{"id":314,"date":"2015-01-29T18:05:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?p=314"},"modified":"2015-01-29T18:05:56","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T17:05:56","slug":"alphaday-7-season-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/alphaday-7-season-xi\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphaday 7 &#8211; Season XI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Alphaday 7, Season XI. This is the halfway mark of the season. We\u2019ve had 6 Alphadays before today, and there are 6 to follow. How does that feel? I hope you\u2019re enjoying the season in full flow. I certainly am and today\u2019s menu is full of tasty treats carefully prepared by a team of brilliant cooks comprising all our active and dedicated members.<\/p>\n<p>As follows:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This bulletin from me<\/li>\n<li>The LOG edited by me<\/li>\n<li>The results of the \u2018too many cooks\u2019 challenge from Suzanne<\/li>\n<li>The collated entries for the \u2018anniversary\u2019 challenge from Stephen<\/li>\n<li>The brief for Challenge 7 from me<\/li>\n<li>The showcasing pieces with their independent schedule as decided by Suzanne<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That should be enough to satisfy even the most demanding writerly taste buds, I think. There might even be something worth commenting on? We\u2019ve had no discussions over the past weeks.<\/p>\n<p>I confess I\u2019ve been busily engaged in getting contributions to our Alpha decade book together. I\u2019m pleased to say that the entries are trickling in \u2013 slowly, but steadily. There are still a few members who have not been in touch to say how they\u2019re getting on, but I\u2019m confident that there are entries being polished up for us at this very moment. If there are any queries about our project, I\u2019m only an email away.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">General news:<\/span> The haunting photos from the commemoration in Auschwitz of all those lined faces with harrowing memories stored inside them were a terribly moving spectacle. The atrocities committed there should have taught the world a lesson about what not to do in the name of prejudice, intolerance and fanaticism. If only\u2026<\/p>\n<p>There was writerly news about success as the Costa Prize for the best book of 2014 was awarded to Helen Macdonald. \u2018H is for Hawk\u2019 was classed as a biography and beat the best books in the five Costa categories: novel, first novel, biography, poetry, children\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve discussed the intricacies of genres before, and Costa\u2019s five categories seem broad enough to embrace the entire field. (There\u2019s a short story prize as well.)<\/p>\n<p>Helen Macdonald\u2019s book, however, defies classification, and \u2018biography\u2019 doesn\u2019t quite fit.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m very impressed with its success because it shows that a book can have an all-encompassing appeal for academic judges and the humble general public alike. I think I\u2019ve mentioned \u2018misery lit\u2019 before. \u2018H is for Hawk\u2019 is part \u2018misery lit\u2019 because it\u2019s about the writer\u2019s grief over her father\u2019s death. That makes it autobiography as well. It\u2019s also the parallel biography of T H White, author of \u2018The Goshawk\u2019. (I saw the film and loved it.) Macdonald\u2019s book is also a nature book and a history book about falconry.<\/p>\n<p>It renews my respect for literary judges in these prestigious contests. Narrowly defined genres are an obstacle to artistic expression. \u2018H is for Hawk\u2019 rises above all that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas, &nbsp; Welcome to Alphaday 7, Season XI. This is the halfway mark of the season. We\u2019ve had 6 Alphadays before today, and there are 6 to follow. How does that&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}