Category Archives: writers
I Love BOMB Reading + Like A Boss with Emily Books + Mentors in Paperback
It’s a busy time. First, this Monday, February 6th, I’m reading from a new short story, just finished, unpublished, not even under submission yet. The occasion is the BOMB Magazine I <3 BOMB party, at the Powerhouse Arena bookstore in DUMBO, … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, books, bookstores, dance break, what I am working on, writers, writing
Ayana Mathis On Joy
I often worry at how often my writing students seem focused on misery and pain. As if literature were a Victorian curio cabinet of suffering and the point of writing was to find the most interesting pain. Ayana Mathis wrote … Continue reading
On Maud Newton On David Foster Wallace
Maud Newton astutely considered the legacy of David Foster Wallace in the New York Times Magazine last weekend. I thought it was an exhilarating read. She begins with a quote from “Tense Present” and then uses it as a mirror from … Continue reading
100 Things About a Novel
1. Sometimes music is needed. 2. Sometimes silence. 3. This is probably because a novel is a piece of music, like all written things, the language demanding you make a sound as you read it. 4. Sometimes I have written … Continue reading
Shark’s Teeth
1. The 2010 ‘Best of’ lists appear, like little angels of death. Little cuts on my will to get to the end of the year. Not now, I say, each time one appears. Not yet. I need to make use … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, fiction, go team, letters from away, novels, what I am working on, writers, writing
“Professors of Fiction”
1. I have a conversation with my partner Dustin’s Uncle Jack about how he fell on his good hip and, while painful, it reset his hips. The pain he’s been suffering from the former bad hip is gone. I wish … Continue reading
Filed under fiction, MFA programs, novels, politics, what is right with us, what is wrong with us, writers, writing
Sexy Nerd
My former student, Victor Vazquez, is one of my pride and joys, despite his not having yet published his novel.* He’s since gone on to do much more important things–things that will in all likelihood guarantee the publication of his … Continue reading
Filed under dance break, letters to you, music, writers, writing
On Getting Your Name Out There, Part 2: The Story That Sells the Story
For the first part of this series on authors, author sites and author blogging, go here first. When approaching an author site, what I find least interesting is a sort of bland, safe, risk-free aesthetic, a headshot with links and … Continue reading
On Getting Your Name Out There: Author Blogging
There is a great deal of pressure for writers to blog, for themselves and for others. Typically, whoever’s asking you has the presence of mind to be a little ashamed: “We can’t really pay you for this, but you’ll get … Continue reading
Filed under author's own, blogs, books, writers, writing
New World, Again
1. Oh horrifying new world, where every site I visit wants me to have a profile and to receive mailings. I have over 600 messages from them unread in my gmail account, and this is because I resent the time … Continue reading
