11 Questions for Stephanie Johnson
How do you make these graphics of the book cover standing up, showing fake pages?
I sent 11 questions to Stephanie Johnson about her book, One of These Things Is Not Like the Others, just out from Keyhole, and she wrote back thanking me for my close reading. But such thanks are unnecessary; the book demands and rewards it. If you don’t read One of These Things with a keen eye, it’s possible to miss out on some of the best writing in a year of great writing. I rank Johnson’s book with two of my other favorites of 2009, AM/PM by Amelia Gray and Big World from Mary Miller. It’s not because they’re all women that I make the comparison, or because of the flash sensibilities, but because they all share a profoundly affecting emotional core that, geyserlike, does most of its work below the surface.
Speaking of below the surface, Stephanie Johnson’s answers to my eleven questions are below the fold. READ MORE >
A Book That Books What A Book Would Do
Does anybody know anything about this book, The City and the City? I heard it discussed on Morning Edition today and had one of those driveway moments or whatever. It sounds flabbergasting. Apparently, it’s a detective story that takes place in a city that has another city right on top of it — but not, like, above it — both cities occupy the same space. It was funny to hear Robert Siegel trying to wrap his mind around it.
I don’t know more than that, but here’s a good review at The Guardian. I’ve never read anything by China Miéville, but this concept has me intrigued enough to maybe buy his book from wherever people buy these books from and bring it on the road with me next week.
The Interview Awards: Rivka Galchen
Interviews with novelists seem to always run the risk of being completely inane. (So…. how’d you come up with the plot of your book? Your protagonist is craa-aazy! How ’bout that? ) A lot of interviews have the same confused, polite tone. If you haven’t read the book they’re talking about then the interview might not make any sense but if you have read it, the interview might be boring. Either that or the writer ends up just talking about their “process” (3 hours every day, only after midnight, in the bathtub… blahblahblah…) which can be interesting sometimes but is often dull.
Somehow, though, I like reading these interviews despite having a lot to complain about. Rivka Galchen gives particularly good ones so I’ve decided to give her three highly arbitrary HTMLgiant awards based on one interview in The L Magazine.
Best alternative to just saying “Um, No.”:
The L: The omnipresent character Tzvi Gal-Chen is named after your father. Is there significance behind the names of any of the other characters?
RG: If you take all the letters of the names of the different characters, shuffle them, then transpose their value an X increment, it reveals the terrifying and silent name of the God of our divine disorder.
READ MORE >
Rob McLennan interviews Ken Sparling
Excellent 12 or 20 question interview with Ken Sparling over at Rob McLennan’s blog, about Sparling’s next book, Lish, editing, process, etc. “I haven’t met many editors who can make themselves essential. The only way to do that is to get carnal with the work you’re editing, fuck with it, cross things out, move things around, maybe even add things in.”
Today at Coop’s Place: It’s MIKE YOUNG Day!
Highlights of the Day include several more videos of MY’s music project, The Cinnamon Urns, plus links to Young-authored literature around the web, and excerpts from the MC Oroville chapbook. Of course, every day is MIKE YOUNG DAY in the collective heart of this blog, but a thousand cheers to you all the same. And bonus points to anyone who catches the titular reference in the video in this post. Double bonus points to anyone who posts a link to the *other* song that borrows that line for a title. (I’ll give you a hint: It’s much much worse than Mike’s song.) ((Triple bonus points for anyone who heard the phrase “Mike’s Song,” and instantly thought “Weekapaug Groove,” then felt a little bad inside, but also a little good.))
Let’s Get to Know Darcie Dennigan
I was reading Alexis Orgera’s blog last night, and she had posted something about something Tony Hoagland wrote about “the cult of Dean Young” in American Poetry Review, and some subsequent vituperative blogging induced thereby. But what caught my attention was something Alexis mentioned in passing, while talking about something John Gallaher said about Hoagland’s piece. “I do like that Gallaher calls Hoagland out for defining the new American poetry by young, white men. I think two of the most interesting and fearless young poets right now are women: Darcie Dennigan and Dorothea Lasky.” This, to me, is infinitely more interesting than whether Tony Hoagland thinks Dean Young is being trampled to death by geese or not. What’s especially infinitely interesting is the fact that I’ve never even heard of Darcie Dennigan. (Pretty sure I’m on-record as a fan of Dottie L’s, but if not, let this be that record.) Or I thought I’d never heard of her. It actually turns out that DD is the author of Corinna A-Maying the Apocalypse, a book I most definitely remember hearing about. It came out from Fordham University Press last year, after winning their Poets Out Loud prize. So let’s all get to know Darcie Dennigan.
– Matt Hart reviews Corinna at Coldfront
– “Orienteering in the Land of New Pirates” is a poem by DD in H_NGM_N #6.
– “The Canon Come Again: Same Themes, Different Centuries” is an essay by DD at the Poetry Foundation.
– Raymond McDaniel at Boston Review also digs Corinna.
– Paul Vermeersch had the same idea as I did about DD, and already did more legwork than I’m going to. So for more, go over to his blog and see what he’s rounded up.
I Remember
Joe Brainard‘s I Remember is seriously keeping me from punching my own head in today. Refreshing in a way I’ve needed for a while. Calm, quiet, funny, right. People have been ripping this guy off for years.
I remember my first erections. I thought I had some terrible disease or something.
I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.
I remember when my father would say “Keep your hands out from under the covers” as he said goodnight. But he said it in a nice way.
I remember when I thought that if you did anything bad, policemen would put you in jail.
Devine Interview
An English sentence can expand and expand and it can do it with conjunctions (or clauses) — also qualifiers like adjectives and adverbs — but a greatly expanded English sentence is not so different from an English sentence that hasn’t been greatly expanded.
An Interview with Andy Devine
by
Josh Maday
(in the newest installment of elimae)
Home Alone by Raymond Carver
I was standing in front of the living room window, my reflection half transparent, drinking a gin and tonic. My family had left me alone for the holidays; I just didn’t feel up for the motions and devotions necessary to complete the season. That was the thing with years: there were always more. My face through the window seemed lakelike; each squint, as I tried to make myself out, a little ripple moving outwards towards the world at large. The failed hail of snow had fallen. Two men knocked on the door and I started to run away.
That was mine, yah, sorry. Now it’s your turn to give it a go in the comments section — nothing too long, just a couple of sentences. Others are welcome to critique entrees; why is it or isn’t it Carver? Let’s try to find out what it was he* did, and how he* did it. (*Yah, Lish, I know.) For me, Carver is romantic without being romantic. It’s reticent emotional hyperbole, which is like, uh, really difficult. Good luck!
Interview with Liza Monroy
Liza Monroy’s debut novel, Mexican High, came out last summer (2008) from Speigel & Grau and the paperback was released a few months ago. The novel’s protagonist is Mila, a high school senior who moves to Mexico City when her mother gets a job in the embassy. There’s already a lot of dramatic potential in a high schooler’s life, and adding in the class tensions, rampant drug use and oppulent wealth of the expensive prep school where Mila lands just makes the drama of adolescence that much more high stakes. It’s a wonder there aren’t a lot more novels set in high school. I interviewed Liza over email…CL: You’ve said in an interview that the years you lived in Mexico City stuck with you and inspired you to write Mexican High. What do you think it is about a place or a city that often wrenches a story out of a writer?
LM: I am enormously influenced by place. As an only child with a single mom who moved around all the time, I got to spend a lot of time alone growing up in foreign countries and on weekends and holidays all Mom wanted to do was travel, so that was a huge thing for me, taking in places. READ MORE >