Classic Word Spaces (3): Maxim Gorky
One of the writers’ houses/flats that I visited in Russia was that of Maxim Gorky, born Alexei Maximovich Peshkov (b. 1868), who would later become a significant influence upon Soviet Russian literature and socialist realism. I had not read any of Gorky’s writing before visiting his house; however, I had become familiar with his name in the other books I had read before the trip. I recall reading, for example, that Gorky had intervened on Yevgeny Zamyatin’s behalf, convincing Stalin to allow Zamyatin to leave Russia after the publication of We, which saved his life. Ronald Wilks, the translator of my edition of Gorky’s book My Childhood, writes in the introduction: “As a close friend of Stalin, he had immense influence on the progress of literature and arts in Soviet Russia and there is no doubt that he was the driving force behind the creation of a modern Soviet literature.” Gorky’s house, then, to me, was an important landmark, and I’m thankful that my wife’s family tolerated my insisting we visit the place.
Word Spaces (13): Elizabeth Ellen
Elizabeth Ellen is the author of Before You She Was A Pitbull (Future Tense Books 2006), and has work featured in two chapbook collectives: A Peculiar Feeling Of Restlessness (Rose Metal Press 2008) and Fox Force 5 (forthcoming from Paper Hero Press). She is a Deputy Editor at Hobart and edits Short Flight/Long Drive, Hobart‘s books division. Stories/poems of hers can be found in print issues of Hobart, Sleepingfish, Keyhole, Opium, and online in Waccamaw, Dogzplot, ActionYes, Juked, and 3AM.
I wish I had met Elizabeth at AWP. I think I spoke to her once, but I never found the courage to introduce myself. I don’t really have a rational explanation for my being timid, and I realize how silly of me it was to worry about that sort of thing. I think, though, it had to do with my feeling awe, maybe, in her presence. Elizabeth Ellen’s was one of the first names I remember seeing everywhere when I began to discover that writers had made their way onto the internet.
So it makes me really happy to post Elizabeth Ellen’s word space/essay for you.
Word Spaces (12): Amelia Gray
Amelia Gray is the author of AM/PM (featherproof) and Museum of the Weird (forthcoming from FC2). She recently won the FC2 Fiction Prize. I’ve linked to a page on her website that lists many publications online that you may read over. Also, here’s an audio recording of Amelia’s reading from AM/PM in Tucson for a reading thing at Congress, I think.
Various information about her and her work can be read here:
AM/PM reviewed at Literary License
Amelia Gray’s favorite novellas
Below is her word space. Enjoy.
Word Spaces (11): Lily Hoang
Lily Hoang is the author of Parabola (Chiasmus Press) and Changing (Fairy Tale Review Press) and has an ebook at Lamination Colony titled The Woman Down the Hall. She is an associate editor at Starcherone Books.
Lily Hoang once visited Houston. She was impressed with Houston’s public transportation, which is basically a light rail train that travels up and down a few blocks, but costs lots of money to maintain. She gave a reading at UH-Downtown and then shared a cigarette with Gene Morgan at Poison Girl.
After the jump: Lily’s Word Space.
Word Spaces (10): James Scott
I met James Scott at Sewanee last summer. He was my suitemate. He is from Boston, but I don’t hold that against him; one of the first things he told me was a story about how he had gotten into a bar fight a few weeks earlier. This frightened me. Our rooms shared a bathroom, so I was careful to lock my door that night.
James Scott is a former fiction editor of Redivider, leads workshops at Grub Street, and has stories published in American Short Fiction, One Story, Saint Ann’s Review, online at Lost Magazine, Flatmancrooked, and other places too.
The following is his Word Space with text and photos.
Word Spaces (9): ‘Details’ by Alexandra Chasin
I’m happy to share the ninth post in our Word Spaces feature: ‘Details’ by Alexandra Chasin. Alexandra Chasin is the author of Kissed By (FC2 2007), a beautiful collection of unique texts, as she likes to call them, well worth your time. Her writing has appeared in Denver Quarterly, sleepingfish, West Branch, Phoebe, and online at DIAGRAM, Exquisite Corpse, and elimae. She currently teaches at The New School. For more about her, please see her bio at the FC2 site.
A few notes before the feature: ‘Details’ is Alexandra Chasin’s response to our standard prompt: take a picture of your writing area and write a couple paragraphs about it. In her email to me, Alexandra had said she wanted to try something a bit different. Great, I said.
Then I received the twenty-five photos and the accompanying text a few weeks later. As I clicked through the emails, looked at the photos, read the text, I could not help but think about Kissed By. The book made more ‘sense’ to me, at least my reading experience of it. Looking at ‘Details,’ I feel as though I know Alexandra Chasin a little more, which is a nice feeling, I think.
So I hope you enjoy the post as well and give some serious thought to picking up Kissed By. Reviews can be read at The Quarterly Conversation (my review), and here at The Short Review. You may also watch a video of Alexandra Chasin from the 2008 &NOW Festival of Innovative Literature and Art here.
Word Spaces (8): Reb Livingston gives us a tour
Reb Livingston recently posted over at her blog a tour of her office where she does a lot of her work on No Tell and other things. I asked her if I could link to that post here, and she said yes.
Anyhow, above is one of the pictures she posted. If you’d like to take the tour and see more, click on over to her blog.
Mean Monday on Sunday Night: PR’s Office
This is my office where I work about six months of the year. I was just there this weekend and I took some pictures to share with you all. I am a slob. I roll around in a pile of dust and books. Make fun of me. Talk about how happy you are that you don’t really know me. I am going to explain stuff and post some nice close-ups after the jump:
Word Spaces (7): Peter Davis
This week in the triumphant return of HTML Giant Word Spaces, we have the kindly and brilliant Mr. Peter Davis, author of the quite hilarious and smart and new-voiced Hitler’s Mustache, (which, with such a great cover, how could you pass up? though the poems are just as awesome: you can read examples of them here) and much else, including, most recently, a series of beguilingly ultra honest poems such as these here. Peter Davis lives, teaches poetry, writes, and raises a family in Muncie, Indiana, where he has so kindly taken the time to tour for us the spot where his words do the make.
Official Holistic HTMLGIANT AWP Couchsurfing Post
All sorts of magic people will be at AWP Chicago Feb 11th-14th: you, some guy with a surgical mask, sixteen blind elves, and Tony Danza. You know, as in “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” and “Tony Danza in the sand.”
In our spirit of selfless community service we here at HTMLGIANT have decided to help the needy, the dispossessed, the charlatans, the men and women whose haircuts remain anxiously unaware of where they’ll end up mussed: that’s right, some of usall of usmost of useveryone in the worldat one point or another HTMLGIANT’s readers might need a place to crash in Chicago.
So why not see if we can have one GIANT <A> TAG help another? If you need a couch, post in the comments. If you have a couch free, post in the comments. If you’re a couch, buy a sweater.
GOOD LUCK! GODSPEED! CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 09!