Authors at Work
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9 April 2011
These are pretty great (from LIFE Magazine via Flavorwire) and seem to me the ultimate in “literary eye candy.” Why is this? I suppose we love to witness the creative process, like beholding a magician. At the same time, these are obviously posed. Maybe we need to uphold the illusion, the fantasy, that it’s not all sweat and tears, that there is glamour somewhere in the writing process.
Love this – Alfred Hitchcock with his hunt-and-peck, and stocked bar
Dorothy Parker - smoke-and-type
Tennessee Williams – oblivious to clutter
The ultimate romanticised Hemingway
Here’s my own (verbal) version of “author-at-work.” More portraits over at Flavorwire.
1 March 2011
Check out The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books, in which I have a short essay called, “In the Corporeal Age, We Will Know the Names of Trees.” With essays by Jonathan Lethem, Nancy Jo Sales, Rivka Galchen, Victor LaValle, Emily St. John Mandel, Joe Meno, Benjamin Kunkel, Victoria Patterson, Garth Risk Hallberg, and others. The book is officially released today!
At Amazon, click here.
The book’s Facebook page, click here.
20 January 2011
I love this feature from Boldtype about literary mentorships. I wish it was more common practice, what with the proliferation of writing programs, for experienced writers to take younger writers under their wing in a significant way. Certainly it happens, but not as frequently as one might hope.
There is “teaching,” and a lot of that happens; mentoring is something different. How does one live and sustain one’s life as a writer? Mentoring is necessarily long-term and blurs the professional and the personal, recognizing that, for a writer, they are really one. I suppose I’ve answered my own question about why mentoring doesn’t happen that often; it’s a serious commitment, a deep relationship – something that must happen organically, not systematically. Not unlike falling in love.
It’s Been Busy…
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8 October 2010
Uh-oh. I seem to be lapsing into once weekly posting here. It’s been a busy fall, folks. But hopefully I’ll get my head above water any minute now…
And speaking of water, I will now distract you with photos of places I’ve visited recently. Moments of repose in the midst of fall fluster…
From the ferry at Vineyard Haven, Martha’s Vineyard (notice the Black Dog flag)
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My own black dog, enjoying the sun on the ferry
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View of the IAC building from the Highline (NYC) at night
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The Highline at night (I forget how magical it is, a truly inspired urban space)
25 May 2010
My interview with Bethanne Patrick of WETA’s (DC public television) author interview program The Book Studio.
15 October 2009
This “Shouts & Murmurs” from the New Yorker made my day. (Thanks, James.)
16 September 2009
This candid account from Daniel Menaker of what it’s like to try to get a literary novel into the real world — including detail on all the specific mathematical and cultural odds stacked against both editor and author — was a revelation.
There’s almost only bad news in here, but I found reading it a kind of relief. The truth is like that sometimes. It reminds me of a scene in Season 2 of Mad Men, where Betty goes to see her father, whose dementia is advancing, though no one in the family wants to say so; and her childhood nursemaid says to her, “Your father is very very sick,” and Betty responds: “You have no idea how nice it is to hear someone say that.”
