ThesaurusxCore and the Art of Letter Writing

It’s my second week of planning our 15^th anniversary party and I’m getting more excited about it by the day! Have I mentioned that we have FOUR featured authors this year? Mark Doty, Carolyn See, Naseem Rakha, and Alicia Ostriker will all be taking the stage and rocking the mic at our November 1^st event. Both Carolyn and Naseem are West-Coast writers, Carolyn here in LA and Naseem in Oregon, while Alicia and Mark are both based in the great Garden State. If I am correct, Mark will actually be joining Alicia as English Department faculty at Rutgers University in the fall, I wonder if they will have a chance to meet before the event. Anyway, it’s exciting to research each author’s background and their different writing styles and subjects. I checked out Carolyn See’s “Golden Days” and “Making a Literary Life” from the Valencia Library the other day, so I’m excited to get started on those. We’ll see what writing advice Guggenheim and Getty Fellowship recipient Carolyn See has to offer me in her nonfiction book “Making a Literary Life.” When I’m not reading books by our authors, calling LA organizations to donate raffle tickets, and inviting hot celebs to our November 1^st bash, I’m getting the scoop on the development and publishing aspects of Red Hen. The other day Mark told me all about his latest writing projects and gave me the 411 on sending off writing into the wide world of publishing. First step: Always send a SASE! Second: Write a cover letter! Today Adam taught me a little about development, or, how to get corporate sponsorship, which we are aiming for with this year’s Nov. 1^st luncheon. Mainly I’ve been learning that it’s all in the language, that the right wording can go a long way, whether you’re applying for funding or sending off a manuscript to a publisher. Needless to say, the online thesaurus has become one of my most visited websites.

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