Web Site Review:
Places for Writers
By Margaret Fieland
© 2007,
Margaret Fieland
Places for Writers,
http://www.placesforwriters.com, is a Canadian site with information
about calls and contests, book and magazine awards, grants and funding,
Canadian literary magazines, Canadian publishers, Canadian writers'
organizations, and Canadian writers' websites. The calls and contests
include calls from the United States and United Kingdom. The other
categories are Canadian-only. The site is on the list of Writer's
Digest 101 Best Websites for 2006. Places for Writers is beautifully
organized and well thought out. The information is updated daily, so
you can be sure that they're on top of changes. It's a good place to
look for deadlines for grants and awards and to look for the latest in
calls and contests.
When you enter the site, you will see a
menu along the left-hand side, ads on the right, and announcements,
calls, and contests arranged by date down the middle with the most
recent first. A blue link at the beginning will direct you to the
website for the organization. Another blue link called "more details"
will take you directly to the detailed information about the call,
contest, or announcement.
Clicking one of the links on the left
opens the individual area containing detailed information. The
individual areas under Calls, Contests, and Announcements are arranged
similarly: a list at the top of links in blue that take you to the
detailed information below. As with the information on the main page,
each entry includes links to both the organization and "more details".
The lists are arranged with the most recent first. The listings are
complete and up to date, well worth checking on a regular basis.
In my opinion, this is one of the best
places to look for current calls and contests. The format makes it easy
to check for updates when you visit the site regularly as the most
recent entries will be at the top of the list. It is also easy to see
if you think it's worth going to the website for more information as the
entries have sufficient details to enable you to make that judgment.
Since the list at the top consists of links to the information below,
it's quick to go directly to the entry you're interested in.
The Book and Magazine Awards and the
Grants and Funding are arranged by the application deadline month.
Under each month, you will find a list arranged by date of the awards.
A link will take you directly to the information on the sponsoring
organization's website. These are for Canadian grants and awards only.
The information provided is very sketchy, just listing the award, the
category or categories, and the date. I imagine that it would be
necessary to check the individual information to see if you were
interested in applying in most cases. Still, this is, as far as I know,
the only comprehensive listing of Canadian grants and awards, and since
it's arrange by date, it's easy to check for grants and awards that have
approaching deadlines.
The literary magazines are listed in
alphabetical order on the Literary mag page. Each entry consists of the
name, which is a link that will take you directly to the magazine's
website, and a brief description. The publishers, under Publishers, are
arranged by province and alphabetically within the province. Each entry
consists of a linked name followed by a key specifying what they
publish: Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Drama, and Other. This is useful
as a complete list of magazines, but less so for anyone interested in
submissions, as, unlike Duotrope's Fiction Fields, it's not searchable.
The Organizations page lists two
categories: National and Provincial, providing the organization's name
with linked URL. The Canadian writers' sites page is an alphabetical
list of links to websites featuring Canadian writers. Headings consist
of groups of letters: ABC, DEF, GHIJ, etc. As above, the information is
complete but not searchable, and thus less useful for most purposes.
This site is well worth visiting on a
regular basis if you're interested in getting published, getting an
award or grant, or just keeping abreast of the latest news. It's one of
the best sites to check for current calls and contests and an excellent
source of information on Canadian grants and awards. It's complete,
well organized, and up-to-date. Its thoroughness and excellent
organization put this site on my list of favorites. |
