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Writing stuff down and reading it aloud

Lucky me grew up in Dallas at a time when poet Tim Seibles (nominated for the National Book Award last year) lived there and did a lot of free readings at a long-dead bar called the 500 Cafe.  The bar owner loved my underaged best friend and wooed her by putting his liquor license at risk and letting us in. One night while staring at my shoes, I told Mr. Seibles how I thought his poetry was really really good and he wrote something on a scrap of paper and handed it to me.  

“Read this,” he said.  “It’s a poem in the form of a novel.”  The paper said, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Márquez.  I read the book and I’ve kept that small dirty piece of paper for twenty-five years and every time someone says, “I’ll text/email/sendyouthelink,” the paper seems lonelier, more poetic and more valuable.  Write something on a scrap of paper today and give it to someone.  It’ll be the yeah write secret handshake for this week.

Birthday hangover at yeah write

We’re still sweeping up confetti and downing leftover cake from Flood’s birthday but that doesn’t mean we’re not ready for your best stuff.  Is your best stuff fiction?  Head over to  the speakeasy, where yeah write editors Courtenay and Stacie will take good care of you.   If you’ve written an excellent short personal essay or nonfiction anecdote, give Flood a late birthday present by going over it one more time. Make sure it has a so what.  And please spread the word about yeah write; if the grid gets to 30 entries or more, the yeah write editors will move the best posts to an invitational grid and award a jury prize.  

Virgins, welcome!  And lurkers?  Maybe yeah write #100 (next week) would be the perfect time to graduate from lurker to virgin.  Think about it.  We know you want some cake.

Odds, ends, reminders

  • Your post can be dated no earlier than March 3rd, the day the yeah write #99 badges were officially posted
  • The grid is open from Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. to Wednesday at 11:59 p.m.
  • It is limited to 50 bloggers
  • Voting will take place all day Thursday from midnight to Friday at midnight
  • The winners’ post will be published at noon on Friday
  • Our new weekend moonshine grid will open Friday at 6 p.m. and close Monday by 12:01 a.m. 
  • No self-promotional posts are allowed on the yeah write grid, including those containing links to other blog events and Internet contests
  • Combining your yeah write post with other blog events meant to maximize your exposure and minimize your effort is a no-no

Your chance to support yeah write

The focus at yeah write should be (and is) its close-knit community and its learning environment. We don’t load advertisements on our pages or distract from our visitors’ experience with sponsored posts. Participating in yeah write has always been free and, for certain subscribers, it always will be.

It takes real money to run this thing, though, and for those of you who would like to donate toward the upkeep of this community, we are introducing the monthly subscription. For five dollars a month, you will help keep yeah write operating each week, ad-free. You can subscribe one month at a time or change the quantity on the subscription form to 2–12 (or 1,000) months at a time and pay for your monthly subscriptions all at once.

For those of you who’ve already become a supporting subscriber, we give thanks. For those of you ready to support us, here’s the link to the necessary details.

Bring us your best stuff.  Bring us your best stuff when you know it’s gonna be the best on the grid.

 



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