Entrants for the new $100,000 Sobol Prize for unpublished fiction have to have an $85 fee. “The Sobol Award is seeking as many as 50,000 unpublished fiction manuscripts, but critics say the contest’s fee runs counter to industry ethical principles of not charging writers to read their work. The award was set up by tech entrepreneur Gur Shomron, who said he came up with the idea after failing to find a publisher for his novel, ‘NETfold,’ which he self-published last year.”
Tag: 09.14.06
Met Opera Looks To Theatre World For Talent
The Metropolitan Opera’s new boss Peter Gelb is intent on bringing more theatrical talent to the Met’s stages. “It’s essential, in order elevate the theatricality of our operas to the high musical standards that are already there, that we need to bring in the world’s great directors. Many of them are theatre directors who occasionally dabble in opera. Some are opera directors who branch off into theatre.”
Guillem: Of Fame And Dancing
Dance superstar Sylvie Guillem is moving in yet another direction. “During the past five years, however, Guillem has finally been able to push her career in a radical new direction, turning the page on tutu roles and working with choreographers from modern dance.”
Cleveland Acquires Famous Marsh Painting
“The Cleveland Museum of Art recently acquired a widely reproduced masterpiece by Reginald Marsh, a superlative chronicler of Depression-era life in America. The painting, ‘A Paramount Picture,’ from 1934, depicts a rumpled, working-class woman standing near a well-to-do couple outside a movie theater showing Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘Cleopatra.'” The museum has not revealed what it paid for the painting.
So Men Can’t Write Romance Novels?
That’s the claim by Brit TV presenter Daisy Goodwin. Ray Connolly begs to differ: “Admittedly, men’s names don’t crop up so often on those displays of books with pink, frilly covers in Waterstone’s and Borders, but in truth the history of literature is filled with romantic stories written by men.”
A Quarter-Century Of Geniuses
Next week, the MacArthur “Genius” Grants for 2006 will be revealed, and those of us not lucky enough to have been handed $500,000 out of the blue will wonder at the good fortune of those who have. But beyond the shock of the award and the immediate cash benefit, “how might the credential be cashed long after the checks from Chicago stop arriving? What [is] it like to deal with high expectations? Is it true what they say about ‘genius’ envy?” An in-depth review of the winners over the last twenty-odd years reveals much…
Rowling Nearly Loses Harry To The Luggage Hold
JK Rowling nearly missed a flight back to London when airport security wanted her to check her in-progress manuscript for the new (and last) Harry Potter. “A large part of it is handwritten and there was no copy of anything I had done while in the US. They let me take it on thankfully, bound up in elastic bands.”
Booker’s Solid Shortlist Chosen
Six finalists are chosen for this year’s Man Booker Prize. “The shortlist was chosen from a 19-book longlist described by the Guardian’s literary editor, Claire Armitstead, as ‘respectable but not startling’.”
Hype Does Not Equal Quality
This year’s Toronto International Film Festival stirred controversy even before it began over the overtly political (some would say savage) nature of some of its featured entries. But Manohla Dargis says that to focus on the loudmouths is to miss the more important (and more subtle) politics of TIFF’s best films.
Cuban Dance Master Conquers A New Island
“If you asked a New York ballet dancer to name the teacher of the moment, Azari Plisetski would probably not spring to mind. But Mikhail Baryshnikov would like to change that. A major admirer of Mr. Plisetski, 69, who is widely credited with rejuvenating Cuban ballet in the 1960’s and bringing Cuban male dancers to the fore internationally, Mr. Baryshnikov invited Mr. Plisetski to teach professional classes this week at his [Manhattan] studios.”