Come Say Hello!

I’m flying down to Georgia today to take part in the Decatur Book Festival, in a Saturday morning panel called “Where Do I Go From Here?: Getting Your Book Noticed.” I’ll be joined by Rebecca Schinsky of The Book Lady’s Blog and Stephen Usery, who runs the syndicated “Book Talk” program out of Memphis. We’ll be answering questions from ace book publicist Julie Schoerke—and since I’ve been on stage with Julie and Stephen in Alabama earlier this year, and with Rebecca in Richmond, Virginia, just last week, I can pretty much guarantee that this is going to be a fun 45-minute spiel.

While I’m in Decatur, I’m going to keep an eye out for fellow Book Festival guest stars Laurel Snyder, Rakesh Satyal, and Jillian Weise, among the many authors scheduled to be there. Tonight, we’re supposed to all go listen to Jonathan Franzen read from Freedom, which should be an entertaining evening—it’s a lively read! (More on that next week…)

3 September 2010 | events |