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June 25th, 2023
Stockholm, Sweden
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Reminder: We're just about 2 months away from the Festival kickoff, and there is only one way to secure your spot for the workshops, panels, and pitch sessions that you are interested in, and that's to order your tickets now, before they sell out. The festival does have limited capacity seating and some sessions are filling up fast. Buying your main pass today will ensure that you can participate in the sessions that you really want to. Remember, Agent/Editor One-on-One sessions are only available with a main festival pass!
This month we want to share some exciting news from the Sandra Carpenter Memorial Fund's annual Ohio Writers Scholarship.
The SCMF offers a promising female writer with strong Ohio ties special access to the Stockholm Writers Festival as well as a monetary award to support their writing post-festival. Sandra Carpenter was an early SWF supporter and board member (2017-2019). She actively mentored and supported writers throughout her life and career, and the fund generously continues doing so in her memory.
Previously, we introduced you to the SCMF inaugural winner, Autumn Shah, and this month we'll meet both Grace Dobush, and Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal, the SCMF-SWF 2022 and 2023 winners.
First though, let’s talk about something that many writers seeking to publish their work for the first time, don’t know much about: the Right of First Publication. This is the right to publish your work for the first time anywhere in the world. It’s a very valuable right, and you don’t want to lose it by accident. That’s why we don’t publish any parts of the manuscripts that are sent to us for the SWF First 5 Pages Prize. We want to protect your rights and don't want to jeopardize the monetary value of your work. So, let's dive into this a little bit, so you have the information you need in order to protect the value of your work.
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The Right of First Publication and Why it Matters
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So you’ve written a masterpiece and you can’t wait to share it with the world. You’re tempted to post it online and bask in the glory of likes, comments, and followers. But wait! Before you hit that publish button, you may want to think about the consequences, and just how much you're willing to share.
You may be unwittingly sabotaging your chances of getting published by a real publisher and making money from your work. Why? Because of a sneaky legal concept called the right of first publication.
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The right of first publication is important for you because it gives you bargaining power with publishers. By granting the right of first publication to a publisher, you give up some of your rights in exchange for compensation and exposure. You can also keep some rights, such as moral rights or subsidiary rights, depending on the terms of the contract.
However, the right of first publication can be lost or diminished if you publish or share your work online before signing a contract with a publisher. This is because online publication can be considered to be making your work available to the public, which triggers the right of first publication and reduces its value.
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Meet Grace Dobush - 2022 SCMF-SWF
Ohio Writers Scholarship Winner
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Grace, a freelance journalist based in Germany, was born, raised and educated in Ohio. The SCMF Scholarship Committee selected Grace on the merits of her comic novel, Dayton Beach, which she describes as “a love letter to the Midwest and to queer friendship.”
Grace is currently based in Berlin, where she works as the editor of ADP ReThink Quarterly, a global business publication. She was born in Lakewood, Ohio, raised in Wellington, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State’s journalism program in 2005.
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As part of her prize, Grace was able to attend SWF2022 in Stockholm, and impressed us immediately.
We recently caught up with Grace to get her impressions of the festival, and find out more about her, and her wonderful comic novel Dayton Beach.
It's always interesting for us to get someone's first impressions of the festival, so we had to ask Grace: How would you describe the atmosphere and the community of the festival?
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"The vibe and people were just incredible. It had been so long, more than two years, since I'd attended any conference. And this was the first creative writing conference I'd attended at all! All of my past experiences had been journalism focused or were industry events. I had no idea what to expect, but I was open to anything and everything. I felt like I'd found my people in Stockholm — we're all a bunch of nerds who can't stop telling stories."
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Announcing the 2023 SCMF-SWF
Ohio Writers Scholarship Winner Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal
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We're delighted to announce Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal as the recipient of the 2023 SCMF-SWF Ohio Writers Scholarship. Shaheen was born in Ohio to Indian immigrants. Her work explores the South Asian diaspora’s immigration stories, feminism and matriarchy, and celebrates the diversity of the human experience. Shaheen is a two-time Alum of the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, and she lives in Southern California with her husband, their two children, and a lazy English lab, Nahla.
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Join us in welcoming Shaheen at SWF2023 as she'll be making the long journey from SoCal to join us for three packed days of craft, commerce and community.
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Don't miss out on the biggest and best writer's festival in the Nordics. SWF is truly one of a kind, and tickets are limited, as are the Agent/Editor One-on-One sessions. Why wait? Book your festival pass now and lock in this opportunity!
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There is only one way to secure your spot for the workshops, panels, and pitch sessions that you are interested in, and that's to order your tickets now, before they sell out. The festival does have limited capacity seating and some sessions are filling up fast. Buying your main pass today will ensure that you can participate in the sessions that you really want to. Remember, Agent/Editor One-on-One sessions are only available with a main festival pass!
If you're flying in, or arriving from out of town, be sure to check out the useful information on our website, and download the PDF arrival guide, to make the most of your visit to this amazing city.
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In Conversation with Adamsson Löfgren
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In Conversation with Adamsson Löfgren (SWF23 Faculty Members)
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For our writers producing work in Swedish, sign-up for a meeting with Adamsson Löfgren, a new publisher on the scene. Sofia and Lukas are Swedish authors-gone-publishers. Their new publishing house, Adamsson Löfgren Bokförlag, operates by the traditional model, but with a modern angle, focusing on transparency and a big digital (and physical) presence.
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What do Past SWF Attendees Have to Say?
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"What stuck with me after the festivals, was that yes, I can actually do this writing thing! And there are so many others like me doing the same thing, at the same stage.”
"Listening to the panel discussions and taking workshops from published authors, some who had just released their debut novels, was inspiring and encouraging. "
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"I am fascinated by the way some writers have made their own creative niche, supported by a platform for communication/distribution/revenue that they themselves control.
It’s also interesting to learn how things work in the Anglo-Saxon world of books."
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"While I already had seven books published prior to attending SWF, any opportunity to network with other writers and industry professionals is a wonderful pitstop on the “path to published”. What I now recognize, and perhaps didn’t at the time, is that, as writers, we can learn so much from writers who write in other genres. I even learn from other artists who tell their stories in different mediums – such as visual artists. We are all storytellers."
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Get your tickets now and join the ever-growing crowd of writers who are finding their path to published at this unique festival.
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Help us stay interesting - share your story with us!
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We want to read what you've written, but we also want to hear about you. If you're a past SWF attendee that would like to be featured in an upcoming issue of the newsletter, then please reach out to us by email. We really want to share your story!
Don't forget to also share our newsletter on your favorite social media channels. Let's spread the word, and help all the great writers in our network discover and reach an even wider audience!
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Please note that you can always update your subscriber information with your first and last name, if you haven't already done so, by clicking here. A link will be emailed to you directly.
Additionally, if you no longer wish to receive emails from us about the festival, you can Unsubscribe at any time. These links will always be at the end of our emails for easy access. Of course, we'd be devastated to see you go. We're serious about that - without you and the incredible writer community surrounding this festival, we are nothing. So, please stick around and show us some love!
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