Big Tent at the Raven Bookstore
BIG TENT: Stories and Poems in Three Acts
Thursday, April 22
7PM @ The Raven
Grant Jenkins poetry
Cheryl Pallant poetry
Nate Barbarick fiction
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Grant Matthew Jenkins, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Writing Program, teaches contemporary literature and creative writing at the University of Tulsa. He has published two books of poetry, Joy of God and Other Series (Blackbird, 2003) and the most recent in collaboration with Cheryl Pallant, Morphs (Cracked Slab 2009). His poems appear in Birddog, Cannibal, Sugar Mule, Syntax, Action Yes, and Big Bridge. Other creative projects include work with digital flash poetry, image, and sound and can be found online at Turbulence.org and YouTube
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Cheryl Pallant is a writer and dancer with three poetry books, three chapbooks, and a book on dance. Her highly acclaimed books include Uncommon Grammar Cloth, Into Stillness, and Contact Improvisation. Her recently released work is the poetry collection Morphs, collaboratively written with Tulsan Grant Jenkins. Although Pallant calls Richmond, VA home, this year she holds the Lubell Visiting Assistant Professorship and teaches creative writing in the English Department at the University of Tulsa. See her website for more information http://cherylpallant.com/
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Nathan Clay Barbarick (pictured right) is a name I use in literary situations because it takes up the right amount of space. I study and teach writing at the university of the 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Champions. Am also seeking summer 2010 employment. Not that I am desperate to work; I am only desperate to stay living. The human contains only so much fluid that can be sold, and if you wear a disguise or use a fake ID they will notice you anyways and turn you away. At the Raven I will read small pieces of (non)fiction, that is, fictions that shouldn’t be nor should have ever been, but somehow are.
Mile High City
Last week I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2010 Conference in Denver, Colorado. Just under 10,000 writers descended on the Mile High City to talk, to meet each other, and to listen to discussions about all manner of things literary: Writing, editing, and publishing, to name a few. Everyone had a booth, including the KU-MFA program and the Kansas Bathtub Writers Collective.
Among other things, I bought this issue of The Paris Review, #18, Spring 1958, which contains an interview with Ernest Hemingway (The Art of Fiction) and a story by Philip Roth. This is not a reprinting; it's the original issue. The managing editor, Caitlin Roper, said she often brings extras to sell at events like AWP. Later that night I saw her give a talk at Denver's famous bookstore, the Tattered Cover.
I was lucky enough to spend some time with my friends, including Abayomi Animashaun, whose book The Giving of Pears recently won the Hudson Prize for Poetry.
Sawtelle Dogs
Last
night I drove into Kansas City to see David Wroblewski, author of The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, speak at
Unity Temple on the Plaza. First he read a chapter called "Almondine" from the
paperback edition of his book.
Afterward, he took questions for the better
part of forty minutes.
Before
he opened up the floor, though, he detailed his theory of novels--he said, in
fact, that novels' purpose is to create a dual world for the reader, a world
where you're waking up and having coffee and going to the doctor, but, in the
meantime, you're wondering, What are the people in that novel getting up to? He
said lots of people think this is a side effect of reading novels, but, he
said, he thinks it's the main purpose of a good book.
He made it sound almost
like long, good novels are companions for us as we travel through our lives.
He
also talked about how he learned to write and craft novels--through computer
programming. He said, Not to get too artsy about it, but first drafts for him
are like making clay to sculpt later. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle took him 15 years to write.
He talked about linguistics and animal
behavior. He answered some questions about an Edgar Sawtelle movie and about the next book he's writing, but I don't want to discuss it too much because who knows how much is meant to be public information. The new book, he said, is not part of a trilogy, but the books are triptych.
He
also talked about novels as "braided objects" where themes, images,
characters--or anything, really--will emerge, travel briefly on the surface, and
submerge again. These braids appear later on and that's part of the fun.
After
the reading and the Q & A, during the signing, I asked him what novel
exemplified his ideas about the novel as a form, and he said in his MFA program
there was a group of writers who were devoted fans of a book called So
Long, See You Tomorrow, a novel by William Maxwell.
I
ordered the book today on Amazon. It seems that Maxwell, the former fiction
editor of The New Yorker, was praised
by John Updike as "one of the wisest and kindest [voices] in American fiction."
You can learn a lot more about Maxwell (and read some of his writing) by clicking
over to NPR's website.
Dueling Typewriters
Lawrence, KS - This November, in the midst of National Novel Writing Month, champions* of literacy in Kansas, the almost-but-not-quite-fabled Bathtub Writers' Collective, will stand up for their literacy initiatives... by sitting down
at an antique typewriter.
The Dueling Typewriters 2009 Charity Write-Off will benefit Bathtub's programs for Lawrence and Kansas communities, especially our version of Writers in the Schools (WITS). The grueling competition will pit man and woman and machine against one another in what can only be described as a life-threatening and irresponsible spectacle.
Also, since this will be November, and the duel will be held outdoors, it will probably be very, very cold. Medical professionals may or may not be standing by to offer encouraging words, to mix up hot chocolate, and to check the writers for signs of Sudden Onset Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (SOCTS). Not to mention frostbite.
If you'd like to participate in Dueling Typewriters 2009, or if you'd like to sponsor your favorite wordslinger or wordsmith or some such thing, contact Benjamin D. Cartwright immediately. You may also email the collective at bkswriters@gmail.com.
*We use the term 'champions' loosely and metaphorically in this sentence.
Kansas Bathtub Writers’ Collective
Are you a writer in Kansas? A writer who loves Kansas? And do you feel lonely? Drift aimlessly no more -- the Kansas Bathtub is the place for you. Begun by students at the University of Kansas, especially the M.F.A. and Ph.D. in Creative Writing programs, the Bathtub collective is a group of writers who just want to have fun and write well. We gather at least every two weeks to talk about writing, organize community programs like Writers in the Schools, and to eat good food and drink good drinks.
If you're interested in the collective, which is not officially part of KU in any way, you can find out more about them by clicking over to KansasBathtub.org.
AWP in 2010
I'll be participating in the 2010 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
conference in Denver, CO, as part of a panel with Brian Shawver, Jane Hoogestraat, D. Gilson, and Linda
Moser. The panel discussion focuses on the standardization of creative
writing curriculums.
From the proposal by Dr. Moser:
Creative Conformity: Standardizing Fiction and Poetry Courses. This
panel focuses on Missouri State University's recent attempts to
standardize the curriculum of its multi-section introductory creative
writing courses. We will present the rationale underlying the decision
to standardize, and we will discuss the processes by which we selected
the standard texts, topics, and methods. Finally, we will share the
effects of the project on student performance, assessment and graduate
student mentoring.
If you'll be at the conference in Denver, April 7th - April 10th 2010,
please drop by and join the discussion!
San Francisco Writers’ Grotto
Two weeks ago, while on business in San Francisco, I took time off from my research to attend the San Francisco Writers' Grotto sampler course in Personal Essay and Memoir writing. The class, taught by Linda Fraser, was an excellent taste of San Francisco's literary scene.
For those who want to write professionally, I would recommend you seek out writers like those who populate the Grotto: professional writers, or, that is to say, practicing writers. By the same token, many universities have practicing writers in residence. Nothing offers practice in writing like the writing-intensive courses in an MFA. However you get it, from an MFA or from a Grotto-like community, advice from real writers publishing regularly is invaluable to the up-and-coming writer. Don't think you can go it alone. As always, the best way to get good advice is to be quiet and to listen.
If anyone is interested in the Grotto's classes, you can find a schedule of Fall classes online here.
The University of Kansas
Since I last wrote something here, in April 2009, much has come to pass. I decided to accept an instructor position at KU. The job will pay for my tuition and will also afford me a (modest) stipend. This is the best way to get an MFA and a PhD. My wife, Sarah, landed a wonderful job close by where we live. She's making more money and she's excited about her new job: marketing shoes.
Besides moving, and our wedding and honeymoon, I spent a lot of time with my father pulling up the carpet and laying down hardwood in our new house. My dad has been indispensable this summer; he knows how to do so much. And now, thanks to his hard work, the house is almost finished. All that remains is the odd job here and there.
I spent two weeks in San Francisco in July. Researching, walking around, absorbing the city. I'm planning to redraft some old stories set in the city by the bay soon. In the meantime, my short story "The Lexicon of the Sword" will appear in the upcoming Moon City Review 2009, which will be an anthology with award-winning and nationally-recognized authors in it. Reports of Updike letters showing up in those pages, though, were premature: Although MSU has the letters, Updike's estate is greatly restricting publishing permissions. From what I hear, Updike himself expected as much, but it means that what will appear in the book is a scholarly article dealing with the substance of the letters, not the letters themselves.
In other news, I will be participating in a panel discussion in the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in April 2010. The panel, which includes Brian Shawver, D. Gilson, Jane Hoogestraat, and Linda Moser, will deal with the issue of standardizing a creative writing course curriculum. The conference will be in Denver, Colorado, and the keynote address will be given by Michael Chabon.
Now that I'm settled down, the wedding, honeymoon, and move are over, I'll try to keep up more with this blog.
Prolific Times
Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
A quick visit to Barnes & Noble reveals the depth and insight of Cicero's crotchety quote. Shelf after shelf of books. No end in eight. Not to complain, because most of these books I love. I don't believe in high and low art. Some people decry the poor writing; I think it's fine. But how could Cicero have known, so long ago, that this would become a problem? The sheer amount of text is staggering. A person could never, ever read it all. Did Marcus Tullius foretell the advent of laptops, blogs, desktop publishing, and the democratization of technology?
In this prolific age, Amazon, book reviews, and the recommendations of friends have become more important than ever before as we slog through a never-ending tide of information.
The Read Well Bookstore
Do you enjoy the posts on Write Well? The tips, essays, and, perhaps most importantly, the interviews on Ask the Writer? Did you happen to catch the interviews with Dennis Lehane, Kevin Brockmeier, and Benjamin Percy, among others?
Did it make you want to read their books?
And if you could give back -- at no cost or hassle to yourself -- would you?
I'm pleased to announce the Read Well Amazon-affiliate bookstore. It's just like Amazon, except a small percentage of the money you spend goes back to support the efforts of Write Well.
The prices are the same. It has the same hassle-free navigation as Amazon, the "We also recommend..." links, the customer and starred reviews, the ultra-secure shopping cart, check-out, and shipping. You can see the search box on the right -- an exact duplicate, isn't it?
You even use the same user name and password that you use on Amazon.
As a bonus, though, we've tailored the Read Well store to our site. For example, the opening page is populated by authors who answered questions on Ask the Writer. You can buy Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone, Ben Percy's Refresh, Refresh, and Kevin Brockmeier's The Brief History of the Dead, along with all the other books and movies featured on those pages (be sure to click over at the bottom of the page, so you can see all of the section).
The second link, A Writer's Toolbox (again, pictured on the right) features all the best books on fiction technique, especially the ones referenced in posts on this site -- John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist, Francine Prose's Reading Like A Writer, and Betsy Lerner's The Forest for the Trees. It also includes, on the second page, a link to the textbook Missouri State's Creative Writing faculty uses when we teach English 215: Introduction to Short Story Writing (this, of course, would be Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 7th Ed. by Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French).
Recent Posts
- Burn Them Down
- Tip #2: Writing for Its Own Sake
- Tip #1: One Piece At a Time
- The Hemingway Solution
- Big Tent at the Raven Bookstore
What I'm Doing...
- Kansas City Race for the Cure 5k. 2010-08-08
- #Reading "13 Ways of Looking at the #Novel quot; by Jane Smiley http://amzn.to/d1O4KP 2010-07-22
- Ian McDonald's DERVISH HOUSE, superb novel of the mystical nano future of Istanbul - Boing Boing http://bit.ly/aIOp3u 2010-07-12
- Wow, fiction works!—By @colsonwhitehead (Harper's Magazine) http://bit.ly/cQUHjA 2010-07-12
- NPR: Michael Chabon: On What 'Manhood' Means-More at http://n.pr/128087770 2010-07-05
- More updates...