A few weeks ago I found out that a story I wrote last year is going to be in an anthology. This is totally awesome and I'm very proud, and I think it probably helped me get my new job. Last night I was trying to write my bio for the back of the book, so I looked at a copy of this book from earlier in the series (we used it as a text in a science writing class I took several years ago) to see what people put in their bios. And these people are all totally accomplished. Several have written multiple books, many are freelancers who write for lots of different fancy publications like The New Yorker and the New York Times, some aren't professional writers but are super-fancy in their own fields. My bio is like, uh, I worked at [my publication] for a while and now I work at [the publication where I'll be in a few weeks.]
So I was whining to Kay Ray about this, and she says, hey - that makes you a writing prodigy! So now I think my bio should be something like:
TOWWAS is on staff at [my new publication], where she never writes anything longer than 200 words. She has written for [extremely small newspaper] and [free tabloid newspaper]. Once she got an essay into [prestigious newspaper], but only because she sings in a choir with an editor there. This story was her second magazine feature ever. Bet you feel dumb now, suckaz.
5 comments:
so, i totally did the google [ first name ] + dinosaurs, and you're still high on the list . . . #4 (if you don't count the double find from amazon). congrats on crashing the "uuber accomplished people's party!" quite an honor. :)
the only time i've ever been published (or almost published) was from those "poetry.com" spam things. . . i entered in one of those contests in HS, and i got mail from them for years. the poem wasn't even that interesting. they just wanted me to buy the $1,000,000 book of other uninteresting poems.
Congratulations again on your double garland!
I agree with Kay Ray; not having much to put in a bio is a real coup--and it also indicates that the selection process wasn't sensitive to an impressive credentials file, but centered on the quality of the work.
Good on ya!
[your name] rulz!
Wow, congratulations - great news!!!! you'll have to tell me how I can get my hands on the anthology...
That's very exciting - congrats! As for the bio, I'd go the ridiculously-detailed-description-
of-your-breakfast route (a very popular route, indeed) - "I'm TOWWAS, and this morning I had eggs with toast, but I tried to make sunny-side-up eggs and failed pretty miserably so at the last minute they became scrambled eggs, but since I didn't start scrambling them early in the process, the end result was disappointing. The toast was a whole grain but I'm pretty sure the sesame was..." and on and on.
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