[catapultbooks]

Reading is as much a part of life as any part and it’s life itself. And it allows us to live other lives that we might not have lived if we hadn’t picked up those books.

Alan Cheuse, 1940 - 2015 (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

Help us in welcoming Mensah Demary, who joins Catapult this August as our Associate Web Editor. Mensah is a music columnist at The Butter, publisher of Specter Magazine, literary editor of Fourculture Magazine. His writing has appeared in Salon, Men’s Journal, Electric Literature, and PANK. He also co-hosts LIT: A Music and Reading Series in Brooklyn. We asked Mensah if he magically gets more hours in a day than the rest of us but he said that he does not.  

Follow Mensah on Tumblr and on Twitter, and sign-up for our newsletter for updates on our website! 

[blackballoonpublishing]

Great news from our parent publisher!

[catapultbooks]

You get migraines, right? He told me you do. I get them too, Deb. Do you think maybe it’s him? That the migraines are coming from him? Like if we drank the same dirty water and got cancer, or if we both lived a block from 9/11 and got cancer, or if we did anything the same and got cancer, then we’d trace it to the source, right, and expect a settlement, wouldn’t we. What are you settling for, Deb? How much did you get?

Julia Pierpont, Among the Ten Thousand Things (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

Why is it a surprise to find that people other than ourselves are able to tell lies?”

Alice Munro, born on this day in 1931 (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

Jumpstart Your Creativity with Intimacy and Candor

As nonfiction writers, we want our readers to say: “My life has been nothing like yours, and yet I profoundly relate to this.”

Intimate details and candor can be the difference between an essay you read and immediately forget, and one that changes you forever. This immersive, day-long writing class will teach you strategies for translating the emotional heart of your stories onto the page in an honest and unforgettable way. I will provide a dozen off-the-wall writing prompts and three lectures designed to help jumpstart your own creative work. In-class sharing and discussion is encouraged. We’ll read snippets from classic and contemporary essayists and generally have a blast. Everyone will leave having produced inspired writing. Open to all levels and ages. Following this intensive master class, we will celebrate the day’s work with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres (included in the class fee).

Chloe Caldwell is the author of the novella Women (SF/LD, 2014) and the essay collection Legs Get Led Astray (Future Tense books, 2012). Her work has appeared in VICE, Salon, The Rumpus, Nylon, Men’s Health, and the anthologies Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC, True Tales of Lust and Love, 30 Shades of Blue, and Girls? Chloe’s next book, I’ll Tell You In Person, is forthcoming from Coffee House Press/Emily Books in 2016. www.chloecaldwell.com

(via » Chloe Caldwell Intensive)

[catapultbooks]

Getting lost is crucially important for creativity, but it’s also a source of terror for me because I don’t know what I’m holding onto anymore. I don’t know where the thread is going, and I don’t quite know how to find it again.

James Wood (via catapultstory)

[blackballoonpublishing]

do you accept poetry submissions?

We do not. 

[catapultbooks]

Where to Submit: June + July

[blackballoonpublishing]

via our parent publisher, catapultstory:

All the places to submit your writing in June and July!

[catapultbooks]

I’m not trying to embarrass or hurt anybody but telling my story is something I can’t compromise.

Ashley Ford  (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

Why does the caged bird sing? Don’t know.

What does the caged bird sing? #BadBloodMusicVideo

[catapultbooks]

We teamed up with Electric Literature for a reading to kick off the summer! There will be beer, wine, art, and readings from Patrick deWitt (The Sisters Brothers), Chelsea Hodson (Pity the Animal), and Catherine Lacey (Nobody is Ever Missing).

More info is available on our Facebook page. We hope you can come! 

[catapultbooks]

All writers need someone whose writing they read and think: This makes me want to be better.

Anne Helen Petersen (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

6 Ways To Make The Most of Your Local Indie Bookstore

The staff of WORD Bookstore gives readers tips for how to make the most of your local indie bookstores

Fun fact: WORD booksellers traveled state lines (AKA from their NJ location to their Brooklyn location) so that one of our staffers could have their last copy of Bluets by Maggie Nelson. 

That’s commitment. And that’s why we love the hell out of indie bookstores. 

[catapultbooks]

[blackballoonpublishing]

You know you had one. 

[catapultbooks]

Send us 200 words on why you should receive the scholarship to [email protected] no later than 12noon ET on Monday April 20th. Six-week class starts Monday April 27th. 

[blackballoonpublishing]

Apply!

[catapultbooks]

Has any female writer ever been considered a threat by a male one? Aside from possibly Susan Sontag (surely someone had the good sense to feel threatened by her), I couldn’t think of a single instance. We circled around and around the topic of threats, both of us feeling uneasy. Finally we agreed to stop talking about it.

The Folded Clock: A Diary ‹ Literary Hub (via catapultstory)

[catapultbooks]

A compelling new art series by Delicious Foods author James Hannaham. 

There’s still time to sign-up for James Hannaham’s six-week writing workshop, starting 4/27. 

(via » Words of Art: James Hannaham’s “Lengthy Statements/Brief Statements” at the Kimberly Klark Gallery)