Monthly Archives: October 2009
Go Ahead
[photo via Gothamist] 1. On the train down to New York Thursday, in the seats across from me, a 26-year-old American soccer player who works on an organic farm and a 30-something Turkish artist talk to each other for most … Continue reading
Filed under books, letters from away, media
On Studying with Annie Dillard in 1989
When I was studying with Annie Dillard, this is a bit of what she saw when she looked over the table at me. My memoir of that time is up over at The Morning News. Many people have remarked on … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, essay, writers, writing
Junot Diaz in O Magazine, On Becoming a Writer
But if the world is what it is so are our hearts. One night in August, unable to sleep, sickened that I was giving up, but even more frightened by the thought of having to return to the writing, I … Continue reading
Filed under what is right with us, writers, writing
Character Flaw
Yesterday I looked in on a Twitter chat about character flaws that seemed to circle around these statements: “flaws! Yes! Characters have them! What about addiction?” and the whole thing looked just a bit too much like the reason people … Continue reading
Filed under comics, fiction, fiction prompts, Koreanish, writers, writing, writing exercises
13 Crimes Against Love, or the Crow’s Confession
A story of mine that appeared first at Lodestar Quarterly, now defunct, is now up over at Fictionaut: 13 Crimes Against Love, or, the Crow’s Confession. He had a name everyone had. He was my friend’s boyfriend and in the … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, fiction
Cory Doctorow on the Novel
Novels are competing for attention with other media that can be peeled off from them. At the same time, novels are social objects and the web is social technology. My novels diffuse through the web in what tends to be … Continue reading
