I Felt Like I Was Part of Something
Last spring I graduated from my MFA program with a degree in fiction and was expelled into the wilds of a Pittsburgh recession with very few—if any!—marketable skills. I drank a lot and watched TV and cooked up elaborate theories about LOST involving a super intelligent ape named Joop mentioned only briefly during a second season viral campaign. Halfway through the summer I lucked into a few teaching gigs and ended up with a section of Intermediate Fiction Workshop. I always had vague notions of one day teaching college, but those were always hazy fantasies set deep in a future where I’d be a distinguished silver fox smoking cigars in some type of hover mansion. I wasn’t a TA during my MFA campaign and had no earthly idea if I was cut out to actually walk into a classroom and explain anything to students, let alone fiction, the thing in the world I care most about. As the summer wound down and I made stab after stab at a syllabus, I’d lie awake at night listening to the trains howl through Pittsburgh while trying not to vomit from crippling anxiety.
Classes began. Fall came and went. I was again unbelievably lucky and landed a section of Advanced Fiction in the spring which many of my Intermediate students signed up for. The process was endlessly humbling, mostly because of the students. I was shocked at how genuinely good so many of them were. I was ready for anything on that first day of class: from manic scribbles on a napkin to thousand page genre opuses. But these students were wonderful. They loved fiction as much as I did, and their enthusiasm hyped me up and I hope vice versa. By the time the academic year drew to a close, many of them were beginning to publish their work in journals I respected, and all of them had shown some pretty big improvements from the first day. And all of this from a workshop. The workshop!
The Indie Lit Summit 2011: Baltimore/DC Edition
On July 16th, 2011, editors and writers from the Mid-Atlantic region will gather in Washington D.C. to hold a one day summit called the Indie Lit City Summit. The effort, spearheaded by Dan Brady and an organizing committee, one of the Barrelhouse editors, is designed to bring together small press editors for a day of brainstorming, problem-solving and exchanging ideas for how small presses and independent magazines can work better, smarter, harder. Dan and I had a conversation about the summit, what’s planned, and how editors and writers (and other interested parties) in other cities can plan their own summits in the future.
How did the Indie Lit Summit come about? Who is involved in planning the summit? Who will be attending the summit? What do you hope to accomplish?
Two years ago I went to the Nonprofit 2.0 Unconference, organized by bloggers Allyson Kaplin, Geoff Livingston, and Shireen Mitchell. Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, who wrote The Networked Nonprofit, were the keynote speakers. After Beth and Allison’s talk, we broke into sessions that were self-organized by the participants so the topics were focused on what the people in the room wanted to learn about. We covered everything from blogger outreach to social media ROI to engagement strategies. It was great and I thought to myself, I wonder what would happen if you got the whole DC literary scene together and we had this big knowledge exchange about what works, what doesn’t, how much things costs, how to do things better, how to work together, and how to build a community for ourselves in which everyone is a resource to everyone else.
I chewed on the idea for about a year and then started to sketch out what I thought would have to happen to organize something like this. I kept it to myself, though I talked to the other Barrelhouse guys, Adam Robinson, Maureen Thorson, Mark Cugini, and a few others and it seemed like this was something we should do.
Matthew Simmons—
A reminder: The prayer-as-story, story-as-prayer web journal On Earth As It Is, which I edit with my buddy Bryan, is accepting submissions through April 30. The work we accept will make up the last round of weekly updates on the site. Submit here. (If you have any questions, leave them in the comments for this post and I will answer them as best I can.)
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Everything Happened All At Once
It feels like there is a lot of literary news today.
McSweeney’s is launching a cookbook imprint. When I first read that, I thought it was a joke. McSweeney’s also shares some good news about publishing.
There is a brilliant, long form investigative article in The New Yorker about Scientology. A new bar has been set. There is also fiction from Mary Gaitskill.
Another magazine has decided to charge for submissions. Robert Swartwood is on the case. The publisher responds. The world continues to turn.
I saw Kara Candito read at AWP and was blown away so I’m going to share some of her writing that’s up at BLIP.
AWP happened. You loved it. You hated it. There was a Literature Party and an amazing deejay who felt what she was spinning so hard she jumped up and down to the beat. There was dancing. My god, there was drinking. You didn’t go. You were glad not to go. You wish you could have gone. You wish you hadn’t gone. Your liver hurts. You are sweating. You didn’t want AWP to end. Did you see that? What was his name? That really happened. You wish that had happened. The recaps abound. They are amusing to read.
Emily St. John Mandel writes about bad reviews.
The Kartika Review has launched The 500 Project which will profile 10 Asian writers from each of the 50 states. I am really intrigued by this idea of using these profiles to start toward a canon of contemporary Asian literature.
Crowds might be able to write as well as individuals.
Laura Ellen Scott’s Curio is being serialized by Uncanny Valley. I think you will enjoy it.
Is the Internet free? Perhaps not so much.
Cathy Day offers some valuable advice for a linked stories workshop and Dylan Landis shares some lessons on linked stories. This is a tiny preview of a post I am working on about how to shape a short story collection. I don’t know how. That’s what I’m writing about. It might not be the most useful post in the world.
David Quigg suggests some edits to “The Problem With Memoirs.”
There is a new issue of Bookslut which includes a feature by Daniel Nester and Steve Black about the lifespan of a literary magazine. You should also check out this piece about women and criticism.
Anis Shivani thinks Freedom is overrated. He works for AOL now though, for free, so he might not have the last laugh. Toward the end of his essay, Shivani writes, “The problem with realism is also that it ends up being conservative, and even pessimistic. This is because it wants to rule out unpredictability to the extent possible, believes in a stable social order (otherwise why write realistically?), and wants the end to be internally and formally consistent with its premises, once they have been laid out.” You know how I feel about things that begin, “The problem with…” There is no problem with realism though their may be a problem with Freedom. I haven’t finished the book yet. I will come back, Shivani! We will talk realism. Just you wait.
Two Weeks: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry
The editors of Linebreak are creating an all-new, ebook-only anthology of contemporary poetry. Beginning today they are accepting submissions which they will compile and design as a multi-format ebook. On January 25th, they will publish it. Details, here. Send your submissions here. Hop to it!
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January 12th, 2011 / 12:00 am
January 12th, 2011 / 12:00 am
The Good Men Fiction Project
The Good Men Project Magazine launched Weekend Fiction on January 1, 2011. Every Saturday, this section will feature original short fiction that speaks to the male experience, from award-winning, along with new and emerging, authors.
The debut features a new short story, “Yosemite,” from James Franco. Also featured in the debut is “Saint Roger of Fox Chase,” by Sean Ennis of Gotham Writer’s Workshop.
Weekend Fiction will be edited by Good Men Project Magazine contributor Matthew Salesses, author of Our Island of Epidemics. Future issues will include stories by accomplished authors George Singleton, Ben Greenman, Kim Chinquee, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Alexander Chee, Ryan Call, and others.
Submissions are welcome. They are looking for fiction in the range of 1200-10,000 words in some way touching on the “male experience.” Go here for guidelines and to submit.
Do These Right Things
The Emerson Review is looking for excellent writing for their next issue. Submissions are open until February 1 and they are interested in poetry, nonfiction and fiction. Send them something grand.
Issue 10.6 of DIAGRAM is live with writing from Nayelly SJ Barrios; Bridget Bell; Jody Brooks; Christopher Bundy; MRB Chelko; Paul Cunningham; Jim Fisher; Trey Jordan Harris; Christine Larusso; Robert Hill Long; Bo McGuire; Rebecca Mertz; David James Miller; Rufo Quintavalle; Samantha Stiers; and Quintan Ana Wikswo.
Ricky Gervais explains why he is an atheist.
I’ve been really interested in this post by Kevin Smith where he talks about success and work that doesn’t feel like work. I believe many successful people can relate to the sentiments Smith expresses in his post. When we consider successful people, we rarely pay any attention to how or why the success was achieved. We focus on the success itself because it is the success that is visible not the why of the success.
Spike Lee has released a book, Do The Right Thing, with behind-the-scenes photos, interviews, reflections from Lee and more.I’m looking forward to reading this book. I loved the film.
Jason Sanford offers a message to a writer who did not do his due diligence.
I admire writers with discipline. Laila Lalami took a year of silence, where she decided not to submit her work anywhere or agree to any requests for contributions. Instead, she simply focused on reading and writing.
Shane Jones engaged in an exchange with Poets & Writers wherein he discussed his writing process for one of the magazine’s features and then things got interesting.
I love this bag and want one quite badly.
Salvatore Pane shares his fiction workshop syllabus for next semester and suggests more teachers do the same.
It is the end of the year. Many people in many places are making end of the year lists summarizing where they went, what they did, what they read, loved, hated, and on and on and on and on. What’s on your list?
The Empire Strikes Back: The Editors of Flatmancrooked Speak
Last week, I posted about how Flatmancrooked is now offering expedited submissions, where they will read and respond to submissions within 14 business days, for a fee of $5. A pretty interesting discussion followed with a wide range of responses. Flatmancrooked Executive Editor Elijah Jenkins and Senior Editor Deena Drewis took some time to answer some of the questions about the program, the discussion here, and independent publishing.
Seven Obituaries: Brevity, HTMLGIANT, Birds (in poetry), and more!
Mr. Shameless S. Promo (???? – ????) was found slumped over his Apple iPad, dead from a Twitter overdose on Tuesday morning. Friends of the deceased have confirmed his last few days were spent “tweeting his little ass feathers off like Tweetie on a coke binge” over having landed an interview with a D-list, female lit blog personality. In happier times, Mr. Promo could often be found regaling comment threads all over the online indie lit scene with off-topic anecdotes about his forthcoming book, like the time he tried to get a blurb from Dennis Cooper (“and he goes, send me the naked JPGs and we’ll talk, ha ha!”) or how the publishers that dropped him were such useless incompetents (“Man, I’m flogging this goddamn book all by myself. But I mean, if I don’t do it, who will, right?!”) A well-known online lit journal editor familiar with the deceased was quoted as saying, “finally the hail of submissions ranging from the inadequate to the outright offensive that has been raining down on us like napalm since this tool discovered Submishmash will cease.” Mr. Promo is survived by his official author website, complete with a “personal blog” which is in actuality a list of live reading dates along with hundreds of links to his writing in various low-ranking publications, including articles that pretend a service to the community but are in fact mere justifications for his annoying and ineffective marketing practices, as well as his Vimeo book trailer, quirky interviews in several group lit blogs, and a Facebook fan page with approximately 35 fans (mostly spammers). In lieu of flowers the family have requested pledges to their Kickstarter project to help them publish Mr. Promo’s oeuvre, including selected Gmail chats and tweets. A writer and close family friend said, “okay so with the family doing it, it will be a little like self-publishing, but waaay better because he’s dead, so it’s like, posthumous and stuff.” –Ani Smith
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Do Mechanics Matter? Get Off My Lawn!
In my writing classes I often tell my students that I’m teaching writing, not grammar, that there’s a difference between the two. I talk about how I’m more interested in how they express themselves and demonstrate critical thinking than I am in grammatically perfect prose. I also tell students, however, that grammar does matter—to be well versed in the mechanics of writing can only strengthen their work and, where applicable, their argument.
In creative writing, the same thing is generally true. I can forgive unpolished prose if I’m reading an amazing story or poem. At the same time, I’ve seen a rash of work lately where writers have clearly not taken the time to read their own work. I’ve seen missing words and characters whose names have changed mid story, sometimes more than once. The quality of writing is just terrible at times, so terrible that I cannot focus on whether or not the story, creatively, is something I am interested in. It’s quite difficult to take a writer seriously if you cannot really read their writing.