Monday, May 23, 2011
In Memoriam: Ann Knox, Long-time Workshop Leader
Ann Brewer Knox, a poet, long-time workshop leader and friend of The Writer’s Center passed away on May 10. She was author of several collections of poetry, including Breathing In, Reading the Tao at 80, The Dark Edge, Stonecrop (winner of the 1988 Washington Writer’s Publishing House Prize in 1988) and Staying Is Nowhere, winner of the SCOP-Writer's Center Co-Publication Prize in 1996. Paper Mache Press published a collection of her short stories, Late Summer Break, in 1995. A complete obituary can be found on the Washington Post's Web site.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Story/Stereo Tonight, Gaithersburg Book Fest Tomorrow, Open Door Sunday
Story/Stereo is finally here! Tonight! 8p.m. at The Writer's Center. And it's FREE. The first 5 people through the door will get FREE Story/Stereo T-shirts. And for anyone who might be tweeting during the show, the hashtag is #storystereo. 
Emerging Writer Fellows Susanna Lang (who's leading a one-day poetry workshop at TWC), Merrill Feitell, and musical guest The Cornel West Theory (watch their video on Monday's post). The host of the event will be none other than poet and author Sandra Beasley. Of course, as always, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill (along with Matt Byars one of the co-musical curators of Story/Stereo) will astound and amaze when he introduces The Cornel West Theory.
With this post we conclude Story/Stereo week. We'll resume with "regular" posts on Monday. Big thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for believing in the Emerging Writer Fellowship program.
Now on to other matters. Below you'll see a couple writerly links to other events happening this weekend. But first...did I mention that Story/Stereo is tonight?
Some more goings on during this busy weekend (besides the end of the world):
Saturday, May 21: The Gaithersburg Book Festival, including many TWC authors giving workshops or readings, and Tayari Jones (author of Silver Sparrow), who was recently interviewed by writer Brandon Wicks at Art & Literature. Plus, there's a whole SLEW of amazing readings. I won't list them. But you can see them here.
Then on Sunday, May 22 (assuming we all get there) we have a very special Open Door Reading. Longtime TWC workshop leader and board member Ann Mclaughlin will be reading from her new novel, A Trial in Summmer (reviewed today in the Washington Independent Review of Books) with one of her former TWC students, Alan Orloff, whose latest novel is Killer Routine (A Last Laff Mystery). Alan, you may already know, was recently interviewed by Art Taylor for the May edition of The Writer's Center's podcast. When you click on the podcast, feel free to subscribe to it on iTunes (and spread the good word about!).
Have a great weekend. I'll pretty much be at all three events this weekend, so I hope to see some of you there. Give me a shout.
Kyle
Emerging Writer Fellows Susanna Lang (who's leading a one-day poetry workshop at TWC), Merrill Feitell, and musical guest The Cornel West Theory (watch their video on Monday's post). The host of the event will be none other than poet and author Sandra Beasley. Of course, as always, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill (along with Matt Byars one of the co-musical curators of Story/Stereo) will astound and amaze when he introduces The Cornel West Theory.
With this post we conclude Story/Stereo week. We'll resume with "regular" posts on Monday. Big thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for believing in the Emerging Writer Fellowship program.
Now on to other matters. Below you'll see a couple writerly links to other events happening this weekend. But first...did I mention that Story/Stereo is tonight?
Some more goings on during this busy weekend (besides the end of the world):
Saturday, May 21: The Gaithersburg Book Festival, including many TWC authors giving workshops or readings, and Tayari Jones (author of Silver Sparrow), who was recently interviewed by writer Brandon Wicks at Art & Literature. Plus, there's a whole SLEW of amazing readings. I won't list them. But you can see them here.
Then on Sunday, May 22 (assuming we all get there) we have a very special Open Door Reading. Longtime TWC workshop leader and board member Ann Mclaughlin will be reading from her new novel, A Trial in Summmer (reviewed today in the Washington Independent Review of Books) with one of her former TWC students, Alan Orloff, whose latest novel is Killer Routine (A Last Laff Mystery). Alan, you may already know, was recently interviewed by Art Taylor for the May edition of The Writer's Center's podcast. When you click on the podcast, feel free to subscribe to it on iTunes (and spread the good word about!).
Have a great weekend. I'll pretty much be at all three events this weekend, so I hope to see some of you there. Give me a shout.
Kyle
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Story/Stereo Week! "Inspiration & Process"
Pretty cool. Since this is Story/Stereo week I want to give a shout out to the man who designed the now iconic logo for Story/Stereo (in fact, as soon as we saw it we judged it iconic). John Foster owns Bad People Good Things and has a new book out himself: 1000 Indie Posters. And this logo is, we all felt, spot on brilliant.
Year 2 of Story/Stereo started with great news: Our Emerging Writer Fellowship program, around which Story/Stereo is centered, would receive funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Clearly, we'd tapped into something important. The shows this year have been varied in terms of presenter and performer, attendance and buzz. But the quality of the shows has never waned, not once. Here's James Hannaham reading from his novel God Says No at Story/Stereo 11:
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Story/Stereo Week! Aryn Kyle, Allison Benis White, John Davis: #8
Some footage from Story/Stereo 8:
Aryn Kyle (Boys and Girls Like You and Me),
Allison Benis White (Self Portrait with Crayon)
And John Davis & Title Tracks
If you like what you see here, don't forget there will be more of this on Friday night right here at TWC!
Aryn Kyle (Boys and Girls Like You and Me),
Allison Benis White (Self Portrait with Crayon)
And John Davis & Title Tracks
If you like what you see here, don't forget there will be more of this on Friday night right here at TWC!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Story/Stereo Week!
I didn't really discuss the history of Story/Stereo in yesterday's post. In 2009, The Writer's Center joined forces with local musicians Chad Clark (Beauty Pill) and Matt Byars (The Caribbean) to create an exciting night of performances that feature the best works of literature by emerging writers and unique appearances by the DC area's most interesting musicians, such as the one this Friday with Susanna Lang, Merrill Feitell, and hip-hop group The Cornel West Theory. The prototype for the event was a reading a year earlier featuring The Caribbean, Bernadette Geyer, Sandra Beasley, and Deborah Ager of 32 Poems.
Around the same time, then director Charles Jensen started our Emerging Writer Fellowship program to accompany the series; that program has now provided 23 emerging writers with a place to read and a nice check to boot. Among our first winners were Suzanne Frischkorn (Lit Windowpane), Neil Smith (Bang Crunch), Alexander Chee (Edinburgh), Srikanth Reddy (Facts for Visitors), and musical guests Roofwalkers, DC "It" band Bluebrain, Zomes, and former front man for Jawbox, J. Robbins, who led an incredible acoustic set of old and new tunes. You can see photos & video from those past events at our Web site and Youtube channels. Here's a teaser, from J. Robbins' performance at Story/Stereo 4:
Around the same time, then director Charles Jensen started our Emerging Writer Fellowship program to accompany the series; that program has now provided 23 emerging writers with a place to read and a nice check to boot. Among our first winners were Suzanne Frischkorn (Lit Windowpane), Neil Smith (Bang Crunch), Alexander Chee (Edinburgh), Srikanth Reddy (Facts for Visitors), and musical guests Roofwalkers, DC "It" band Bluebrain, Zomes, and former front man for Jawbox, J. Robbins, who led an incredible acoustic set of old and new tunes. You can see photos & video from those past events at our Web site and Youtube channels. Here's a teaser, from J. Robbins' performance at Story/Stereo 4:
Monday, May 16, 2011
Story/Stereo Week! Today: Story/Stereo 13
This Friday, May 20 at 8:00 P.M., The Writer's Center will host our 13th Story/Stereo (and our final one until next autumn). Hard to believe we've hosted this many Story/Stereos. Gearing up for this Friday's event, all this week I'll be doing a retrospective of the series on FPP.
At Friday's event we have a Story/Stereo first: This time, event host and poet (and now nonfiction writer) extraordinaire Sandra Beasley will be providing light food and craft beer for the event. Here are the artists you can expect at Friday's event:
Merrill Feitell's first book, Here Beneath Low-Flying Planes, won the Iowa Award for Short Fiction. Her stories have appeared in such publications as Best New American Voices and The Virginia Quarterly Review, and have been short-listed in both Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Awards. She is on the M.F.A. faculty at University of Maryland in College Park and is fiction editor of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, & Light Industrial Safety. She lives in Baltimore. Visit her Web site.
Susanna Lang’s first collection of poems, Even Now, was published in 2008, and she completed a second manuscript as a 2010 fellow at Hambidge. In 2009, her poem “Condemned” won the Inkwell competition, judged by Major Jackson. Her poems have appeared in such journals as New Letters, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Baltimore Review, Kalliope, Green Mountains Review, and jubilat. Translations include Words in Stone: Pierre Ecrite by Yves Bonnefoy. A poem published in The Spoon River Poetry Review won a 1999 Illinois Arts Council award. She lives in Chicago, where she develops curriculum for the public schools.
Note: On Saturday, May 21 Susanna Lang is also leading a one-day workshop at The Writer's Center: Seeing the World New: Making Effective Use of Image.
The Cornel West Theory:
The Cornel West theory is a Washington, D.C. based hip-hop band. With the blessing of Dr. Cornel West, the Princeton University professor and renowned author, the band takes its name from his prolific writings and philosophies that have shaped contemporary thought throughout the world.
Inspired by the rich musical history of the nation's capital and the struggles of poor people worldwide, the band was created in 2004 as a response to social oppression everywhere. They are here to deliver music that holds a mirror up to the world, with a core focus on political, cultural and spiritual commentary.
The band's purpose is to speak the truth to the masses, while communicating to young and old alike. They create soulful music that entertains, informs, educates and provokes awareness and activism. Their sound, filled with drums, bass, piano, and electronic sounds, contains elements of all great music – from home grown Go-Go to jazz to rock to hip-hop.
Their music is rooted in hip-hop, but that single genre does not define the range and variety of the musicians in the group. Winners of the 2008 Washington Area Music Awards Wammie for Best Hip-Hop duo or group, the Cornel West theory will release its debut album “Second Rome” this fall. Their Web site. See them perform here:
At Friday's event we have a Story/Stereo first: This time, event host and poet (and now nonfiction writer) extraordinaire Sandra Beasley will be providing light food and craft beer for the event. Here are the artists you can expect at Friday's event:
Note: On Saturday, May 21 Susanna Lang is also leading a one-day workshop at The Writer's Center: Seeing the World New: Making Effective Use of Image.
The Cornel West Theory:
The Cornel West theory is a Washington, D.C. based hip-hop band. With the blessing of Dr. Cornel West, the Princeton University professor and renowned author, the band takes its name from his prolific writings and philosophies that have shaped contemporary thought throughout the world.
Inspired by the rich musical history of the nation's capital and the struggles of poor people worldwide, the band was created in 2004 as a response to social oppression everywhere. They are here to deliver music that holds a mirror up to the world, with a core focus on political, cultural and spiritual commentary.
The band's purpose is to speak the truth to the masses, while communicating to young and old alike. They create soulful music that entertains, informs, educates and provokes awareness and activism. Their sound, filled with drums, bass, piano, and electronic sounds, contains elements of all great music – from home grown Go-Go to jazz to rock to hip-hop.
Their music is rooted in hip-hop, but that single genre does not define the range and variety of the musicians in the group. Winners of the 2008 Washington Area Music Awards Wammie for Best Hip-Hop duo or group, the Cornel West theory will release its debut album “Second Rome” this fall. Their Web site. See them perform here:
Thursday, May 12, 2011
The Writer's Center at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, May 21
GBF has full pdfs of their schedules on their Web site. Please refer to the pdfs for event times.
Our authors reading or appearing in panels:
Alan Orloff
Jehanne Dubrow
Sarah Pekkanen
Dylan Landis
Mary Quattlebaum
Mary Amato
Kathryn Erskine
Pamela Ehrenberg
Our participating workshop leaders leading workshops:
Barbara Esstman
Michele Wolf
About GBF:
The second annual Gaithersburg Book Festival will be held on May 21, 2011, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on the grounds of Gaithersburg City Hall. Admission is free and, once again, there will truly be something for everyone! Highlights include:
For readers, the Festival will feature appearances, discussions, and book signings by more than 70 authors, including award winners (Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, Newbery Medal, Edgar Award, Peabody Award, etc) and dozens of national best-selling authors.
For writers, and those who aspire to write, there will be workshops going on throughout the day, covering a diversity of topics.
For children of all ages, there’s a Children’s Village, featuring childrens’ authors, stories, activities, arts and crafts, and more.
For poets, singer/songwriters – and the people who love them – there’s a Coffee House where you can sit down, take a load off and have a great cup of coffee while you enjoy song and verse.
On site book sales from Barnes & Noble (featuring the books of the Festival's presenting authors) and Friends of the Library (used books).
Exhibitors will include local authors, publishers, book clubs, and more.
And, of course, come enjoy food, drink, ice cream and more.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Fran Abrams Creative Writing Award for High School Seniors
Applications for the 2011 Award due May 13 at 5pm
This award is given to a high school senior graduating in the class of 2011 who is enrolled in a public or non-public high school in Montgomery County to benefit his/her pursuit of a creative writing career. The $1,000 Fran Abrams Creative Writing Award for 2011 will be granted following a juried selection process that is based upon the merit of the original work submitted and the applicant’s potential for a creative writing career, not financial need.
Applications for the 2011 awards are due no later than 5pm on Friday, May 13 via email. To get the complete guidelines, visit creativemoco.com.
This award is given to a high school senior graduating in the class of 2011 who is enrolled in a public or non-public high school in Montgomery County to benefit his/her pursuit of a creative writing career. The $1,000 Fran Abrams Creative Writing Award for 2011 will be granted following a juried selection process that is based upon the merit of the original work submitted and the applicant’s potential for a creative writing career, not financial need.
Applications for the 2011 awards are due no later than 5pm on Friday, May 13 via email. To get the complete guidelines, visit creativemoco.com.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Upcoming Local Readings: Cheryl's Gone, Three Tents, and Takoma Park Third Thursday
Plenty of outstanding readings coming up in the DC area. Here's a sampling:
Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 8pm
Cheryl's Gone presents...
Art Taylor (fiction--and host of TWC's podcast)
Lauren Bender (poetry)
Jennifer DePalma (poetry)
& music from LunaSol (folk duo)
@ Big Bear Cafe
1st and R NW
Washington, DC
Cheryl's Gone is a monthly reading and performance series at Big Bear Cafe in Washington, DC. For complete details, visit www.cherylsgone.com.
Thursday, May 19, 7:30 p.m.
Takoma Park Third Thursday Series
Featuring workshop leaders Michele Wolf and Anne Becker, along with Michael Gavin
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
Takoma Park, Maryland
For more information: 301-589-3717
Wednesday, May 25, 7:00 P.M.
Tyrant Books and Big Lucks presents a Three Tents reading at The Big Hunt on Dupont Circle in DC.
Readers include Michael Kimball, Rae Bryant, TWC's own Caitlin Cushman, and Phillip Dean Walker.
Join us as we celebrate the release of Michael Kimball's "Us!".
Doors at 7
Drink/food specials all night!
For more info, including author bios, visit Big Lucks' Web site.
---
The Three Tents Reading Series is a bimonthly reading series hosted at The Big Hunt in Washington, DC. It was created to provide authors who’ve recently released novels, collections, or chapbooks with independent presses an opportunity to add a major metropolis with a rich literary tradition to their book tour. Three Tents also features upcoming local authors and graduate students, in hopes of bringing these communities closer together.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 8pm
Cheryl's Gone presents...
Art Taylor (fiction--and host of TWC's podcast)
Lauren Bender (poetry)
Jennifer DePalma (poetry)
& music from LunaSol (folk duo)
@ Big Bear Cafe
1st and R NW
Washington, DC
Cheryl's Gone is a monthly reading and performance series at Big Bear Cafe in Washington, DC. For complete details, visit www.cherylsgone.com.
Thursday, May 19, 7:30 p.m.
Takoma Park Third Thursday Series
Featuring workshop leaders Michele Wolf and Anne Becker, along with Michael Gavin
Takoma Park Community Center
7500 Maple Avenue
Takoma Park, Maryland
For more information: 301-589-3717
Wednesday, May 25, 7:00 P.M.
Tyrant Books and Big Lucks presents a Three Tents reading at The Big Hunt on Dupont Circle in DC.
Readers include Michael Kimball, Rae Bryant, TWC's own Caitlin Cushman, and Phillip Dean Walker.
Join us as we celebrate the release of Michael Kimball's "Us!".
Doors at 7
Drink/food specials all night!
For more info, including author bios, visit Big Lucks' Web site.
---
The Three Tents Reading Series is a bimonthly reading series hosted at The Big Hunt in Washington, DC. It was created to provide authors who’ve recently released novels, collections, or chapbooks with independent presses an opportunity to add a major metropolis with a rich literary tradition to their book tour. Three Tents also features upcoming local authors and graduate students, in hopes of bringing these communities closer together.
Monday, May 9, 2011
The Writer's Center Podcast Now on iTunes
I'm pleased to say that The Writer's Center's podcast is now on iTunes. That means you can now subscribe and download the monthly show directly to your computer, ipod, etc. I'm very excited about that. A special thanks goes to Janel Carpenter and the occasional hosts of the show. We'll be posting our May edition soon. Find the podcast right here! Here are the shows you can hear.
April
Award-winning novelist Angela Davis-Gardner discusses her new book, Butterfly's Child, which takes the elements of Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly—a Japanese geisha, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, their young son, the lieutenant's new American bride—and imagines what happened after that story's end. Davis-Gardner is interviewed by Art Taylor. Listen.
March
Kelli Stanley, author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist City of Dragons, discusses her new novel, The Curse-maker, and the craft of writing with author, book reviewer, and professor of English Art Taylor. Listen.
Alan Cheuse, the "voice of books" on National Public Radio, discusses his latest novel, Song of Slaves in the Desert, with interviewer Tracey Donnelly. Listen.
February
Alice McDermott reads from her novel, Charming Billy, a National Book Award winner, and Shannon O'Neill discusses the novel with her. Listen.
April
Award-winning novelist Angela Davis-Gardner discusses her new book, Butterfly's Child, which takes the elements of Puccini's famous opera Madame Butterfly—a Japanese geisha, a U.S. Navy lieutenant, their young son, the lieutenant's new American bride—and imagines what happened after that story's end. Davis-Gardner is interviewed by Art Taylor. Listen.
March
Kelli Stanley, author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist City of Dragons, discusses her new novel, The Curse-maker, and the craft of writing with author, book reviewer, and professor of English Art Taylor. Listen.
Alan Cheuse, the "voice of books" on National Public Radio, discusses his latest novel, Song of Slaves in the Desert, with interviewer Tracey Donnelly. Listen.
February
Alice McDermott reads from her novel, Charming Billy, a National Book Award winner, and Shannon O'Neill discusses the novel with her. Listen.
Friday, May 6, 2011
May Events at TWC and Member News
MAY EVENTS
(Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and at The Writer's Center)
Leesburg First Friday (tonight!) at the Leesburg Town Hall
Leesburg Town Hall, 25 West Market Street, Leesburg, Virginia 20176
Due to a death in the family, our scheduled speaker, Susan McCorkindale, is unable to attend our event this Friday. Instead, we will conduct a "Critique-fest" ... please bring any work you have(up to 5 pages) that you would like to get feedback on. We will talk about methods of critiquing and how to deal with critiques, and we'll have an opportunity to see who might want to form a critique group. There will be NO ENTRANCE FEE for this program. We hope to see you on Friday!
Open Door: Open Mic
Sunday, May 8, 2:00 P.M.
Sign-up for readers begins at 1:30 P.M.
What it Means to be a Working Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 6:30 P.M.
Duke Ellington School of the Arts's Literary Media and Communications department take a moment to share with students and community what it means to be a working writer. From playwriting to poetry, fiction to new media, esteemed faculty members present an evening of new work, new conversations, and another step toward shaping the 21st Century American Writer. The program is a fundraiser for the Literary Media and Communications department, and will feature faculty members Mark Williams, Jade Foster, Koye Oyedeji, and Kelli Anderson.
Open Door: Panel Discussion: Classic Myths and Contemporary Re-telling
Sunday, May 15, 2:00 P.M.
The Writer’s Center presents a panel discussion with authors Donna Denizé, Nan Fry, and Rose Solari discussing the enduring appeal of classic myths, and contemporary re-tellings of those myths.
Story/Stereo: A Night of Literature & Music
Fri, May 20, 8:00 P.M.
Emerging Writer Fellowship recipients Merrill Feitell (Here Beneath Low-flying Planes) and Susanna Lang (Even Now) read at our final installment of Story/Stereo of the 2010-11 season. They are joined by musical guest The Cornel West Theory, a hip-hop group, in what should prove a beat-happy conclusion to the season.
Open Door Reading: Alan Orloff & Ann McLaughlin
Sunday, May 22, 2:00 P.M.
Novelist, workshop leader, and board member Ann McLaughlin reads from A Trial in Summer, and Alan Orloff reads from his new novel, Killer Routine. Orloff is a former student of McLaughlin's. Read more about him at First Person Plural.
MEMBER NEWS
WC member and debut novelist Alma Katsu's debut novel, The Taker, has been selected as one of the Big Books at this BEA Expo in NYC. Here's the link to the PW announcement (which includes ALL the big books). The book has, Alma says, launched well in the UK and India. It was well-reviewed in Cosmo and Marie Claire UK as well as in many UK book blogs.
Kathy Borrus's book, Five Hundred Buildings of Paris, was published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; and her essay, One On One, was published in Fits Starts & Matters of the Heart, published by Freelance Success, both in Fall 2010.
An adapted chapter of Angie Chuang's "Vice and Virtue," from her non-fiction book manuscript will be published in the forthcoming Best Women's Travel Writing 2011 anthology, to be released in mid-May. The chapter-turned-essay is about a search for ice cream in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and the title refers to the Taliban's Department for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, which banned women eating ice cream in public until the regime's overthrow in 2001.
Sally Pfoutz’s first collection of poetry, Tree and Shadow, was published by Wild Leaf Press in February 2011.
Katie Pickard Fawcett's novel, To Come and Go Like Magic, was published by Knopf Books for Young Readers in February 2010. The paperback was released in March 2011, and it is also available in ebook.
Elaine Kessler's short story, "The Girl with the Trailer Park Hair," appears in the March 2011 issue of The Northern Virginia Review.
Congrats to all. If you have news you'd like to share with the community, let us know by e-mailing us at the.carousel@writer.org.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Member Alma Katsu's Debut Selected as one of the "Big Books" at BEA
Here's the link to the PW announcement (which includes ALL the big books).
Here's what she writes me:
It's getting to be a bit crazy. The book launched well in the UK and India. It was well-reviewed in Cosmo and Marie Claire UK as well as in a bunch of UK book blogs, and it looks like it'll launch in Poland soon, too. Rights sold to Brazil at the London Book Fair.
Congratulations, Alma!
Leesburg First Friday! Critique-Fest
From our good friends Ellen Braaf and Louise Baxter over in Leesburg:
Event: Writer's Center Leesburg First Friday
Date: May 6, 2011
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Place: Leesburg Town Hall, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg, VA 20176
Due to a death in the family, our scheduled speaker, Susan McCorkindale, is unable to attend our event this Friday.
Instead, we will conduct a "Critique-fest" ... please bring any work you have
(up to 5 pages) that you would like to get feedback on. We will talk about
methods of critiquing and how to deal with critiques, and we'll have an
opportunity to see who might want to form a critique group.
There will be NO ENTRANCE FEE for this program. We hope to see you on Friday!
Event: Writer's Center Leesburg First Friday
Date: May 6, 2011
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Place: Leesburg Town Hall, 25 W. Market St., Leesburg, VA 20176
Due to a death in the family, our scheduled speaker, Susan McCorkindale, is unable to attend our event this Friday.
Instead, we will conduct a "Critique-fest" ... please bring any work you have
(up to 5 pages) that you would like to get feedback on. We will talk about
methods of critiquing and how to deal with critiques, and we'll have an
opportunity to see who might want to form a critique group.
There will be NO ENTRANCE FEE for this program. We hope to see you on Friday!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Book Review: Carsten Jensen's We, the Drowned
I recently reviewed Danish author Carsten Jensen's fabulous new novel We, the Drowned over at Three Percent. Chad Post at Open Letter Books (who runs Three Percent) has allowed me to repost it on FPP. Here's the full text. Ray Taras in World Literature Today also did a very nice interview with Jensen (the cover feature).
We, the Drowned
By Carsten Jensen
Translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder
Reviewed by K.E. Semmel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
675 pages, Hardcover
ISBN: 9780151013777
$28.00
We who are alive in the age of the eBook may not be used to reading 675 page sea adventure tales. When we think of such novels—at least here on these shores—we probably think of James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville, venerable writers who penned some of the most enduring American classics of the genre. Though Denmark is one of the greatest seafaring nations in the history of the world, we typically don’t think of Danes when we think of the literature of the sea. Carsten Jensen’s fabulous first novel, We, the Drowned, should change that.
For three decades, Jensen has been one of the finest commentators in Denmark, distilling meaning out of everything, from political events to world developments, in his newspaper columns. With his deft touch, ordinary stones dazzle with sharp, brilliant light. Back when we still lived in Denmark, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of Politiken just so I could read his column. Over the years, many of these short pieces have been collected into books (and two of those titles have been translated into English).
But in We, the Drowned, Jensen gives us the big story. The inhabitants of the town of Marstal, on the island of Æro, have been seafarers for generations. They live and die by the code of the sea. Jensen writes in the communal first person plural, with its distinctive and authoritative “we” lending a familiar sense of intimacy, and starts his story in the year 1848. Like the docent in a fine museum, he then leads us through the next 100 years in Marstal’s history. That history is extraordinarily rich, and includes Denmark’s Three Years’ War (1848-51) with the Germans, two world wars, the rise of late capitalism and concomitant descent of the very life-blood of Marstallers’ lives, the sailing industry, and finally the ascendency of globalization (though the “g” word is not used).
Whew. That’s sure a lot.
And yet, though We, the Drowned explores a wide range of territory, it’s actually compact in the way only Jensen can make it. A lot of ground, and yes, water, is covered. But Jensen builds an impressive edifice out of the Marstallers’ lives. What happened to them, we could say, happened to all of us.
Though there’s a large ensemble cast, the narrative circles around several key characters. First, there’s Laurids Madsen, a sailor with near superhuman powers. On the very first page of the novel he’s blasted into the air when his ship explodes at the end of a losing battle against the Germans, but he survives. Returning to Marstal, his status exulted by his near-death experience, he’s revered. Eventually, however, he sours of life in Marstal. He signs on to another ship and never returns. Then the narrative shifts to one of his sons, Albert—who even as a boy resembled his father—and he takes up the seemingly hopeless cause of finding the man who deserted him. In Albert’s narrative we meet a host of strange but delightful characters: the brutal schoolteacher Isager and his whip (who teaches hardness but not much else); first mate O’Connor who’s even more brutal than Isager; the con man Anthony Fox and the dastardly Jack Lewis who gives Albert a shrunken head he claims is that of James Cook. Midway through all this, as if to personalize Albert’s search for his father, the point of view shifts to first person singular:
"I signed on for Singapore and from there to Van Dieman’s Land, to Hobart Town, the last port where my father had been seen. But it wasn’t just his final port: it was everyone’s dead end—and if it wasn’t yours, it soon would be, if you didn’t get yourself out in time. Picture the workhouse in Marstal: that’s what Hobart was like."
In literature as in life, finding a runaway father often leads to disappointment. Such is the case here for Albert Madsen (though for readers the high seas quest is rife with adventure). Before long—and returning home to first person plural—Albert is an old man serving as a father figure to a young boy, Knud Erik Friis, and as a reluctant lover to the boy’s widowed mother, Klara. When Albert dies—literally frozen to death in his father’s lucky boots—he bequeaths his fortune to Klara. And so begins the final stage of this book, with Klara and Knud Erik front and center.
Klara, a woman who lost her husband when his ship went down, wants to punish the sea for all the damage it has inflicted on Marstallers’ lives—particularly the town’s women. Ironically, she wants to use Albert’s fortune, built on the waves of the oceans, to end Marstal’s dependency on sailing. She visits a powerful businessman in Copenhagen named Markussen and tells him of her plan. He responds:
“Have you heard of Xerxes, king of Persia?” he finally asked. “Xerxes got it into his head to punish the sea because a sudden storm arose and destroyed his fleet before a decisive battle against the Greeks. His method was somewhat unusual. He had the sea whipped with iron chains. I’d say, Mrs. Friis, that you’re a modern-day successor to Xerxes” [. . .] “I hope you understand that your plans will have fatal consequences for your little town.”
She understands that only too well. But does her plan succeed? Well, I won’t give it away. You can decide for yourself.
All told, We, the Drowned is a tour de force, a colossus, that gives Americans an opportunity to witness the gears of a great writer at work, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Richly translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder so that obscure nautical terms like “ketch,” “old luggers,” “cutters,” “fore-and-aft schooner” flow naturally in translation. Sentence after sentence is strung together like bright bulbs of light. In his first work of fiction, Carsten Jensen creates characters with whom readers can empathize, and even the lowliest among them have real, identifiable motives behind their actions. This novel may be big and heavy, but it’s worth every single page.
We, the Drowned
By Carsten Jensen
Translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder
Reviewed by K.E. Semmel
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
675 pages, Hardcover
ISBN: 9780151013777
$28.00
We who are alive in the age of the eBook may not be used to reading 675 page sea adventure tales. When we think of such novels—at least here on these shores—we probably think of James Fenimore Cooper and Herman Melville, venerable writers who penned some of the most enduring American classics of the genre. Though Denmark is one of the greatest seafaring nations in the history of the world, we typically don’t think of Danes when we think of the literature of the sea. Carsten Jensen’s fabulous first novel, We, the Drowned, should change that.
But in We, the Drowned, Jensen gives us the big story. The inhabitants of the town of Marstal, on the island of Æro, have been seafarers for generations. They live and die by the code of the sea. Jensen writes in the communal first person plural, with its distinctive and authoritative “we” lending a familiar sense of intimacy, and starts his story in the year 1848. Like the docent in a fine museum, he then leads us through the next 100 years in Marstal’s history. That history is extraordinarily rich, and includes Denmark’s Three Years’ War (1848-51) with the Germans, two world wars, the rise of late capitalism and concomitant descent of the very life-blood of Marstallers’ lives, the sailing industry, and finally the ascendency of globalization (though the “g” word is not used).
Whew. That’s sure a lot.
And yet, though We, the Drowned explores a wide range of territory, it’s actually compact in the way only Jensen can make it. A lot of ground, and yes, water, is covered. But Jensen builds an impressive edifice out of the Marstallers’ lives. What happened to them, we could say, happened to all of us.
Though there’s a large ensemble cast, the narrative circles around several key characters. First, there’s Laurids Madsen, a sailor with near superhuman powers. On the very first page of the novel he’s blasted into the air when his ship explodes at the end of a losing battle against the Germans, but he survives. Returning to Marstal, his status exulted by his near-death experience, he’s revered. Eventually, however, he sours of life in Marstal. He signs on to another ship and never returns. Then the narrative shifts to one of his sons, Albert—who even as a boy resembled his father—and he takes up the seemingly hopeless cause of finding the man who deserted him. In Albert’s narrative we meet a host of strange but delightful characters: the brutal schoolteacher Isager and his whip (who teaches hardness but not much else); first mate O’Connor who’s even more brutal than Isager; the con man Anthony Fox and the dastardly Jack Lewis who gives Albert a shrunken head he claims is that of James Cook. Midway through all this, as if to personalize Albert’s search for his father, the point of view shifts to first person singular:
"I signed on for Singapore and from there to Van Dieman’s Land, to Hobart Town, the last port where my father had been seen. But it wasn’t just his final port: it was everyone’s dead end—and if it wasn’t yours, it soon would be, if you didn’t get yourself out in time. Picture the workhouse in Marstal: that’s what Hobart was like."
In literature as in life, finding a runaway father often leads to disappointment. Such is the case here for Albert Madsen (though for readers the high seas quest is rife with adventure). Before long—and returning home to first person plural—Albert is an old man serving as a father figure to a young boy, Knud Erik Friis, and as a reluctant lover to the boy’s widowed mother, Klara. When Albert dies—literally frozen to death in his father’s lucky boots—he bequeaths his fortune to Klara. And so begins the final stage of this book, with Klara and Knud Erik front and center.
Klara, a woman who lost her husband when his ship went down, wants to punish the sea for all the damage it has inflicted on Marstallers’ lives—particularly the town’s women. Ironically, she wants to use Albert’s fortune, built on the waves of the oceans, to end Marstal’s dependency on sailing. She visits a powerful businessman in Copenhagen named Markussen and tells him of her plan. He responds:
“Have you heard of Xerxes, king of Persia?” he finally asked. “Xerxes got it into his head to punish the sea because a sudden storm arose and destroyed his fleet before a decisive battle against the Greeks. His method was somewhat unusual. He had the sea whipped with iron chains. I’d say, Mrs. Friis, that you’re a modern-day successor to Xerxes” [. . .] “I hope you understand that your plans will have fatal consequences for your little town.”
She understands that only too well. But does her plan succeed? Well, I won’t give it away. You can decide for yourself.
All told, We, the Drowned is a tour de force, a colossus, that gives Americans an opportunity to witness the gears of a great writer at work, turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. Richly translated by Charlotte Barslund and Emma Ryder so that obscure nautical terms like “ketch,” “old luggers,” “cutters,” “fore-and-aft schooner” flow naturally in translation. Sentence after sentence is strung together like bright bulbs of light. In his first work of fiction, Carsten Jensen creates characters with whom readers can empathize, and even the lowliest among them have real, identifiable motives behind their actions. This novel may be big and heavy, but it’s worth every single page.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
K.C.’s Corner: Candid Tips on Book Reviews
A couple brief posts (with links) by Kelley Coyner this month:
You cannot go to every event especially one that isn’t even in town. But you can listen via podcast. Thanks to Erica Dreifus and The Writer’s Institute at the City University of New York you can hear eight top New York Book Review editors discuss how they came to book reviewing and what they look for in book reviews.
Nonfiction Publication a Tweet Away
The Writer’s Center’s friend Creative Nonfiction is sponsoring Tiny Truths: CNF's Daily Twitter Contest. Submissions accepted year-round. Winners retweeted daily and 10-12 winning tweets appear in every issue of Creative Nonfiction. Read a feed of CFNs Tiny Truths.
You cannot go to every event especially one that isn’t even in town. But you can listen via podcast. Thanks to Erica Dreifus and The Writer’s Institute at the City University of New York you can hear eight top New York Book Review editors discuss how they came to book reviewing and what they look for in book reviews.
Nonfiction Publication a Tweet Away
The Writer’s Center’s friend Creative Nonfiction is sponsoring Tiny Truths: CNF's Daily Twitter Contest. Submissions accepted year-round. Winners retweeted daily and 10-12 winning tweets appear in every issue of Creative Nonfiction. Read a feed of CFNs Tiny Truths.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Miles Davis: Live Electric
Tonight and tomorrow at The Writer's Center, through the use of film footage and excerpts from seminal recordings like “Live-Evil” and “On the Corner,” poet, music critic, and The Writer’s Center workshop leader Reuben Jackson will discuss this rich, influential, and still controversial chapter of Miles Davis’ career. Friday, April 29 focuses on 1968-1975 and begins at 7:30 P.M. Saturday, April 30 focuses on 1981-1991 and begins at 7:30 P.M.
Here's a great live version of Davis during this period as a warm up:
Here's a great live version of Davis during this period as a warm up:
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Book Review: Orientation by Daniel Orozco
On May 2 at 7p.m., Daniel Orozco will read from his new collection of stories at our Pen World Voices event, together with Sudanese author Leila Aboulela and Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri. Purchase your tickets for that event here. Here's Caitlin Hill with her review of Orientation.
Daniel Orozco’s Orientation and Other Stories
(Faber & Faber, 2011)
162 pages, paper
Reviewed by Caitlin Hill
Orozco’s debut collection unsettled me. I read the collection in one sitting and then sat still for several moments, trying to understand what I had just experienced. My first impulse was to decide whether I liked the collection, before I remembered that is never the point. In this case, however, I had no ready answer, and I became consumed by it. I’m still not sure if I “liked” Orientation, but I am sure I will read it again, I am certain I will recommend it, and I won’t soon forget its stories.
Orientation is in keeping with a long tradition of the American (post-indigenous) form of short-storytelling: subjects and situations we recognize, without a lot of drama or glamour. The settings are often quite simple—office spaces, supermarkets, apartments, loading docks, California—and, more often than not, what happens in the course of the story itself is unremarkable; that is, the plot is nothing extraordinary. The thoughts, experiences, and words that come from Orozco’s characters are so deeply rooted in verisimilitude that, at times, I realized I was pushing through a story very quickly, because I would move through the characters’ responses without second-guessing a thing.
I should clarify: this is not to indicate that Orozco’s stories or characters are merely predictable. On the contrary, his stories, and the people with which Orozco populates said stories, are inevitable. It is the goal of all writers, or should be. I knew what his characters would do or say almost innately. Even while reading something shocking, even while noticing that Orozco hadn’t done what a lesser writer would have done, even while the writer/editor/critic was in the back of my mind unraveling the craft, the reader in me was totally absorbed and comfortably settled in for the ride, assured that everything that was going to happen was perfectly set up and unavoidable. The shocking didn’t utterly shock. The surprising evoked a small euphoria of self-satisfaction that usually only creeps up when I guess the motive, but perhaps not the murderer, in a mystery.
We are repeatedly told to attempt to capture “the human condition” when we sit down to write—especially fiction, especially short stories. I’ve never hung off the side of a suspension bridge, as one of Orozco’s characters, Baby, does in The Bridge; I’ve never worked as any kind of painter, much less a high-risk one, helmeted and cocky. But I’ve been haunted. I’ve been nicknamed against my will. I’ve inflated the importance of lesser things in an attempt to relieve the pressure of the incomprehensible. Who hasn’t felt the precariousness of their perch? How could a man I can’t imagine relating to in any real sense be so clearly a mirror for me? We don’t even get any interiority from Baby, his story is told at a slight remove, but I know that guy.
In my personal favorite story (and I do maintain that I’m allowed to have a favorite story even while still trying to decide if I “like” the collection), Officers Weep, Orozco uses the structure and form of a police blotter to reveal the strange goings on during an officer duo’s shift:
300 Block, Galleon Court. Tall Ships Estates. Criminal trespass and public disturbance. One-armed magazine salesman kicking doors and threatening residents. Scuffle ensues. Officers sit on suspect, call for backup, ponder a cop koan: How do you cuff a one-armed man?
Orozco uses humor throughout, both to alleviate the tension and to lull the reader into a false sense of security, and this story highlights that duality best. Police officers have dangerous jobs; something must give. Yet, even while laughing, you can't actually relax because you don't know what will happen next. The thread of someone stealing a treasured chainsaw and wreaking havoc throughout the area provides a compelling through-line and an “in” for the reader, utilizing a subtle dramatic irony to hold us through the seemingly random events and help us feel like cops ourselves: recognize a pattern, follow the right track (if it were a game of Carmen Sandiego, we’d see a 10-ton weight drop out of the sky and feel the thrill of knowing we were close).
And Orozco brings the story a level further by choosing the predictable: the cops are falling for each other; the cops use humor to de-escalate tense situations; the cops humorously decide to avoid a certain repeated domestic disturbance; the cops revel in beating protestors; the cops are what we expect cop characters to be from all we’ve seen and heard of them. Yet, Orozco’s choices don’t feel cliché. It’s as if he doesn’t say to himself, “Okay, a male and female cop as partners. I can’t let them fall in love, because everyone makes them fall in love.” He knows that the manner in which he chose to write this piece makes it unique, so he’s permitted to indulge in other ways, with care. He writes their story, and if they begin to find one another attractive, hell, they’re only human.
And they are oh so human. All of his characters are, to the point of discomfort.
So, will you like this collection? I don’t know. In point of fact, I rather hope you don’t. How can you “like” it when someone writes down the thoughts you’re not so proud of, the wanton desires and judgments you pass, daily? How can you “like” your weaknesses picked apart on the page? How can you “like” the reminder of how unremarkable we are, how similar in our damage, how typical in our fallibility and fear?
If Orozco’s done his job as well as I believe he has, you will feel his stories slip between your ribs and ingest your gut whole, like a California rattlesnake. With no room for ego, you’ll feel devoid of pain, but certain that you have just experienced something horrifically true and devastatingly real. You’ve finally gone through your own orientation. Welcome to the team. “That’s my cubicle. I sit in there.” See you at lunch.
Daniel Orozco’s Orientation and Other Stories
(Faber & Faber, 2011)
162 pages, paper
Reviewed by Caitlin Hill
Orozco’s debut collection unsettled me. I read the collection in one sitting and then sat still for several moments, trying to understand what I had just experienced. My first impulse was to decide whether I liked the collection, before I remembered that is never the point. In this case, however, I had no ready answer, and I became consumed by it. I’m still not sure if I “liked” Orientation, but I am sure I will read it again, I am certain I will recommend it, and I won’t soon forget its stories.
Orientation is in keeping with a long tradition of the American (post-indigenous) form of short-storytelling: subjects and situations we recognize, without a lot of drama or glamour. The settings are often quite simple—office spaces, supermarkets, apartments, loading docks, California—and, more often than not, what happens in the course of the story itself is unremarkable; that is, the plot is nothing extraordinary. The thoughts, experiences, and words that come from Orozco’s characters are so deeply rooted in verisimilitude that, at times, I realized I was pushing through a story very quickly, because I would move through the characters’ responses without second-guessing a thing.
I should clarify: this is not to indicate that Orozco’s stories or characters are merely predictable. On the contrary, his stories, and the people with which Orozco populates said stories, are inevitable. It is the goal of all writers, or should be. I knew what his characters would do or say almost innately. Even while reading something shocking, even while noticing that Orozco hadn’t done what a lesser writer would have done, even while the writer/editor/critic was in the back of my mind unraveling the craft, the reader in me was totally absorbed and comfortably settled in for the ride, assured that everything that was going to happen was perfectly set up and unavoidable. The shocking didn’t utterly shock. The surprising evoked a small euphoria of self-satisfaction that usually only creeps up when I guess the motive, but perhaps not the murderer, in a mystery.
We are repeatedly told to attempt to capture “the human condition” when we sit down to write—especially fiction, especially short stories. I’ve never hung off the side of a suspension bridge, as one of Orozco’s characters, Baby, does in The Bridge; I’ve never worked as any kind of painter, much less a high-risk one, helmeted and cocky. But I’ve been haunted. I’ve been nicknamed against my will. I’ve inflated the importance of lesser things in an attempt to relieve the pressure of the incomprehensible. Who hasn’t felt the precariousness of their perch? How could a man I can’t imagine relating to in any real sense be so clearly a mirror for me? We don’t even get any interiority from Baby, his story is told at a slight remove, but I know that guy.
In my personal favorite story (and I do maintain that I’m allowed to have a favorite story even while still trying to decide if I “like” the collection), Officers Weep, Orozco uses the structure and form of a police blotter to reveal the strange goings on during an officer duo’s shift:
300 Block, Galleon Court. Tall Ships Estates. Criminal trespass and public disturbance. One-armed magazine salesman kicking doors and threatening residents. Scuffle ensues. Officers sit on suspect, call for backup, ponder a cop koan: How do you cuff a one-armed man?
Orozco uses humor throughout, both to alleviate the tension and to lull the reader into a false sense of security, and this story highlights that duality best. Police officers have dangerous jobs; something must give. Yet, even while laughing, you can't actually relax because you don't know what will happen next. The thread of someone stealing a treasured chainsaw and wreaking havoc throughout the area provides a compelling through-line and an “in” for the reader, utilizing a subtle dramatic irony to hold us through the seemingly random events and help us feel like cops ourselves: recognize a pattern, follow the right track (if it were a game of Carmen Sandiego, we’d see a 10-ton weight drop out of the sky and feel the thrill of knowing we were close).
And Orozco brings the story a level further by choosing the predictable: the cops are falling for each other; the cops use humor to de-escalate tense situations; the cops humorously decide to avoid a certain repeated domestic disturbance; the cops revel in beating protestors; the cops are what we expect cop characters to be from all we’ve seen and heard of them. Yet, Orozco’s choices don’t feel cliché. It’s as if he doesn’t say to himself, “Okay, a male and female cop as partners. I can’t let them fall in love, because everyone makes them fall in love.” He knows that the manner in which he chose to write this piece makes it unique, so he’s permitted to indulge in other ways, with care. He writes their story, and if they begin to find one another attractive, hell, they’re only human.
And they are oh so human. All of his characters are, to the point of discomfort.
So, will you like this collection? I don’t know. In point of fact, I rather hope you don’t. How can you “like” it when someone writes down the thoughts you’re not so proud of, the wanton desires and judgments you pass, daily? How can you “like” your weaknesses picked apart on the page? How can you “like” the reminder of how unremarkable we are, how similar in our damage, how typical in our fallibility and fear?
If Orozco’s done his job as well as I believe he has, you will feel his stories slip between your ribs and ingest your gut whole, like a California rattlesnake. With no room for ego, you’ll feel devoid of pain, but certain that you have just experienced something horrifically true and devastatingly real. You’ve finally gone through your own orientation. Welcome to the team. “That’s my cubicle. I sit in there.” See you at lunch.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Book Review: Martin Espada's The Trouble Ball
The Trouble Ball
By Martin Espada
(W.W. Norton, 2011)
66 pages, cloth
Reviewed by Sunil Freeman
Recently a poet friend complained about the disconnect between what’s happening in the world today–-with housing foreclosures, unemployment, labor struggles, environmental disasters, and ongoing wars-–and the broad picture as depicted in most contemporary poetry journals. She pointed to a shelf and said the poems there, good as they often are, rarely reflect the state of contemporary society.
There are exceptions. We agreed that many fine poets write about people left out of the American Dream. Jim Daniels and David Salner write powerful poems that honor working class lives. Patricia Smith, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, and several others come to mind. And, of course, there is Martin Espada.
Espada’s eleventh collection of poetry, The Trouble Ball, continues his tradition of poetic witness in books such as The Republic of Poetry, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The opening title poem is a tour de force, revisiting a day in 1941 at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, when Espada’s 11 year old father, hoping to see the legendary Satchel Paige pitch, learned that Blacks were not allowed to play major league baseball.
It was then that the only brown boy at Ebbets field felt himself
levitate above the grandstand and the diamond, another banner
at the ballgame. From up high he could see that everyone was white,
and their whiteness was impossible, like snow in Puerto Rico,
I resist the urge to quote the entire poem. Along the way, Espada shares a treasure trove of baseball lore, including the names of pitches associated with Paige:
. . . he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball/ The
Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz,/
The Thoughtful Stuff. . . .
Anger is tempered with a streak of defiant humor in “A Traveling Salesman in the Gardens of Paradise.”
I quit one day, when the cops spotted me reading maps
spread across the steering wheel, and held me for hours
in the parking lot, suspected for stealing my own car.
The little cop wore sunglasses in the rain, asking repeatedly,
If I was wanted by the police. I don’t know, I said. Do you want me?
Other poems shed light on the brutal U.S.-backed Chilean regime of Augusto Pinochet. “The Swimming Pool at Villa Grimaldi” depicts torturers teaching their children to swim near where political prisoners are held.
Here the guards and officers would gather families
For barbeques. The interrogator coached his son:
Kick your feet. Turn your head to breathe.
The torturer’s hands braced the belly of his daughter,
Learning to float, flailing at her lesson.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez Have Been Deported, Leaving Six Children Behind with the Neighbors,” is based on an item in an email newsletter calling for donations of shoes for children aged 5 to 17.
Although Espada’s poems are clearly fueled by anger at widespread injustice, The Trouble Ball is also suffused with tenderness. “Isabel’s Corrido” recalls a “wedding” of convenience so an undocumented young woman “from a village where the elders/ spoke the language of the Aztecs” can live legally in the U.S. “People Like Us Are Dangerous” honors the boxer Carlos Ortiz even while showing him long after his glory days. Several poems celebrate the lives of people who have died, including Alexander “Sandy” Taylor, cofounder of Curbstone Press, and Howard Zinn.
Espada is an activist poet; I think it's in that spirit that he includes a generous section of notes that offer additional context to his poems and invite further study. A brief blog review can only give a snapshot view of the riches in this powerful collection. There will always be a place for well-written poems about starlit evenings, lost loves, and reveries of childhood, but poetry would have no meaning in society if it did not also include the work of poets like Martin Espada who look beyond the surface glitter of contemporary culture, who bear witness, and bring us the hard news from this all too real world we live in.
[Note: David Salner reads at The Writer's Center at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, July 24.]
By Martin Espada
(W.W. Norton, 2011)
66 pages, cloth
Reviewed by Sunil Freeman
Recently a poet friend complained about the disconnect between what’s happening in the world today–-with housing foreclosures, unemployment, labor struggles, environmental disasters, and ongoing wars-–and the broad picture as depicted in most contemporary poetry journals. She pointed to a shelf and said the poems there, good as they often are, rarely reflect the state of contemporary society.
There are exceptions. We agreed that many fine poets write about people left out of the American Dream. Jim Daniels and David Salner write powerful poems that honor working class lives. Patricia Smith, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, and several others come to mind. And, of course, there is Martin Espada.
Espada’s eleventh collection of poetry, The Trouble Ball, continues his tradition of poetic witness in books such as The Republic of Poetry, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The opening title poem is a tour de force, revisiting a day in 1941 at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field, when Espada’s 11 year old father, hoping to see the legendary Satchel Paige pitch, learned that Blacks were not allowed to play major league baseball.
It was then that the only brown boy at Ebbets field felt himself
levitate above the grandstand and the diamond, another banner
at the ballgame. From up high he could see that everyone was white,
and their whiteness was impossible, like snow in Puerto Rico,
I resist the urge to quote the entire poem. Along the way, Espada shares a treasure trove of baseball lore, including the names of pitches associated with Paige:
. . . he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball/ The
Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz,/
The Thoughtful Stuff. . . .
Anger is tempered with a streak of defiant humor in “A Traveling Salesman in the Gardens of Paradise.”
I quit one day, when the cops spotted me reading maps
spread across the steering wheel, and held me for hours
in the parking lot, suspected for stealing my own car.
The little cop wore sunglasses in the rain, asking repeatedly,
If I was wanted by the police. I don’t know, I said. Do you want me?
Other poems shed light on the brutal U.S.-backed Chilean regime of Augusto Pinochet. “The Swimming Pool at Villa Grimaldi” depicts torturers teaching their children to swim near where political prisoners are held.
Here the guards and officers would gather families
For barbeques. The interrogator coached his son:
Kick your feet. Turn your head to breathe.
The torturer’s hands braced the belly of his daughter,
Learning to float, flailing at her lesson.
“Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez Have Been Deported, Leaving Six Children Behind with the Neighbors,” is based on an item in an email newsletter calling for donations of shoes for children aged 5 to 17.
Although Espada’s poems are clearly fueled by anger at widespread injustice, The Trouble Ball is also suffused with tenderness. “Isabel’s Corrido” recalls a “wedding” of convenience so an undocumented young woman “from a village where the elders/ spoke the language of the Aztecs” can live legally in the U.S. “People Like Us Are Dangerous” honors the boxer Carlos Ortiz even while showing him long after his glory days. Several poems celebrate the lives of people who have died, including Alexander “Sandy” Taylor, cofounder of Curbstone Press, and Howard Zinn.
Espada is an activist poet; I think it's in that spirit that he includes a generous section of notes that offer additional context to his poems and invite further study. A brief blog review can only give a snapshot view of the riches in this powerful collection. There will always be a place for well-written poems about starlit evenings, lost loves, and reveries of childhood, but poetry would have no meaning in society if it did not also include the work of poets like Martin Espada who look beyond the surface glitter of contemporary culture, who bear witness, and bring us the hard news from this all too real world we live in.
[Note: David Salner reads at The Writer's Center at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, July 24.]
The Happy Writers
Joey Tuccio, a Facebook fan of ours, asked if he could share news of his company, The Happy Writers, with the TWC community. I said sure because I was curious. After all, "happy" and "writers" makes for an interesting conversation. I need to preface this post by stating that, while I'm, er, happy to post this information, it's not an official endorsement. Here's Joey:
After scouring the web for script consulting services, I was shocked to find that only a handful of these consultants actually live in Los Angeles. I'm sure the people living in Ohio are nice people, but how much do these people actually know? And furthermore, how connected are they? So I decided to start my own. I have covered scripts and books at such companies as Seed Productions (Hugh Jackman's production company), Smoke House (George Clooney's), Josephson Entertainment, Bold Films, Future Films and Gilbert Films.
My company, The Happy Writers, is composed of a very small, hand selected group of consultants that not only have impressive credentials, but a strong network of contacts that could potentially help you. We not only consult on your project, but we offer the opportunity to hand deliver good, commercial projects to our contact of agents, managers and/or production companies. Most consulting services offer basic coverage, which includes a page of synopsis plus a page of comments. But since you the writer already know the synopsis, you page hundreds of dollars for a page of comments, that usually don't offer any advice on HOW to make it better.
At The Happy Writers we offer 6-8 pages of notes on how to make your screenplay shine, plus you can email me as much as you want before or after your consultation. Our goal is not to take your money and run, but to be with you every step of the way so I can assist in making your dreams a reality. Check us out at www.thehappywriters.com. Happy Writing!
After scouring the web for script consulting services, I was shocked to find that only a handful of these consultants actually live in Los Angeles. I'm sure the people living in Ohio are nice people, but how much do these people actually know? And furthermore, how connected are they? So I decided to start my own. I have covered scripts and books at such companies as Seed Productions (Hugh Jackman's production company), Smoke House (George Clooney's), Josephson Entertainment, Bold Films, Future Films and Gilbert Films.
My company, The Happy Writers, is composed of a very small, hand selected group of consultants that not only have impressive credentials, but a strong network of contacts that could potentially help you. We not only consult on your project, but we offer the opportunity to hand deliver good, commercial projects to our contact of agents, managers and/or production companies. Most consulting services offer basic coverage, which includes a page of synopsis plus a page of comments. But since you the writer already know the synopsis, you page hundreds of dollars for a page of comments, that usually don't offer any advice on HOW to make it better.
At The Happy Writers we offer 6-8 pages of notes on how to make your screenplay shine, plus you can email me as much as you want before or after your consultation. Our goal is not to take your money and run, but to be with you every step of the way so I can assist in making your dreams a reality. Check us out at www.thehappywriters.com. Happy Writing!
Friday, April 22, 2011
Story/Stereo Tonight! 8p.m. at The Writer's Center
Story/Stereo #12 is tonight at The Writer's Center. Here's the lineup. Hope to see you there! It's an 8p.m. start as always, and it's free. Spread the word.
Emerging Writer Fellows:
Andrew Foster Altschul is the author of the novels Deus Ex Machina and Lady Lazarus, and co-editor, with Stacey D'Erasmo, of a forthcoming anthology, The Long Haul. His short fiction and essays have appeared in Esquire, Ploughshares, McSweeney's, Fence, One Story, StoryQuarterly, and anthologies such as Best New American Voices and O. Henry Prize Stories. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, he is currently the director of the Center for Literary Arts at San Jose State University and books editor of The Rumpus.
Eli Hastings is a Seattleite who works in social services and the arts. Currently he is pursuing an M.A. in Psychotherapy and working hard on a wild, edgy YA novel. His first book, Falling Room, was published in 2006. He's placed fiction and nonfiction in over a dozen journals and magazines, including Cimarron Review, Third Coast, and YES! Magazine and has been anthologized several times. He's won awards and been nominated for a Pushcart and four of his short stories are in pre-production as a feature film at Westbound Films. Hastings blogs and links to some published work at www.elihastings.blogspot.com. Really he just likes to throw things with his toddler, Paxton.
Musical guest:
Amy Domingues is a cellist, viola da gamba player, teacher, and composer residing in Arlington, VA. Ms. Domingues is active as a chamber musician in various classical ensembles and also as a recording artist in her own right. She has released two cello-driven folk-rock albums under the name Garland of Hours and has contributed her skills as a session musician on over fifty records by indie-rock, electronic and classical artists. In 2003, she co-composed the score to the Oscar-nominated documentary The Weather Underground with her Threnody Ensemble colleague Dave Cerf. Amy enjoys being a touring musician, having performed many times in the US, UK, Europe, and Japan. In addition to her work in Garland of Hours, she is an active performer of the viola da gamba and is currently pursuing a Masters of Early Music degree at the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore.
Emerging Writer Fellows:
Musical guest:
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