Discovery Friday: The Drum

This post originally appeared on Pagan Kennedy's Writer 2.0.

by Henriette Power

For a writer, I’ve been acting a little strange lately. I’ve been driving around eastern Massachusetts with a pre-amp and a pop screen and other assorted pieces of sound equipment in a large messenger bag, and wielding a folded-up microphone stand in one hand.


I’ve been poring over sound files, cutting out extra-long pauses and noticing that I’m starting to recognize the shape that particular words form in the sound waves of Garageband. I’ve been working with short fiction, making editing suggestions, commenting on tone. But none of it has involved looking at actual words.

May 1st marked the launch date for my new writing venture: The Drum, A Literary Magazine For Your Ears. The Drum is a lot like other online lit mags, except for one thing: the stories, novel excerpts, and essays it publishes exist only as sound files. This is writing out loud. Literature to listen to.

The idea for The Drum took shape some time over the summer, as I listened to audiobooks during long car drives and wondered why there couldn’t be an audio counterpart for short works. The idea seemed a natural for our iPhone age. With so many sources of information and entertainment jumping mediums, I had to believe that, somewhere, the literary magazine had undergone a similar transformation.

As I began to research the concept, I discovered that The Missouri Review posts a handful of its published works as audio files on its website; that Scarab magazine is an iPhone app that offers mostly poetry read aloud; that Poetry Speaks sells audio files of new and public-domain poems. Still, I found no magazine for prose that’s read aloud—no place that was just like a literary magazine except in a different medium.

I took the fateful step of mentioning my idea for an audio magazine to two friends. Rather than pat me on the arm and change the subject, they reacted with enthusiasm and—more dangerously—with names of people I should talk to in order to make the idea happen. With experience in non-profits and in radio, these two serve as The Drum’s first Contributing Editors. Over the next several months, and with help from these friends and a number of other people, I gradually put together the magazine you can find now at www.drumlitmag.com.

The process was fascinating. I learned that, thanks to the truth of six degrees of separation, you already know everyone you need to know to get practically everything done. A lawyer to draft the rights agreements? The mother of my daughter’s friend knew just the right person. A web-builder? My rowing coach referred me. A logo designer? Two rowing connections led to that one. How to incorporate and apply for 501(c)3 status? Another rower. Sound editing? My neighbor’s son. All fall, I turned all my friends into focus groups for one aspect of the magazine or another. There was no coffee-drinking or dinner that didn’t involve some sort of brain-picking on my part, if only for a moment. (Perhaps the biggest lesson here was: if you want to get something done, ask a rower.)

What continues to strike me the most about this new endeavor is how it reveals the paradox of the digital age: far from removing all humanity from our increasingly technologized lives, digitalization has made it more possible for individuals to produce and to connect. I will leave the discussion of standards, gatekeeping, and the decentralization of taste-making to another time. My point here is to observe the psychological and more personal effect that building a new digital magazine had on this one writer. I have never quite made peace with the notion that my success lies in someone else’s hands. I’m not particularly comfortable waiting. But building The Drum was like the best part of writing fiction: creating something out of thin air, making something, and then collaborating with others to bring the thing to life. Thanks to the digital world, there is more than one way for a writer to make a mark.

By the second half of April, I was ready to begin the actual recording. Boston’s Grub Street Writers very kindly allowed me to use their space as a central recording location. But that didn’t cover writers like Aimee Loiselle who lives in western Massachusetts. And I had already learned that a large, high-ceilinged room with no carpeting or curtains is not exactly an ideal recording studio. To save Aimee a long drive, and to save The Drum’s listeners from the sound of an echo chamber, I recorded her short story in her friends’ farmhouse midway between our two homes. When I pulled up on a raw, gray day, a horse was grazing beside the driveway, and a brush pile smoked across the road. The room we recorded in was perfect: a renovated 18th-century bedroom full of pillows and linens to stifle any errant sound waves.

It’s a good thing I love to drive. In one week alone, I recorded in a Back Bay apartment, the Park Plaza hotel, and homes in Franklin, Oxford, and Jamaica Plain. There were slight occupational hazards, like the train rumble in Porter Square, the dog barking in Annisquam, and another dog chewing loudly on a bone on Commonwealth Ave. All of it, wonderfully, could be edited away.

Now, as I continue to go from house to apartment to office, I joke that I’m the Story Catcher. But it’s kind of true. I go around capturing the American Short Story in its element, like a cross between a lepidopterist Nabokov and the legendary Alan Lomax, who recorded folk music throughout the US. My travels are a vivid reminder that there are stories everywhere, and there are great writers everywhere, eager to hear their words brought to life. To me, the short works I’m publishing in The Drum are the records of a new American folklore—the folklore of contemporary literary culture.

The Drum’s writers seem to share my excitement for this enterprise. They have clearly rehearsed for their recording sessions. Many come with water bottles, some with lozenges. They consider whether they’ll perform better sitting or standing. They get comfortable. We do a two-sentence test for the sound levels, and they adopt their reading voice, taking care to enunciate and maintain a steady pace. Listening to them read, I have one eye on the levels—and a hand ready on the knob—but I let myself get transported to the world they’re creating. It’s like having a story read to you in childhood. Only better, because you get to listen to it again and again without having to beg the reader.

And then something interesting happens. When the piece is done, The Drum’s writers thank me. But why? The Drum can’t pay contributors anything right now. It’s a young magazine whose readership is growing but hardly guaranteed. To me, it seems clear that it’s The Drum who is benefiting from these writers’ generosity. Yet there seems to be something about reading aloud that brings its own rewards. There’s another digital paradox: instead of detachment, technology creates and preserves immediacy. The Drum’s writers seem to feel that they’re reaching people in a new way. Even though it’s just me in the room (sometimes accompanied by a helper), they respond to the larger audience they know they can reach through something as simple as an mp3 file.

Find The Drum online at http://www.drumlitmag.com/

Pagan Kennedy reads at The Writer's Center's 33rd Birthday Celebration

Author Pagan Kennedy talks about her experience taking workshops at the The Writer's Center and her book The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex.

Writing the Future, Carolyn Forche/Pagan Kennedy Tickets Still Available. Plus Open House Workshop Specials!

This weekend is an EXTREMELY exciting one at The Writer's Center, with four major events in three days (read further for details). At the March 21 Open House, everyone in attendance will get the opportunity to see The Writer's Center's NEW WEB SITE—and learn about some of its special features—before the site launches later this spring. We're even throwing in some Open House bargains. Find out which workshop leaders are scheduled to attend here (but note that we’ll be adding more as the week goes on).

We've added several new workshops to our spring/summer session, including a Master Poetry Workshop with Maryland State Poet Laureate Stanley Plumly. In order to register for this workshop, you must be admitted by the workshop leader. PLEASE DO NOT register online or submit a payment unless you are accepted into the workshop. And please review guidelines carefully.

To view all of our upcoming workshops, visit http://www.writer.org/.

SUMMER WORKSHOPS FOR KIDSIs your son or daughter interested in a writing workshop? Did you know The Writer’s Center offers summer workshops for kids? To view a list of summer kids’ workshops, click on the banner along the top of this page.

NEWS:

Director (and workshop leader) Charles Jensen has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award. Congratulations, Charles!

WEEKEND EVENTS & DISCOUNTS

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 8:00 P.M. STORY/STEREO. FREE

Story/Stereo: A Night of Literature & Music welcomes visiting emerging writer fellows Kathleen Flenniken (Famous) and Anthony Varallo (Out Loud). The Musical guest: More Humans. We’ll also show the exciting trailer of the film Docs in Progress will debut at our upcoming LitArtlantic festival in May. Learn more here.

SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. WRITING THE FUTURE: A ONE-DAY CONFERENCE

The Writer's Center is stoked to offer this very unique opportunity for members and local writers. If you're a writer and want to know what the future holds in store for you, this is a must-see event. For the price of a one-day workshop, you get to see some of the most important writers and publishers in the industry. Up close and in person.

Admission: $90. Admission includes a FREE one-year subscription to the revamped Creative Nonfiction Magazine AND a FREE one-year membership to The Writer's Center. To view the entire schedule of events and to register, click here.

Here’s more about Writing the Future (and yes, we will be taking registarations on the day of the event):

WRITING THE FUTURE, a one-day, information packed conference for writers in all genres and media, reporters, editors, and publishers will explore and explain the transitions and innovations taking place in the literary and publishing worlds. Panelists include Nick Bilton, NY Times tech writer and interface specialist; Richard Nash, former editor of Soft Skull Press, social publishing visionary, and founder of Cursor; Carolyn Forche, poet and essayist; Tom Shroder, writer and former editor, The Washington Post; Jay Ogilvy, co-founder of Global Business Network; Lee Gutkind, author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think; and many, many more. This event is sponsored by The Creative Nonfiction Foundation, Arizona State University's Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes, and The Writer's Center.

That same evening, from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M., join Lee Gutkind and the editors of Creative Nonfiction for a FREE reception to honor the Creative Nonfiction re-launch. Here's your opportunity to mingle with the editors and some fine writers and creative minds.

SUNDAY, MARCH 21, OPEN HOUSE. NOON-2:00 P.M.

The Writer's Center has moved its Open House from April 10 to March 21 at NOON--right before our 33rd Birthday reading (rescheduled from Snowmageddon in January). The Open House is FREE and open to everyone. As usual, you’ll be able to meet individually with workshop leaders and get feedback on what workshops are right for you. And now we're offering specials:

Everyone in attendance at the Open House will receive a $25 coupon on a Spring/Summer 2010 workshop.

Additional $25 coupons will be available on selected spring/summer workshops, which we'll announce at the Open House only. That means a potential value of $50.

Restrictions: Cannot be combined with other offers. Cannot be used on completed workshops, or workshops you're currently registered in. The selected workshop sale is for the Open House only.

CONTESTS:

Name the E-newsletter contest

Favorite Writer Quote contest

At the Open House, we're going to open two ongoing contests in conjunction with our new Web site. With our new Web site we'll be going to a snazzier, more reader-friendly version of a newsletter, and we'd like your help coming up with a good name for it. We'll announce details (and prizes for the winners) at the Open House and next week on Facebook.

We'll also announce details on our Favorite Writer Quote contest at the Open House, and what you can win.

SUNDAY, MARCH 21, BIRTHDAY READING WITH CAROLYN FORCHE AND PAGAN KENNEDY, 2:00 P.M.

Following the Open House, stick around as Pagan Kennedy and Carolyn Forche help celebrate The Writer's Center's 33rd Birthday. A champagne reception will follow this event. Admission: $20. Register here.

Pagan Kennedy's Writer 2.0

This has been a busy, busy week to say the least. I spent a great morning on a publishing and writing panel at the Department of State. Part of what I talked about had to do with the changes taking place in publishing. So this seems like a good time to give a shout out to one of The Writer's Center's "alumni", Pagan Kennedy, who'll be visiting us twice this weekend: First at Writing the Future, as a panelist, and then at the 33rd Birthday Reading with Carolyn Forche on Sunday. (Right after the Open House.)

Just today, she launched a brand new Web site for writers: Writer.2.0. And at first glance it looks really impressive. Everything from the future of books to how to pitch to This American Life. Lots of information for writers. Check it out: Writer 2.0.

The Dangerous Joy of Pagan Kennedy

On January 30, Pagan Kennedy will return to The Writer's Center for the first time in 28 years. She will be one of two special readers at our 33rd birthday celebration (the other is Carolyn Forche). I wrote this piece for the winter issue of The Carousel and I thought I'd post it during the off week between Christmas and New Year's (when The Writer's Center is closed).

When she was a student at Holton Arms high school in the late 1970s, Pagan Kennedy says she was a little “weird.” She was a voracious reader with a curious intellect, the kind that makes others either envious or afraid. After her first year of college, in 1981, she decided she’d enroll in a fiction writing workshop at The Writer’s Center.


The decision would have a tremendous impact on her life.

“I went into college thinking I was going to work with animals,” she says, “but the teacher was very supportive. He made us tell stories out loud, and that gave me the confidence to see myself as a writer.”

The story she told during the class was about farming slugs in Argentina. “There were these giant slugs that had to be farmed by Slug Boys,” she remembers. “The slime was used as super glue.” The story proved extremely valuable to her development as a writer. “I now had this story and I started to tell it to friends. Writing suddenly wasn’t this thing you did in school.”

Though she doesn’t remember the name of the workshop leader, she remembers the feel of the workshop. “It was part of the effervescence of the 70s hippy community: a hands-on crafty empowerment movement that writing was a part of. It wasn’t just about going on to becoming a professional writer. It was community based and small, not ambitious in the American way. That appealed to me.” And when the workshop was over, the instructor ran out to the parking lot after the final class and told her to keep writing.

She did. During the 1980s, she became the Queen of ‘zines by publishing a string of small chapbook-like editions that explored the crazy ephemera of modern life during the Reagan-era from a young woman’s point of view. She credits her experience at The Writer’s Center with those early efforts; the focus on craft and the focus on telling a good story well, no matter the size of the audience—these were the driving forces behind the ‘zines. Though she’d never imagined she’d make a career of writing, those small ‘zines drew national attention. Among the many who noticed was a young Bethesda Chevy Chase high school student, Andrew Gifford, who in 1999 went on to found his own publishing company—the Santa Fe Writers Project.

“Pagan Kennedy’s early work was inspirational to me,” Gifford says. “Not only did it drive me to create my own ‘zine, but her quirky, journalistic approach influenced the voice of the publishing company I started in high school—the prototype of the one I run now. I looked for the weird, the off-beat, the experimental writers. I still do.”

In 2006, Gifford approached Kennedy and asked if she was interested in publishing a book with him. The result was a collection of nonfiction essays called The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories, a collection of essays about the kind of rugged American individualist that appeals to Kennedy: people trying to make the country and the world a better place.

Much like Kennedy herself. With a successful writing career including ten novels (and a short-listing for the prestigious Orange Prize), award-winning nonfiction books, and now a teaching gig at Dartmouth College behind her, she looks back fondly at her short time at The Writer’s Center.

“I was such a weird kid,” she recalls. “But that workshop was when I realized my weirdness could be a plus instead of a minus. I could share my weird world with people.”

***


Pagan Kennedy is the author of ten books in a variety of genres- from cultural history to biography to the novel. A regular contributor to the Boston Globe, she has published articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including several sections of The New York Times. A biography titled Black Livingstone made the New York Times Notable list and earned Massachusetts Book Award honors. Her most recent novel, Confessions of a Memory Eater, was featured in Entertainment Weekly as an "EW pick." Another novel, Spinsters, was short-listed for the Orange Prize. She also has been the recipient of a Barnes and Noble Discover Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Fiction, and a Smithsonian Fellowship for science writing. Visit her online at http://www.pagankennedy.net/.

Carolyn Forche to Read at Annual Birthday Event

Great news. Carolyn Forche has just been added to our birthday event in January. She will read with Orange Prize finalist and Writer's Center "alumnus" Pagan Kennedy. Should be a highly memorable evening. More information will be posted when it's available. In the meantime, here's a bio of Forche:

Known as a “poet of witness,” Carolyn Forché is the author of four books of poetry. Her first poetry collection, Gathering The Tribes (Yale University Press, 1976), won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. In 1977, she traveled to Spain to translate the work of Salvadoran-exiled poet Claribel Alegría, and upon her return, received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which enabled her to travel to El Salvador, where she worked as a human rights advocate.

Her second book, The Country Between Us (Harper and Row, 1982), received the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and was also the Lamont Selection of the Academy of American Poets. In 1994, her third book of poetry, The Angel of History (HarperCollins), was chosen for The Los Angeles Times Book Award. Her fourth book of poems, Blue Hour, was published by HarperCollins in Spring 2003.

Her translation of Alegria's work, Flowers From The Volcano, was published by the University Pittsburgh Press in 1983, and that same year, Writers and Readers Cooperative (New York and London) published El Salvador: Work of Thirty Photographers, for which she wrote the text. In 1991, The Ecco Press published her translations of The Selected Poetry of Robert Desnos (with William Kulik). Her articles and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, Esquire, Mother Jones, and others. Forché has held three fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1992 received a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship.