Justin Taylor is the author of the story collection Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever, and the novel The Gospel of Anarchy. He is the editor of The Apocalypse Reader, Come Back Donald Barthelme, and co-editor (with Eva Talmadge) of The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide. With Jeremy Schmall he makes The Agriculture Reader, a limited-edition arts annual. He lives in Brooklyn.
First a reminder that The New York Tyrant event for #7 and for BABY LEG BY BRIAN EVENSON kicks off in just a few hours. Details at Blake’s post from the other day.
Also, I am reading on Monday 11/23 at PS122, with the Wu Ming Collective, that group of Italians who write novels together. I will (probably) be reading from my novel-in-progress. If I don’t chicken out or otherwise lose my shit, this will be the first public reading of material from the ostensible “book.” I don’t know what Wu Ming will be doing. Details at the event’s Facebook page.
Some people have asked me what happened to my CRW101 posts on this site. The answer is that I stopped writing them, because after we read Cymbeline, the nature of the class shifted and we went into workshop mode. Since we’re now reading student work and not publicly available work, it doesn’t leave me with a whole lot to share. But, before that change happened–or rather, I guess, on the cusp of it–I did something I almost never do in any class I teach: I prepared a lecture and then I delivered it. The lecture was on the nature of revision, and was helpfully entitled “Revision: An Almost Obscenely Brief Overview.” Increasingly I wonder about the necessity of that qualifier, “almost,” but as we approach the end of the semester, and the due date of their final, some of my students have asked if I would make the lecture available (possibly because I promised to do it at the time, then forgot to) and so I’ve decided to post it here. The “lecture,” such as it is, runs just about 2000 words, and it doesn’t attempt to be in any sense comprehensive. It is intended for an audience of beginning writing students, some of whom may be encountering the concepts of editing and revision for the first time. It is divided into two parts. The first part discusses how–and if–to develop material from in-class exercises (and/or free-writes) into workable and work-with-able drafts. The second part outlines two basic principles of editing–adding stuff, taking stuff away–and the advantages of reading your work aloud and editing by ear. The whole thing demonstrates a clear bias towards realist prose fiction–especially in its examples–but the attempt was made to be inclusive, and most of these notions should be adaptable for use by anyone.
What do I know about C.E. Morgan? Not much. Basically, three things. (1) She wrote a novel called All The Living. (2a) Christine Schutt chose her as one of the “5 under 35” thing that the National Book Awards does. To me a Schutt recommendation is as good as gold, and knowing that one of my favorite authors admires this book is enough to make me want to own it immediately. Anyway, from the NBA page I also know that she (2a) has a master’s in theology, and (2b) is beautiful. (3a) She wrote this essay for Largehearted Boy where she provides an expansive introduction to classical music, which I have been desperate for someone to provide me with for some time. (3b) Here’s a short story called “Over By Christmas” that was published in the New York Times last year. So cheers to you, C.E.! Glad to know (of) you. Will report back to ya’ll re the book as soon as there’s something to say.
via Brooklyn Vegan, with a hat tip to my friend Maggie. Set the video to fullscreen if you’ve got a lick of sense.
Dan, Brighton England - text from Neuromancer by William Gibson
Some of you may remember that back in July, I posted a call for submissions to a book of photographs of literary tattoos. The book, The Word Made Flesh: Literary Tattoos from Bookworms Worldwide (edited by Eva Talmadge & Justin Taylor) has since become a reality, and will be published by Harper Perennial, probably next fall. Why am I telling you this? Because even though we have received hundreds of delightful and sometimes insane submissions, we are still collecting through the end of 2009, and we want you to be in our book. The process is very simple: (1) have a literary tattoo; (2) take a clear, focused, high-res photograph of that tattoo; (3) email that photograph as a jpeg attachment to tattoolit[at]gmail[dot]com, along with a paragraph or so talking about the tattoo and/or the literary work that inspired it, plus as much or as little personal data (name, location, etc.) as you feel like sharing (but even if you stay anon., please please give credit to your tattooist & their shop!). That’s all there is to it. Unless of course you don’t have a literary tattoo yet, in which case simply insert “get a literary tattoo” as (1), re-number the rest of the list accordingly, and proceed. And if you do get a literary tattoo just for the purpose of being in this book, make sure you mention that in your note. It will light us right up. Also, process pics! We’ve seen a few of these and they are great.
For more details about image resolution and tech stuff (if the file isn’t usable, it doesn’t matter how rad your ink is) have a look at our original call for subs, or just email us with your questions. (A lot of people wonder if their tattoo “counts” as literary–the answer is usually yes, so just ask.) And please feel free (encouraged!) to link to, re-blog, and fwd along this post to any person or online community you think might be interested. We want to make the best, fattest, wildest book that we possibly can. Thanks, and cheers.
Here is a poem I enjoyed a lot. If you click the poem’s title you will find more poems to enjoy by this enjoyable author. After you do that, you can click around the website and find other enjoyable authors. Perfect system, am I right?
Getting Lucky in June
Long Island has a certain sinister allure.
My best friend and I went to the mall
for vitamin face-lifts and scrambled egg
whites: she, an adorable, Japanese club-kid
and me, a ladylike wiseguy. We met a playful trio
of beachy-nudes in nurse shoes, heavy-handed
with the blush—like, too much pink. The rich
are different from you and me. My ultimate
statementy item would be a slick Snoopy
timepiece or old-school ylang-ylang. I can’t
see myself eating face cream at a Hollywood
power breakfast. I’m happy being my husband’s
utilitarian pin-up girl, subversive little hotcake;
sweet gypsy thrown round his neck, barely there.
Hey, The Rumpus scored an interview with Paul Auster. Way to go, Juliet Linderman!
Also, for ya’ll NYC’ers, The Rumpus is at the Highline Ballroom tonight for their monthly shindig. This round features Starlee Kine, Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, Todd Barry, Eugene Mirman, Care Bears on Fire (which the website describes as quote kid-core, which I assume is Spanish for “must be seen to be believed”), and special surprise guests TBA–well not TBA actually, I don’t think they’ll be A’d at all, which is why you want to go, so you can find out who they are.
But let’s just pick one of the people we actually know will be there–and we’ll do it random–and talk about what we think of them. Okay, uh, Todd Barry. Have you ever seen Todd Barry? Todd Barry’s a funny dude. I’ve seen Todd Barry. I laughed at Todd Barry, which is just what Todd Barry wanted. He wants it, I whispered to the girl sitting next to me. And she nodded back, because it was true. There was also another time I saw Todd Barry, but I’m pretty sure that time I was sitting next to a guy. Oh, look, here’s Todd Barry now.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc7nnpv0Otw&
Published a couple weeks ago in the NYT, but I didn’t know about it till I saw it linked on Amber Noelle Sparks’s blog, which itself is today’s fun new discovery.