29 April 2012
Classes ended last Thursday, a week full of evening events, and now… it’s taking some time to “come down.” Shifting gears from teaching to writing — from teaching to anything — requires some brain-clearing, and I wish it was faster, but it just ain’t. Believe me, if sex/drugs/rocknroll worked in this regard, I’d be all in. But alas… Yesterday was shell-shock (manifest in over-eating and a TV marathon, ugh). Today, a good long walk, some gardening, and — what seems to work best of all — laughter.
I am speaking of the White House Correspondents’ dinner, which took place last night. If you know me, you know that I am in love with the President, and especially his comedic talents. (It’s all in the delivery, as they say; the President makes jokes work that could easily crash and burn.) Jimmy Kimmell was damn good as well: I don’t know if it’s his style or if he was nervous, but he blew threw joke after joke, barely noticing how they were received, which I found pretty effective. Laugh with me, friends. It’s good for the soul, good for the mind, good for art.
23 April 2012
Lots of good stuff going on this week in NYC, wish I could get to all of it:
First Person Plural: new reading series in Harlem, at Shrine World Music, 2271 Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, 7pm, Monday 4/23. Featuring: Ed Park, Tiphanie Yanique, and Bathsheba Doran.
Celebrate Poetry @ Housing Works Bookstore Cafe: w/ Phillip Levine, Tracy K. Smith, Saeed Jones, and Karolina Manko. A joint event of Knopf + tumblr. Also Monday 4/23 @ 7pm, 126 Crosby Street.
A Tribute to Philip Larkin: co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America and Cooper Union. Tuesday 4/24 at Cooper Union, 7pm, The Great Hall, 7 East 7th Street. Readings by Meena Alexander, Archie Burnett, Billy Collins, James Fenton, Jonathan Galassi, Deborah Garrison, Adam Gopnik, Eamon Grennan, Mary Karr, Nick Laird, J.D. McClatchy, D. Nurkse, Katha Pollitt, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Saskia Hamilton, Vijay Seshadri, Paul Simon, Zadie Smith, and Andrew Sullivan. With live jazz performances.
WomenTalkFeminism (WTF) Panel Discussion at Columbia: “Selling Identity,” a discussion of how aspects of a writer’s identity–gender,race, ethnicity, and sexuality–are used to market a book and how these identity markers can limit or expand a book’s appeal to a wider demographic of readers. With editor Christopher Jackson,VIDA founder Cate Marvin, poet Amy King, and author Tiphanie Yanique. Wed 4/25, 8pm, 413 Dodge Hall.
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.”
