Literary news

Never say die. The talented iconoclast Montgomery Maxton and I have something in common. Both of us had books that were accepted by small publishers that folded. And then both books were given new life as both of us had the manuscripts recently accepted by different small publishers. For Montgomery his poetry collection This Beautiful Bizarre will be coming out late next year (more on this soon!). For me, my novel For the May Queen, has been taken by a small press and is forthcoming in October of this year (more on this soon, too!).

Surprise! Verse Daily posts a new poem each day, but they don't inform the poets in advance. So you might wake up one morning, like John Evans did today, to discover your poem and bio there. You can read John's amazing poem here. (Verse Daily posted one of my poems earlier this year here.) John is an insanely terrific poet--and he's received a major kudos in the form of a Stegner Fellowship beginning this fall. Previous Stegner Fellows I've had the honor ot meet include ZZ Packer, California poet laureate Al Young , James Houston and Tobias Wolff, all of whom have also taught in the program and all of whom (excelpt Wolff) have taught at my university as a Lurie Professor. Watch this blog; I'll be announcing our new Lurie Professor later this week. She's a well-known poet.

Callin' on Collin. Collin Kelley has written about a slew of online literary magazines that have recently been updated. Collin's edgy, surprising chapbook After the Poison is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press, which is currently accepting advance orders. About the book, Jim Elledge says, "this slim collection is a must-read. In fact, I dare you to read it. I double dare you."

Queer Collection: Poetry & Prose 2008 is now accepting advance orders. Last year's inaugural anthology was terrific. I'm sure this year's will be too--and I'm honored that my story "Leaving the Baby" will appear in it.

Belated one year anniversary

Is it really May 1?

I began this blog April 14, 2007, not quite a month after my father died.

Soon after, Mom was in the hospital for a couple of months. She was then diagnosed with Alzheimer's, so we helped her sell her house and she moved assisted living community (which took some adjustment, but now she's enjoying all the activities, new friends and support combined with independence).

In addition to charting those events, my blog has followed some of the lowlights and highlights of a crazy year.
In a year's time, we humans continued our violent ways, with everything from a college massacre to the escalation of an insane war (a redundancy), to other hate killings (another redundancy).

I grappled a lot in my life with, but only a little in the blog with, the current Presidential contest.

We lost a famous hater . We also lost a remarkable lover of words and life.

We faced more environmental devastation in California, as well as a little rattle n roll and some pretty big burn. Well, they do say that California's four seasons are: earthquake, fire, flood and mudslide.

My literary life was rich in many ways this year. I did a few readings (here and here ) and had some poems, stories and essays published (here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here ). I even got paid a few times.

In other ways, my literary life sucked.
The small press that had accepted my novel and was even working on a book cover closed up shop, and my novel was reverted to a manuscript yet again. This is the novel that came *this close* to being published by a major publisher as well.

I decided to part with my agent and have discovered he has left the biz and is now in "kitchenware retail."

If all this instability grates on us writers, I was delighted to find out there's a lit mag that guarantees rejection, so here's a place to submit with no guess-work.

To keep myself engaged and refreshed as a writer in a writing community, I went to hear some other writers read their work...and more and more and more and more ...

I met a blog friend in real time when he came out here all the way from Atlanta to give a reading to my students.

I worked on the research for my historical novel (and still am doing so). I also worked on two new projects, a memoir and a weird new blog thingy.

I was lucky to be able to travel. To come together and begin healing from my father's loss, my sisters, Mom and I went to Hawaii and were met with a hurricane, but we also faced down some gorgeous water, palm trees, mountains and Mai Tais.

I loved it there so much I just had to go back with Annie during winter break.

I got an insanely hectic new job, which led to my interviewing Alice Sebold on stage, hanging out with Salman Rushdie and Dorothy Allison and Kimiko Hahn and ZZ Packer, among others.

As part of the job, I've developed next season's slate of writers. It will be nice to see my work unfold next semester, a kind of shadow of my co-directorship since I'm stepping down.

Running literary events was a great ride, but it's too much work for the equivalent of teaching one class. Instead, I'm going to teach and kick-ass on my writing....beginning with a focus this summer on writing, non-emergency family time and as much peace as is possible in this restless world.

Talking about the historical novel

This week on campus we're featuring two events with Nick Taylor, author of the just-released Civil War-era historical novel The Disagreement. (For details, click here.) The novel focuses on the experiences of a young man living in Virginia who becomes a doctor pressed into practice early because of the war. Conflict ensues when he saves the life of a union soldier.

At one event, Nick will be in conversation with ZZ Packer about the writing of the historical novel. I'm especially excited about this since I'm working on an historical novel and would love to hear their thoughts about the process.

ZZ's working on a novel about the Buffalo Soldiers and--based on exceprts of the novel--has been named by Granta one of the Best Young Novelists. (To read an excerpt, click here.) Also, I wrote about her reading from the novel at an earlier event here.

A Literary Day to Remember

We had nice turn-outs at both ZZ Packer events yesterday. ZZ was a joy to interview on stage. She's funny and smart; she makes complex ideas graspable. She has insightful things to say about writing, literature, politics, life.

During the Q&A, she was asked if writers of color have different expectations placed upon them than other writers. She said yes, definitely--that artists who come from marginalized communites have to battle the internal voice that tells them they must somehow be representative (an impossible task), that they must showcase only positive portrayals of their community, and that they must not air its "dirty laundry." They need to silence the voice that says "make us proud" and write whatever they want to write.

This really struck a chord with me because I've written stories about lesbian and gay people that are not particularly complimentary of the individual characters--but that's only because I want to show queer people in all of our human complexities. Ultimately, I believe, we're serving our "marginalized communities" and the broader society better when we do this because we're offering human portrayals. Only complex, human characters will evoke the universal human condition. So the paradox is that the more specific and flawed our characters, the more we are likely to strike a broader chord.

As far as writing advice, ZZ said that writers must write about whatever truly moves them, whatever is meaningful to them--like "the kinds of things you'd write about in your diary; write about that, but make it better!"

In the evening events, ZZ read from the terrific story "The Ant of the Self" (from Drinking Coffee Elsewhere). The story is from the point of view of a teenage boy named Spurgeon, a high school debate champion who bails his father out of jail. Their embattled relationship is played out with the Million Man March as the backdrop.

She also read a few pages from her historical novel-in-progress. She was self-conscious about this, she told us, because it's hard for her to read from work that is not yet finished. The passage was a mind-blower. It takes place during Jubilee, the post-Civil War time when slaves had just been freed. When a now-freed slave named Lazarus tells his former mistress that he and his sister will be leaving the plantation, the woman is upset at their "desertion." She says, "I have always clothed and fed you." Lazaurs replies, "I thought it was the other way around."

The next morning, the woman comes to their cabin and says, "I'm sicking the dogs on you. You have a half-hour head start." So Lazarus and his sister take off, walking all the way to New Orleans, where they have some family members who don't seem thrilled about taking them in.

All I can say is I can't wait to read the whole novel. It's stunning. We were fortunate to be able to hear it. Another (different) excerpt of the novel has been published here by Granta. The title is Buffalo Soldiers, but ZZ has since changed it to The Thousands.

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An aside: When you put "maligned synonym" into Google, look what pops up first by clicking HERE.

Two Big Events Today

If you're in the Bay Area, we have two free events today featuring ZZ Packer. She's a hot writer and a wonderful person.

She has recently been named one of America's Best Novelists by Granta--quite a feat given that this prize was determined based on the in-process manuscript of her current project, a novel about the Buffalo Soldiers. You can read an excerpt here.

I'll be interviewing her on stage for the 1 p.m. event:

1 p.m.: On-stage conversation
followed by audience Q&A and book-signing
SJSU University Room

7:30 p.m.: A Reading from Packer's in-progress historical novel
followed by audience Q&A and book-signing
SJSU Music Concert Hall

More about ZZ:
ZZ Packer is the author of the short story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, a PEN/Faulkner finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Best American Short Stories (2000 and 2004) and have been read on NPR's Selected Shorts.

ZZ was born in Chicago, and raised in Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky. Although intent on becoming an electrical engineer, she forsook MIT for Yale (and is forever grateful she did). She received her MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, where she also held a Jones Lectureship.

ZZ has been a public high school teacher and barmaid (though not at the same time); has worked as an SAT tutor, a purveyor of vegetables and a coffeeshop barrista, where she indeed wished on multiple occasions to be drinking coffee elsewhere.

ZZ currently lives with her husband and two sons in the Bay Area.

Maureen, ZZ and Karen

I just finished Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan. You might recognize her as the book critic on Fresh Air.

It's about her love affair with books. My favorite quote from the book captures something that is true for me:

"I think, consciously or not, what we readers do each time we open a book is to set off on a search for authenticity. We want to get closer to the heart of things, and sometimes a few sentences contained in an otherwise unexceptional book can crystallize vague feelings, fleeting physical sensations, or, sometimes, profound epiphanies."

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Busy week ahead. In addition to the usual whirlwind of teaching and grading, I will be interviewing ZZ Packer on stage on Wednesday. That event is followed by a dinner with our advisory board and some donors, an evening reading featuring ZZ, and a reception. My co-director and I are responsible for all of this. Whew. I just need to remind myself to relax and enjoy it as much as possible since the major work of organizing these events is behind us.

I also have another big thing happening this week that I can't talk about here but will be able to soon.

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It's gray. And Monday. Brings to mind this:

ZZ & Smoke Like No Other

ZZ Packer is an endowed professor this semester. I've talked with her a few times in the hallway; she's very approachable, funny and kind. I'll be interviewing her onstage a couple of weeks, so if you have any questions you'd like me to ask her, float them my way.

I'm teaching her story collection right now in my creative writing classes. The more I study these stories, the more I'm impressed with her range, her ability to write from so many different perspectives.

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A former student sent the following to me. It's way better than anything I've ever seen on the Grammys or American Idol:

Spring is Here

Spring semester, that is.

It's still miserably winter here with rain, rain, rain and the longest cold-snap in recent memory. I long for this.

This semester I'm teaching Fiction Writing and Introduction to Creative Writing. Hi to all my students who've found me here!

The Center for Literary Arts spring events include the following:

ZZ Packer, who is now on campus for the semester as an endowed chair. She was named Best of Young American Novelists by Granta. Her story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, is our campus book selection. She's currently working on an historical novel about the Buffalo Soliders, which I'll be sure to ask her about when I interview her on-stage February 27.

On March 12 & 13, American Book Award-winning poet Kimiko Hahn will be here for several events. Her work is edgy and rich. Read a few of her poems here.

Hahn's husband Harold Schechter will be joining her and giving a talk the day after hers. Schecheter is a writer of historical true-crime classics and a series of mystery novels featuring Edgar Allan Poe.

Other events include talks by Nick Taylor, SJSU professor and author of a forthcoming Civil War historical novel, and an evening of poetry featuring Ishmael Reed, Boadiba, Neli Moody and others.

Check out the CLA website for more information on any of these events: http://www.litart.org/.

Writers Galore

This has been a whirlwind of a last few months, ever since I was offered the position as co-director of the Center for Literary Arts at the end of August, a mere two days before the semester began.

Kelly, my co-director, and I put on a number of events (Sam Hamill, Dorothy Allison, Salman Rushdie, C. Dale Young) in addition to teaching two classes each. We've also prepared for the spring events (five events, including ZZ Packer and Ishmael Reed), written grants and reports, done a ton of PR, created a new website, paid bills, cleaned up piles of messes ... the details go on and on.

Finally, yesterday we actually got to sit down and talk about which writers we might want to bring for the 2008-09 season. What a joy to be able to build from scratch. I'm in the process of contacting writers and agents now.

Once we have our schedule confirmed, I'll let you know who's coming. If you're not in San Jose, you'll wish you were.

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I just noticed that several people have left comments about my memoir piece, The Color of Change, here.

Literary Arts

Hearing C. Dale Young read last night was great. The poems he read were striking. He talked a little bit about most of his poems before reading them, which I tend to like because poetry is so compressed that it's a very different experience reading it than hearing it.

Listening, poetry goes by so quickly--we can't linger, re-read lines, pause at a striking image. We must go the speed of the poet's voice. So to be introduced a bit to the poem in advance helps me to prepare to hear it.

C. Dale's event was the last of our fall season. Whew, what a ride it's been. Our next event is ZZ Packer on February 27. Kelly Harrison (my co-director) and I will be spending the next few weeks writing reports and grants, doing all the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes these events possible.

Speaking of Kelly, check out our gorgeous new website that she--O Talented Techie--designed.