Announcing Judges for 2011 Normal Prize

Ahoy mates,

We here on the good ship Normal are just busting with happy stuff over the announcement of our judges for the 2011 Normal Prize AND to announce the addition of a Poetry Prize!

Drum roll, please . . . . The judges are:

Poetry: Nick Flynn
Fiction: Susan Straight
Nonfiction: Eula Biss

We're proud and honored to have such dynamite writers judging our contest. Get your writing ready! Stay tuned here for more details on the deadlines

-- Cap'n Barry Wayne Normal

Normal School at AWP

Hey Normals,

Get your tickets and reservations for AWP 2011 in D.C. The Normal School will be there in full force, slinging mags and our every-popular T-Shirts. We'll also be throwing a truly Normal party and hosting this panel:

What's Normal in Nonfiction?

Steven Church, Debra Marquart, Ander Monson, Bonnie J. Rough, Bob Shacochis, David Shields

Moderated by Editors of The Normal School, the panel will feature a discussion of the polarizing questions concerning the ethics and aesthetics of nonfiction writing today. Is the nonfiction writer’s obligation to the art or to the subject? The audience? Can you conflate time, use composite or fictionalized characters, or borrow material from other sources without citing it? Panelists will consider what the role of the nonfiction writer is today and how that role is defined by ethical concerns for subject and audience, and/or aesthetic concerns for art, genre, form, and technique.

Hope to see you all there!

-- SC

SHOWDOWN: David Shields and Bob Shacochis, spurs jingling

Hey Normals,

In case you haven't seen our latest issue of The Normal School (Spring, 2010), we're offering up a special summer extravaganza for your reading enjoyment. You can now download PDF versions of essays from David Shields and Bob Shacochis for FREE right here and here.

If you like what you see and read, please consider subscribing to The Normal School. At $20 for 2 years, you REALLY can't beat the price.

Trust Us. We're Normal.

-- SC