Looking for somewhere to submit your work? Fishing for a topic for your next story? Here are a few suggestions and opportunities coming up in September and October 2015. For Teachers and Students: The Ocean Trash Write-Away Short Fiction Contest: Writers under 25 are invited to envision solutions to the problem of ocean trash for… Continue reading Monday Markets: Upcoming Writing Contests and Calls for Submission
Author: Catherine Austen
I'm a Canadian author of books for all ages. My short stories are published in literary journals including The Fiddlehead and The New Quarterly. My books for young readers have won multiple awards, including the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award and the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Children's Literature. I live with my family in Gatineau, Quebec.
Wednesday Word: Crepuscular
I can't stop saying "crepuscular," ever since I read this beautiful little book, Nocturne, by Traer Scott. In this book of stunning animal portraits and accompanying factual blurbs, the author features a few critters that are neither diurnal (active in the daytime) nor nocturnal (active in the nighttime) but crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn). What a… Continue reading Wednesday Word: Crepuscular
Friday Fable: The Novelist and the Literary Journal that Paid $30
You may know the old story, "The Angler and the Little Fish:" An angler spent all morning casting and reeling in the hot sun, dreaming about the bucketload of trout and walleye he might catch, how delicious they'd taste fried in butter, how his wife would welcome him home with kisses, how his neighbours would gossip about his… Continue reading Friday Fable: The Novelist and the Literary Journal that Paid $30
Thank you, BookFest!
It was a pleasure to be part of the 29th annual Vancouver Island Children's Book Festival this year. I met hundreds of young readers at schools and libraries in the Nanaimo area during a week-long author tour that culminated in BookFest on May 2nd: a day-long celebration of children's literature in which I joined with ten other authors… Continue reading Thank you, BookFest!
Wonderful Workshops
Thank you to the 150 students from grades 4-8 who participated in my writing workshops this week at the MASC Young Authors and Illustrators Conference in Ottawa. What a blast! I was so inspired by your stories, your enthusiasm, and your willingness to share. Even the boring stories were entertaining. (I'm not name-calling. We wrote badly on… Continue reading Wonderful Workshops
Catherine Austen 