Welcome to The New Writer
Ray Zimmerman published The New Writer in 2010 and 2011 as a personal project. We are happy to announce that he will resume publication as a project of the Chattanooga Writers Guild.
Members of the Guild with dues paid may submit short poetry, flash fiction, and short nonfiction.
The official web site of the Chattanooga Writers Guild is http://chattanoogawritersguild.org
Flash fiction is limited to 500 words and may be any genre including, but not limited to, literary flash, science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, crime fiction and romance.
Poetry may be any style, but no more than 32 lines.
Nonfiction is limited to 500 words and may include, but is not limited to, literary nonfiction, memoir, critical reviews, and author profiles.
Excerpts of longer works should not exceed 500 words.
The New Writer no longer includes announcements of coming events. These should be submitted to the newsletter of the Chattanooga Writers Guild or other appropriate newsletters.
Excerpts from previous editions follow as examples of appropriate work.
A Review of Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Sherry Poff
“As of today, here is almost every single thing I know about writing.” This sentence ends the introduction to Anne Lamott’s excellent volume, Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life, published by Random House in 1994. The introduction alone is a treat to read, but the chapters that follow cover topics from the practical to the philosophical and include such nuggets as these:
“Good writing is about telling the truth.”
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.”
“In order to be a writer, you have to learn to be reverent.”
“Publication is not going to change your life or solve your problems.”
Lamott divides her book into five unequal sections: Writing, The Writing Frame of Mind, Help Along the Way, Publication—and Other Reasons to Write, and The Last Class. One of the most useful bits of advice is the author’s admonition to approach writing in “one-inch picture frame” pieces--to write one paragraph, one description, one conversation. This encouraging concept, coupled with the notion of “shitty first drafts,” will get most writers past the dreaded “writer’s block,” but if it doesn’t, Lamott has also devoted a short chapter to discussing methods of overcoming “that anxious barren state.”
Fans of Lamott’s three volumes on faith, Traveling Mercies, Plan B, and Grace (Eventually), will be interested to see another side of this delightful author. People who have not read anything by Lamott will find a new and valuable friend.
Sherry teaches English at a private school in Chattanooga. She leads the Nonfiction group of the Chattanooga Writers Guild.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Old Cabin
Penny Dyer
Morning. Gray-green mountain.
Aspens stretch their long limbs
pale against lost summer.
Silence loose in generous folds. There,
stones tatter the torn sky.
Only mist fills the cabin now,
echoes hollow in its chimney,
in the old bones of decaying wood.
Beyond the disappearing path,
a legacy of dew dried in some other
August wavers in the grass.
Only mist remembers now,
mist and grass, the burnished field,
the refracted call of crows,
or those spent voices
the sun has burned away.
Penny has won the Oberon Poetry Prize and the Louisiana prize for Literature.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Talismans
Review of a Short Fiction colloection by Sybil Baker
Elise is disarmingly honest in her appraisal of the boys and men in her life. As the heroine of this collection of linked short stories, she begins her narrative in kindergarten when she beats a boy in a race and doesn’t realize until years later why this victory fails to impress him. She is equally forthright in her commentary on the adult men who later appear as friends, companions, and lovers.
The one man who remains enigmatic is the father who returned from Vietnam to start a family with her mother and abandoned them the year after she was born. He seeks peace in another Asian country and dies of drowning before she enters school.
A grown Elise travels to Asia after the death of her mother who seemed as distant as the deceased father. As a teacher and then a casual tourist she is determined to find clues to her father’s life and motivation. A powerful ending reveals how both parents have shaped her psyche through their absence, perhaps with greater impact than presence could have allowed. A must read.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Starling
Finn Bille
When the flames ran up the rafters
they found a way out
through the vent in the peak of the roof.
There, they found the starling,
its beak and flight feathers pressed
into the wire mesh.
The flames licked out the vent
and brightened for a moment
as they devoured bird skin, feathers,
beak and bone.
Finn's poem “Starling” appears in his new book Fire Poems and also in Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets.
Excerpt from Volume 2..3
The Shadow of Sirius
Review of a book by W.S. Merwin
Merwin completed this collection shortly before being named Poet Laureate of the United States. These hauntingly beautiful works reflect his lifelong concern for the natural world and use of stunning nature images. “The Curlew,” is a personal favorite of this reviewer:
When the moon has gone I fly on alone
into this night where I have never been....
The poems are evocative of the spirit Merwin manifested his earlier collection The Lice, and particularly the poem “For a Coming Extinction::”
Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing
Get a copy of this book today.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Members of the Guild with dues paid may submit short poetry, flash fiction, and short nonfiction.
The official web site of the Chattanooga Writers Guild is http://chattanoogawritersguild.org
Flash fiction is limited to 500 words and may be any genre including, but not limited to, literary flash, science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, crime fiction and romance.
Poetry may be any style, but no more than 32 lines.
Nonfiction is limited to 500 words and may include, but is not limited to, literary nonfiction, memoir, critical reviews, and author profiles.
Excerpts of longer works should not exceed 500 words.
The New Writer no longer includes announcements of coming events. These should be submitted to the newsletter of the Chattanooga Writers Guild or other appropriate newsletters.
Excerpts from previous editions follow as examples of appropriate work.
A Review of Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Sherry Poff
“As of today, here is almost every single thing I know about writing.” This sentence ends the introduction to Anne Lamott’s excellent volume, Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life, published by Random House in 1994. The introduction alone is a treat to read, but the chapters that follow cover topics from the practical to the philosophical and include such nuggets as these:
“Good writing is about telling the truth.”
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts.”
“In order to be a writer, you have to learn to be reverent.”
“Publication is not going to change your life or solve your problems.”
Lamott divides her book into five unequal sections: Writing, The Writing Frame of Mind, Help Along the Way, Publication—and Other Reasons to Write, and The Last Class. One of the most useful bits of advice is the author’s admonition to approach writing in “one-inch picture frame” pieces--to write one paragraph, one description, one conversation. This encouraging concept, coupled with the notion of “shitty first drafts,” will get most writers past the dreaded “writer’s block,” but if it doesn’t, Lamott has also devoted a short chapter to discussing methods of overcoming “that anxious barren state.”
Fans of Lamott’s three volumes on faith, Traveling Mercies, Plan B, and Grace (Eventually), will be interested to see another side of this delightful author. People who have not read anything by Lamott will find a new and valuable friend.
Sherry teaches English at a private school in Chattanooga. She leads the Nonfiction group of the Chattanooga Writers Guild.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Old Cabin
Penny Dyer
Morning. Gray-green mountain.
Aspens stretch their long limbs
pale against lost summer.
Silence loose in generous folds. There,
stones tatter the torn sky.
Only mist fills the cabin now,
echoes hollow in its chimney,
in the old bones of decaying wood.
Beyond the disappearing path,
a legacy of dew dried in some other
August wavers in the grass.
Only mist remembers now,
mist and grass, the burnished field,
the refracted call of crows,
or those spent voices
the sun has burned away.
Penny has won the Oberon Poetry Prize and the Louisiana prize for Literature.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Talismans
Review of a Short Fiction colloection by Sybil Baker
Elise is disarmingly honest in her appraisal of the boys and men in her life. As the heroine of this collection of linked short stories, she begins her narrative in kindergarten when she beats a boy in a race and doesn’t realize until years later why this victory fails to impress him. She is equally forthright in her commentary on the adult men who later appear as friends, companions, and lovers.
The one man who remains enigmatic is the father who returned from Vietnam to start a family with her mother and abandoned them the year after she was born. He seeks peace in another Asian country and dies of drowning before she enters school.
A grown Elise travels to Asia after the death of her mother who seemed as distant as the deceased father. As a teacher and then a casual tourist she is determined to find clues to her father’s life and motivation. A powerful ending reveals how both parents have shaped her psyche through their absence, perhaps with greater impact than presence could have allowed. A must read.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1
Starling
Finn Bille
When the flames ran up the rafters
they found a way out
through the vent in the peak of the roof.
There, they found the starling,
its beak and flight feathers pressed
into the wire mesh.
The flames licked out the vent
and brightened for a moment
as they devoured bird skin, feathers,
beak and bone.
Finn's poem “Starling” appears in his new book Fire Poems and also in Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets.
Excerpt from Volume 2..3
The Shadow of Sirius
Review of a book by W.S. Merwin
Merwin completed this collection shortly before being named Poet Laureate of the United States. These hauntingly beautiful works reflect his lifelong concern for the natural world and use of stunning nature images. “The Curlew,” is a personal favorite of this reviewer:
When the moon has gone I fly on alone
into this night where I have never been....
The poems are evocative of the spirit Merwin manifested his earlier collection The Lice, and particularly the poem “For a Coming Extinction::”
Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing
Get a copy of this book today.
Excerpt from Volume 2.1