If you are a dedicated, talented and take-charge book nerd (or know someone who is), Wordstock needs you! We have several open positions that need to be filled on our all-volunteer Leadership Team. These individuals will work closely with the Executive Director and the rest of the Leadership Team in planning the 2009 festival. We’ll be accepting applications until March 31st. (UPDATE: As of the end of March, we’ve received lots of great applications, but if you still think you have something to offer, please contact us ASAP to be considered).

Learn more about the open positions and how to apply here.

Join Wordstock at the Writer’s Resource Fair at the Central Library from noon to 3 pm this Sunday (March 15th). We’ll have information on our short fiction competition, writer’s workshops, and upcoming events. And, of course, Wordstock buttons.

Sharpen your pencils and Macbooks.

Wordstock’s 3rd annual Short Fiction Competition is now open for submissions. This year’s judge is esteemed nature writer and National Book Award winner Barry Lopez. First place winner will receive $1,000 and have their story published in the September issue of Portland Monthly. All 10 finalists’ stories will be published in The Wordstock Ten, an anthology available for purchase at the festival, Portland-area bookstores, and online at wordstockfestival.com. All entrants will receive a complimentary copy.

Entries must be less than 4,000 words, and will be accepted by mail only at 8536 SW St Helens Dr., Suite D, Wilsonville, OR 97070. Entries must be postmarked by July 1, 2009.  The entrance fee is $25 per submission. Click here for the complete guidelines.

Last year’s competition drew over 300 entries from all over the world. The 1st place winner, Kurt Rheinheimer of Roanoke, Virginia, won $1,000 and had his story, “Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed” published in the December 2009 issue of Portland Monthly.

Now that every expenditure in the government budget is being (rightly) scrutinized, the subject of the National Endowment for the Arts has come up again — especially after the inclusion of a $50 million line item for the NEA in the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus package. Much of the argument is the same ol’ blather, but the folks at the Culture Monster blog at the Los Angeles Times have taken a new tack. They’ve posted this series of statements and ideas from “30 famous people” about what they would do if they were handed the reins to the NEA. Read on for some interesting possibilities…