Welcome to The Burry Man

Since 1997, The Burry Man Writers Center has been a primary source of research information and freelance job leads for working professional and talented beginning writers. The Burry Man is a space where writers visit from 158 countries and every state in the U.S. The Resource Pages are a guide to more than 4,000 first generation Internet sites from the US, Scotland, England, Ireland, Australia and Canada, as well as Asia, Europe, Africa and around the world, to help you in your quest.

Fiction writing:


Fiction & Literature
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts public domain documents from American and English literature and Western philosophy
AllReaders tell the "engine" what you like to read and it will recommend books
The Authors Guild
Bible Gateway searchable full text of nine versions of the Bible
Cambridge History of English and American Literature more than 303 chapters and 11,000 pages      
The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable an immense work, showing the history of phraseology and literary and mythical characters
Fellowship of Australian Writers WA
The First Line a monthly contest and good motivational tool 
Literature Wales the national company for the development of literature
LitQuotes more than 1200 quotations from literature
National Yiddish Book Center about Yiddish literature, culture, and language
Novelists, Inc
Online Books Page directory of books that can be freely read on the Internet
Ottawa International Writers Festival
Play Shakespeare Shakespeare's text with proper indentation
The Oxford Shakespeare 1914 Oxford edition of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare, with all37 plays, 154 sonnets and miscellaneous verse
Shakespeare Collected complete text of all the plays
Shakespeare Illustrated nineteenth-century paintings, criticism and productions of Shakespeare's plays and their influences on one another
Shakespeare Searchable
Story aimed to give the short story form more prestige and a higher profile 
SurLaLune portal to the realm of fairy tale and folklore studies featuring 26 annotated fairy tales, including their histories, similar tales across cultures, and over 1,000 illustrations
Victorian Woman's Writers Project dozens of transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century
Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature
Voice of the Shuttle: Literatures other than English  
Women's Fiction Writers Association international community of writers of women's fiction
Words Without Bordersonline magazine for international literature
Mystery
American Crime Writers League reviews, interviews and new book info
Crime Writers of Canada
Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain membership open to any author who has had one crime novel produced by a bona fide publisher
Crime Writers Resource Sue Coletta's list of helpful forensics data
The Federal Judiciary Homepage how the US Federal Courts work
Forensic Entomology the use of insect knowledge in the investigation of crimes
Latent Print Examination an in-depth and highly technical overview of fingerprint, palmprint and footprint investigation
Mystery Readers International
Mystery Writers of America
Police 10-codes
Police Writers Association
Sisters In Crime "to combat discrimination against women in the mystery field and promote the professional advancement of women who write mysteries."
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics  
Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories originally published in the American Magazine, 1928, by S.S. Van Dine
Uniform Crime Reports from the FBI
United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network info about criminal justice systems from around the world
Poetry
Academy of American Poets
Apples & Snakes England's leading organisation for performance poetry
Aukland Poetry Auckland's live poetry scene
Canadian Poetry Magazines
Club des Poètes (France)
Electronic Poetry Center resources in electronic poetry and poetics from the University at Buffalo
The e-poets Network RealAudio and video performances by poets from Chicago
Fishouse promotes the oral tradition of poetry, showcasing emerging poets reading their own poems
The Internet Poetry Archive a collection of contemporary poets
League of Canadian Poets
MP3 Sound Poetry Archive (offline for the summer) a library of sound recordings, from the likes of Hugo Ball, Samuel Beckett, William Burroughs, Paul de Vree and much more
National Federation of State Poetry Societies non-profit organization to recognize the importance of poetry with respect to national cultural heritage, sponsors fifty annual poetry contests
Poet and the Poem Webcasts a fabulous collection of readings, from the Library of Congress
Poetry Archive recordings of poets reading their own work
Poetry Around the World
Poetry Book Society founded by TS Eliot to promote a love and understanding of contemporary poetry
The Poetry Foundation
Poetry Ireland dedicated to developing, supporting and promoting poetry throughout Ireland
The Poetry Kit international poetry magazines and competitions
Poetry Magazines full-text digital library of 20th and 21st century English poetry magazines
Poetry Magic resource centre for the theory and craft of writing poetry
PoetryPoetry dedicated to audio poetry, with readings by the original artists
Poetry Publishers big and small presses
The Poetry Society
Poetry Society of America non-profit poetry education organization US
Poets House library, reading room and events in NYC
Poets' Corner library of works that spans thousands of works by hundreds of authors covering thousands of years
Poetry London 
Representative Poetry On-line 2,200 English poems by more than 340 poets from the Old English period to the verge of copyright in the twentieth century
Scottish Poetry Library
Turkish poetry
Types of Poetry a guide
Ubuweb "visual poetry" - historic archives, highly recommended
Write Out Loud Poetry Gig Guide
Science Fiction, Horror & Fantasy
British Columbia Science Fiction Association
British Fantasy Society
Broad Universe promoting science fiction, fantasy, and horror written by women
Hellnotes a weekly newsletter with author profiles, book reviews, market reports, movie news for the "horror professional"
Horror Writers Association
Locus Online new releases, reviews and more 
The Market List pro and semi-pro markets
National Association for Speculative Fiction Professionals
The New York Review of Science Fiction
New Zealand Science Fiction Fantasy Writers' Association
Online Writing Workshop for SF&F formerly the Del Rey Digital Writing Workshop
Science Fiction Writers of America
The SciFi Market List plus articles, interviews and reviews
SF Canada a bilingual association of Canadian writers, artists and other professionals
SFRevu reviews, news and new book releases
Submitting to the Black Hole database of reply times from magazines & publishers
Tangent reviews of (almost) every scifi periodical in print and online - good way to find markets

Writing Resources
Arts & Letters Daily ideas, criticism, debate updated six days a week
Australian Storytelling interviews, articles and stories from around the world
Book Proposal Outline
Funds for Writers updated listings of grants, awards, contests, fellowships and more, with a free newsletter
International Children's Digital Library thousands of online books in 100 languages
Ireland Literature Exchange
Irish Arts Council funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland.
Poets & Writers online version of the magazine
Preditors and Editors including its own "Warnings" page
Query Shark how to write query letters
Shaw Conference Guide a searchable index of conferences

The Real Burry Man

The Burry Man has a special place in Scottish tradition and folklore. Every August, for centuries, the Burry Man has walked the streets of South Queensferry, Scotland, a village near Edinburgh. The residents believe he will bring luck to the town if they give him whisky and money. We chose to name our center after him to honor this ancient tradition, and the generations of townsfolk who have kept it alive. Burry Man Day is the second Friday in August. Our thanks to Andrew Taylor, John Nicol, Alan Reid, James "Kitter" Magan, John "Jacko" Hart, Sam Corson, Arne Fredricksen, Judith McPhillips (the Wee Burry Man, 1948) and all the other stout men, robust lads and charming lassies who have taken on the mantle of the Burry Man.