The Wednesday Web Browser

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) has posted its list of accepted panel proposals for the 2011 conference in Washington, D.C. I am so excited that both of my proposed teams will be participating! One session is in the "career advancement" category, and will focus on finding, creating, and succeeding in online teaching jobs. The other, within "the craft of fiction," will discuss issues in 21st-century Jewish-American fiction.

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If I needed another reason to want to read Anthony Doerr's new story collection, this interview on The Forward's Sisterhood blog, "Anthony Doerr's Fictional Journey Inside a Jewish Girls' Orphanage," gave it to me. (Historical-fiction writers will particularly appreciate/relate.)

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"Operation Thriller" is bringing thriller writers to entertain members of the military.

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You should certainly read Dwight Garner's review of Tom Grimes's new book, Mentor, which "is ostensibly about Frank Conroy, the gifted memoirist (“Stop-Time”) and novelist (“Body and Soul”) who was the longtime director of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa." But as Garner writes, reading the actual book "might make [an aspiring writer] climb a tall tree and leap from it."

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If you're a blogger, or want to be one, you may appreciate this ProBlogger post: "Crazy Stuff I've Done as a Blogger, and What I've Learned from It All."

Quotation of the Week: Allegra Goodman

As I mentioned on my other blog awhile back, I've been looking forward to reading Allegra Goodman's new novel, The Cookbook Collector. I pre-ordered a copy and finally began reading on Sunday evening. So far, so great!

Last week, my mom and I attended a terrific literary event here in New York that featured Allegra and novelist Cathleen Schine in conversation with Sandee Brawarsky, book critic for the New York Jewish Week. At one point, Allegra offered the following comment about something that she sees as a real plus of novel-writing:

"Your work can be intensely personal without being autobiographical."

So true! So important! So under-appreciated!

The degree of interest readers show in the autobiographical elements of fiction never fails to amaze me. Admittedly, I've been guilty of this interest as a reader, too. But I hope that my crimes are fewer and further between now that I have some experience as a fiction writer myself.

In truth, there are pieces of "me" in all of my fiction, even if I may be the only one who can pinpoint each of them. And the characters that might outwardly resemble "me"--one example comes to mind from a story workshopped long ago; several classmates told me they were convinced that one character in that story was, in fact, me, thinly disguised--can be the ones furthest from my own experience.

Thursday's Pre-Publication Post: On Attending (and Arranging) Readings

Living in New York City, one could easily attend a literary reading (make that multiple readings) every day. The city presents a true embarrassment of riches in that respect.

If you have the time and energy, that is.

Alas, time and energy are precious commodities for this practicing writer. Between a full-time office job, family life and friends, a revitalized commitment to visiting the gym at least a few days each week, and, lest we forget, a bit of writing (and reading, and blogging) here and there, boarding a subway or bus to attend a reading too often falls off my to-do list. Especially when it's really hot outside. Or really cold.

This week, however, I persevered. After an especially intense workday and facing the oppressive heat and humidity that is also oh-so-characteristic of this lovely city (this time of year, anyway), I rallied. I was determined to attend what Ron Hogan had billed as "An Evening of All-American Fiction" midtown at the Center for Fiction, featuring the following authors and new books:

• Pearl Abraham, American Taliban
• David Goodwillie, American Subversive
• Jane Mendelsohn, American Music
• Hilary Thayer Hamann, Anthropology of an American Girl

American fiction. Get it?

Well, how could anyone with a forthcoming story collection titled Quiet Americans resist?

I sure couldn't. And I'm very glad I went, not only because it is always good for me to get out and go to these events, see authors and hear new work read. But the event also got me thinking about readings in another respect.

Right now, I shouldn't simply be attending readings. I should be arranging them, too.

I've already explained that Last Light Books, the publisher of Quiet Americans, is a small, new press. There is no money for me to go "touring" around the country, although a virtual book tour is definitely on the agenda.

So here I am, trying to figure out how to arrange readings in the New York area, Boston, and D.C. (I expect to be in D.C. in early February for the 2011 AWP conference, and I'm planning to get to Boston a few months later.)

And here are some of the questions I have:

• Which reading series/venues do you go to? For my current purposes, the NYC-Washington corridor is most relevant, but why don't we hear recommendations for other locations, so everyone can benefit from the comments? If there are links available for your favorite venues/series, please share those, too!
• For those of you who have arranged your own readings (or for any publicists who have arranged readings for others), what's the magic formula? How far in advance do you try to arrange a reading? What are the basic how-tos to arrange a reading? It strikes me as something a bit like inviting yourself to someone else's house. Not exactly comfortable or intuitive. How does this whole thing work?
• What else should I be thinking about (readings-wise) at this time, a little more than six months before Quiet Americans: Stories meets the world?

As always, thank you in advance for your comments and advice!

The Wednesday Web Browser

Congratulations to our friend John Griswold on all of the accolades he and his novel, A Democracy of Ghosts, have been accruing. Find out more about the author and his book by revisiting our September 2009 interview.
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Sometimes, it really doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy. Seeing online appreciations in recent days for two admired authors--Patrick Modiano, whose work I discovered my junior year in college, and Ludwig Lewisohn, whose 1928 novel The Island Within I've written about before--has really helped lift my spirits this week.
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It's that time of year again: The New York Writers Coalition (NYWC) is holding its annual Write-a-Thon on Saturday, June 12, in NYC. This year, the fundraising effort to benefit the NYWC's free writing programs for the formerly homeless, at-risk youth, seniors, and others, will offer a complementary (and complimentary) online component for people who wish to participate from afar. (I've participated in and written about the Write-a-Thon in the past.)

Friday Find: 92nd Street Y Virtual Poetry Center

Let me tell you, it's tough enough for us New Yorkers to manage to attend even a fraction of the literary events in NYC. And we live here! Obviously, it's much harder when you live elsewhere.

That's why all of us should be grateful to this Virtual Poetry Center from the 92nd Street Y:

"In a renewed effort to share with a wider contemporary audience some of the great literary moments which the Poetry Center has presented across the decades, this page (to be regularly updated) features archival recordings by some of the best writers of our time."

Caution: Some programs are available only in excerpted form. Still, the chance to watch/hear from Chinua Achebe, David Grossman, Cynthia Ozick, Frank McCourt, and so many other literary luminaries (poets and prose writers) is a sheer gift.

Have a great weekend, all. See you back here on Monday!

(cross-referenced as the "featured resource" in the May issue of The Practicing Writer, which will go out to subscribers today.)

Quotation of the Week: Various Journal/Magazine Editors

"I'm sorry."

Such was the response of pretty much every editor who addressed an audience member's question/complaint about slow submission response times during the panel on "The State of the Essay in the Publishing Marketplace" at Welcome Table Press' inaugural symposium, "In Praise of the Essay: Practice & Form," which took place here in NYC last Saturday. (Whew! That is one long sentence I just wrote!)

The Wednesday Web Browser

Dzanc Books has announced which authors will be included in Best of the Web 2010 when it is published in June.
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Poet and professor Kimiko Hahn on inspiration, cultural identity, and the language of science. (Stay tuned for an interview with Kimiko Hahn in The Practicing Writer within the next few months, focusing on her new poetry collection, Toxic Flora.)
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Cate Marvin on poetry, motherhood, and the James Merrill House residency.
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This is another year when, alas, I will not be attending the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference, which gets fully underway tomorrow. But thanks to Twitter, I'll be following what attendees have to say about it using hashtag #awp10.

Friday Find: National Poetry Month Programs and Resources

Established in the U.S. by the Academy of American Poets 14 years ago, National Poetry Month is now celebrated each April. Check out this page for details on this year's programs, events, and resources. Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday.

The Wednesday Web Browser

Kim Wright shares some authorial anxiety as the pub date nears for her first novel (check out a book excerpt, too). Look forward to an interview with Kim later this spring in The Practicing Writer.
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Coming soon: London's Jewish Book Week. Andrew Sanger offers a preview.
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Writer Tia Nevitt reveals "7 Things I've Learned So Far."
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Chris Wilson wonders, "Can New Yorker Poets Write About Anything Besides Poetry?" (via The Elegant Variation)
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Considering teaching (or, for that matter, studying) writing online? Spend some time with Todd Gilman's article on "Combating Myths About Distance Education."
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Congratulations to Kevin Haworth on his latest literary award.
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Something for my fellow Francophiles (and Ile-de-France-based blog readers): Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Writers News (via Writer Abroad).

Free NYC Event Next Week: "The Art of the Pitch"

From the Writers' Institute at the Graduate Center of The City University of New York:

THE ART OF THE PITCH

"Come hear Chris Cox from The Paris Review, Priscilla Gilman from Janklow & Nesbit, Hugo Lindgren from New York Magazine, David Propson from The Week Magazine, and Eben Shapiro from The Wall Street Journal discuss how to craft a great (and perfect) pitch. Feel free to bring along anyone interested as well as all the questions you’ve been dying to ask."

DATE: Wednesday, February 3rd from 5:30 to 7:30
PLACE: Segal Theater, at the Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue (and 34th)

Friday Find: Live Chat on "How to Write a Book" with Roy Peter Clark

"When I was 30 years old," writes Roy Peter Clark, "I wrote a column that revealed my goal in life was to write one good book. The problem: I didn't know how."

Today, he says, "I can stand in front of a stack of 15 books that carry my name as author or editor. I've learned a few tricks along the way, and now I'm eager to share those secret strategies with you in a live chat Friday, January 8 at 1 p.m. ET."

As many of you know, Clark, who is Senior Scholar at The Poynter Institute, "has taught writing at every level--to school children and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors--for more than 30 years, and has spoken about the writer's craft on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NPR and Today; at conferences from Singapore to Brazil; and at news organizations from The New York Times to the Sowetan in South Africa. He is the author of 'Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer,' the book and the blog."

I'm sorry for the late notice on this, and I should probably add that I suspect this chat is likely to be nonfiction-intensive. (Twitterers, take note: There may still be time for you to submit a question ahead of the chat.)

Have a great weekend--see you back here on Monday.

Friday Find: Podcast of Recent Billy Collins Reading

Take some time this weekend to enjoy this podcast of a recent Billy Collins reading at the Center for Worker Education at The City University of New York. ("The Lanyard" never fails to get me!) And I appreciate here the many comments Collins offers about the practice of writing poetry.

I hope that you all have a great weekend. See you back here on Monday.

The Wednesday Web Browser

Here are the latest notes from the NYT newsroom "on grammar, usage and style."
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InsideHigherEd.com reports on U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan's new initiative, Poetry for the Mind's Joy, "through which she hopes to draw national attention to community colleges, as well as drawing the colleges' attention to poetry. She plans to do so in a variety of ways: for starters, by reading her poetry at community colleges across the country -- and this she has already begun, with a reading at the College of San Mateo, in California, last month. She'll also have her own Web page on the Library of Congress's poetry pages; Ryan's page will have a community college focus, and should launch in early 2010. Further, she'll collaborate with the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA) on a poetry competition for community college students. Finally, the project calls for the establishment of April 1 as National Poetry Day on Community College Campuses."
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Grounding her comments in some new writing by Kenyon Review editor David H. Lynn, Denise Hill of NewPages.com takes on the subject of "Online vs Print: Professional Considerations."
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Irina Reyn has won the 2009 Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for her 2008 novel, What Happened to Anna K. You may recall that I read this book about a year ago and thought it was terrific, so while I am not entirely surprised, I am very happy to see it (and Reyn) honored this way. (To find out more about Reyn and the prize, click here.)

The Wednesday Web Browser

Live from Bowdoin College: "Matt O’Donnell, Camille T. Dungy, and Jeffrey Thomson, co-editors of From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great, along with fellow poets Adrian Blevins, Emily Warn, and Bowdoin Writer-in-Residence Anthony Walton, will read poems to celebrate this new collection." Follow the Webcast here, tonight at 7:30 p.m. (U.S. Eastern).
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Lisa Romeo interviews Grace Bauer, Guest Editor of Prairie Schooner's new Baby Boomer issue. (Bonus: journal subscription giveaway!)
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BJ Epstein has announced that she'll be blogging a bit less frequently for the next few weeks, but for a very good reason: She is in the process of moving "in order to take up a post as a lecturer in literature and translation" in an English university. Congrats, BJ!
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And just for fun: Fernham reveals what it's like to have the Clintons dining at the next table.

The Writer's Block: Midge Raymond's Blog on Living a Writer's Life

Just a quick note to share that Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English, which I reviewed earlier this year, is blogging about writing for the Seattle P-I. Although some of the content is clearly directed toward Seattle-area writers, much of it is targeted to a broader audience. I think that the blog, titled "The Writer's Block: Living a Writer's Life," is well worth your time. Check it out!

Poe Exhibition

Thanks to Mark Sarvas for pointing out that "From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe" has just opened at the Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin). (It runs through January 3, 2010, for any of you who may get to Austin between now and then.)

The exhibition marks Poe's bicentennial, and it sounds terrific:

The exhibition is organized into 12 sections: "The Early Years," which covers Poe's family and his student days at the University of Virginia; "Working Writer," about Poe's daily activities earning money and engaging with other writers; "Poe in Love," which documents the many women in Poe's life; "Death and Infamy," devoted to the circumstances of Poe's death and the immediate downturn of his reputation; "Poe the Poet"; "The Raven," which is dedicated to the most famous of Poe's poems; "Poe the Critic"; "Detection," which surveys Poe's stories and his influence upon later writers of mysteries; "Poe and Science," which explores Poe's engagement in topics ranging from shells to astronomy; "The Haunted Mind," which uses portraits and illustrations to investigate the psychological aspects of Poe's work and Poe the man; and "Poe in France" and "Perspectives on Poe," which look at the important influence of Poe upon later writers.

If any of you do visit the exhibition (or if you caught it when it was at the University of Virginia Library earlier this year), please share your impressions! I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd be grateful.

The Wednesday Web Browser: Ask Allison, Tablet Magazine, and Woolf Conference Recap

Author Allison Winn Scotch's popular "Ask Allison" blog--replete with posts on freelancing and fiction-writing--has a new home online.
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Speaking of changes online: Fans of Nextbook.org (moi included) are settling into a site redesign--and a new name, Tablet Magazine: A New Read on Jewish Life. One of the recently-launched features I'm most happy about: Josh Lambert's weekly column on new Jewish books. (Congrats, Josh. I look forward to all your updates!)
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Congrats also to my friend Anne, who recently ran a most successful conference focusing on Virginia Woolf. Do check out Sasha Graybosch's account of the event on The Rumpus.

News from the Nieman Narrative Journalism Program

Another recession casualty--I received the news via e-mail over the weekend:

Dear Friends of the Nieman Narrative Journalism Program,

I write to tell you of the Nieman Foundation’s decision to suspend the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism and the Nieman Seminar for Narrative Editors during the 2009-2010 academic year.

This will disappoint those who have participated in the conferences in the past and who anticipated attending another narrative gathering in the spring of 2010. This difficult step reflects the foundation’s need to make a major reduction in spending for the next fiscal year, beginning in July.

The annual conferences, which were attended by hundreds of journalists and writers, were part of our strategy to establish the Nieman Foundation as a leader in supporting the value of long-form storytelling.

Our commitment to narrative will continue through the narrative writing class offered to Nieman Fellows and our online Nieman Narrative Digest. The site is now updated bi-monthly and features notable narratives, interviews with authors, essays on craft, a narrative lexicon, useful links for writers and other resources.

I also encourage you to visit our Nieman Journalism Lab, Nieman Reports, and Nieman Watchdog Web sites for industry news, tips and inspiration.

Thank you for your wonderful support of our narrative endeavors.

Best regards,
Robert H. Giles
Nieman Foundation Curator

The Wednesday Web Browser: Wells Tower, Dan Baum, and David Foster Wallace

The hype's been everywhere (or so it seems), but it was this Fiction Writers Review piece on Wells Tower's new story collection that really motivated me to attend a reading featuring Tower the other evening. Great event. Now, I must get the book.
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Speaking of hype--I'm sure plenty of you followed last week's big online story about another online story: Dan Baum's Twitter-based revelations of his association with the New Yorker. Here's something a bit different: an interview with Baum, courtesy of The Renegade Writer, focusing on "writing for the big names - and the future of journalism."
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And on a sad, yet inspiring note: check out the online home of a spring term Pomona College course, English 166: David Foster Wallace. The site includes a blog maintained by the course participants, as well as a link to the wiki that has emerged from it. An amazing resource for anyone interested in Wallace and his work - and, I think, for teachers of literature and writing.

Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation

Yesterday, I had some time between an afternoon day job-related meeting at the CUNY Graduate Center and an evening panel at the same location (not for the day job!), so I decided to mosey on over to the New York Public Library to visit a new exhibition, "Between Collaboration and Resistance: French Literary Life Under Nazi Occupation."

The subject of French literary life under (and immediately following) Nazi occupation is something I studied as an undergraduate and have remained fascinated by for years. It's not a simple matter (for one thing, the divisions between "collaboration" and "resistance" aren't always clear). The exhibition does an excellent job presenting a complicated topic. Lots of books, journals, letters, etc. incorporated in the process. Video/newsreel footage, too.

If you'll be around 5th Avenue/42nd Street before the end of July (the exhibition runs through July 25), do stop in and take a look. It's free!