New books, new movies, new year

I hope you all have been enjoying the holiday season. I've been reading like a fiend and enjoying every moment of it. Books I've read recently that I'd recommend include:


* Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a shocking, powerful memoir; she lived more life in one page than I have in 46 years)

* The House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen (a memoir about Cohen's caring for her father, who has Alzheimer's, while she's also the single mother of a one-year-old)

* The Underwater Hospital by Jan Steckel (a powerful voice, stunning poems; Steckel is a bisexual activist and former medical doctor)

* Breach by Anne Haines (I re-read these poems; she's phenomenal)


* The Cellar Gang by John Carder Bush (one of the strangest novels I've ever read; creepy and fanciful--refreshingly surprising).


We've also been watching some Netflix movies. Recently saw Unveiled, a German film about an Iranian lesbian who escapes to Germany. It's great, although it has a flawed ending.

Mom and I went to see Marley & Me. I bawled. She didn't--but she liked it. I hadn't realized Owen Wilson could be so charming.

Next week we're going to see Doubt with our friend Scott.

Don't miss Milk if you haven't seen it. Best film I've seen in years, for many reasons.



Happy Obama New Year all!

I love ya Obama, but WAKE UP! Rick Warren's a hater!

Rachel rocks!

The lame duck ducks

We finally saw "Milk." Read Collin Kelley's review to get my exact thoughts. Collin must have channeled my brain. Okay, maybe I'm taking too much credit for Collin's brilliance.

While you're on Collin's site, check out the video of the lame duck ducking. Poor guy got a shoe thrown at him. Not quite equal to getting bombs and chemical weapons thrown at you. But the message couldn't be clearer.

Today I gave finals #2 and #3 out of 4. Final #4 will be a party at my house on Wednesday for my literature class. Today's finals were poetry readings by my brilliant creative writing students. They were feelin' it, and so was I. It's a crazy thrill to be able to provide an opportunity for young writers to thrive. Today was a teaching high.

And yet, I'm ready for winter break. I'm so looking forward to writing every day. It will also be make-or-break for my historical novel. I've been stuck in the mud on it for a while--and I'm going to decide during my 5 weeks of daily writing whether or not I'll continue, take a break from it and work on something else, or abandon it altogether.

There must be something about writing an historical novel that creates this problem for writers. Michael Chabon once said he was struggling with Kavalier and Clay, so he set it aside and wrote Wonder Boys in a few weeks. He was then refreshed or reprogrammed or refurbished enough to go back and finish Kavalier and Clay. Yes, you heard it: The wonderful novel Wonder Boys was written in a "few weeks." Don't think about it. Musing over that stuff is enough to create writer's block.

Easy like Sunday morning

It was so good to be with family yesterday, to support each other in the midst of the sadness of my cousin Steve's death. The highlights were all the hugs, love, food, photos, music (Commodores, Earth Wind & Fire...groups he loved), tears and laughter. Steve would have loved it.

I could have done without what came before: a fire-and-brimstone priest who threatened us with eternal damnation if we didn't believe. I grew up Catholic and had never before experienced a Catholic priest in the Southen Baptist vein. This guy missed his calling.

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Speaking of god, my poem "Religious Poem," was just released in the latest issue of Limp Wrist.

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I just received an amazing email from someone who read my novel. If I can hook anyone on a book, I'm thrilled!

THANK YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH FOR THE LAST FEW DAYS OF PURE ENTERTAINMENT.... Seriously, I have not sat this still, reading, since I can remember. I totally loved your novel and can't help to wonder about how much partying "Norma Rogers" really did in college...I can' t wait to read "Complementary Colors" [my next novel, which is previewed at the end of For the May Queen]. Again thank you very much, you are very talented and more people need this type of entertainment...turn off the tvs and ghetto blasters, get back to the basics just plop down, relax and enjoy a great novel.

Homage to Steve

My cousin Steve died a few days ago. I got the call from his sister. Steve was only 48.

When we were kids, he pulled pranks on us, like cheating at the innumerable card games we played during holidays. He told hilarious jokes, trying to get us to lose it so that the coke we were drinking would shoot out of our noses.

He was 2 years older than I was, and I always looked up to him because he was so, so handsome and cool and urban. I was a little suburban girl, and I was in awe of his platform shoes and perfectly feathered hair and non-white friends. He was a whiz at bumper pool. He listened to exotic music, like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Michael Jackson. The first time I heard "Rollin' on the River," he'd played it for me on his stereo.

Steve leaves behind two teenaged boys who are going to miss their dad beyond what I can imagine, I'm sure. He had their faces tatooed on his chest, which he used as inspiration to stay sober for a lot of years. Unfortunately his disease got the best of him. It sounds cliche, but it's true: Everyone loved Steve because he was funny, smart and just a plain sweet guy. Every time I saw him he'd give me a big hug and say, "Hi, beautiful."

We'll all miss him.

Prop 8, the Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Hilarious! Thanks Collin.

Another reason to support widespread access to a college education for all

Education and income were strong factors in vote against gay marriage

A majority of blacks and Latinos voted to ban same-sex marriage in California last month, but socioeconomics — not race and ethnicity — was the decisive factor in Proposition 8, according to a new statewide survey of voters.

Even after the California Supreme Court's landmark ruling, after an estimated 18,000 same-gender couples wed between June and November, and after the two sides in the Proposition 8 campaign spent more than $83 million to sway voters, the state remains locked in an ideological stalemate on same-sex marriage, exactly as it was three years ago. Neither side in the same-sex marriage debate holds a majority. Forty-seven percent are in favor of same-sex marriage; 48 percent oppose it.

The new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California of 2,003 Californians who voted Nov. 4 found significantly less support for Proposition 8 among blacks than had been indicated by exit polls. Election Day exit polls triggered recriminations between gay rights advocates and black leaders. And now the new data indicates that 61 percent of Latinos voted for the ban, an even higher percentage than exit polls indicated on Election Day.

But while a majority of non-white voters backed a ban on gay marriage, the key finding in the new survey was that voters' position on Proposition 8 was determined more by their level of education and income than their race or ethnicity, said PPIC president Mark Baldassare. Among Californians with a high school diploma or less, 69 percent voted for Proposition 8. Among college graduates, 57 percent voted against it.

This reviewer is waaaay smarter than I am.

For the May Queen shows the excitement of college parties, the sense of new maturity, self-exploration, social inclusion, and developing friendships. While definitely not a moralistic or cautionary tale, we do see some of the realistic dangers of some college experiences: Norma’s frightening bad trip while on acid, the specter of STD’s, friendships and relationships broken over sexual jealousy. There are some negative consequences for women in a world where social boundaries and rules are removed, but underlying cultural assumptions about women remain...

The sometimes scary world of For the May Queen’s dorms reminds me of Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert (who also chronicles a personal journey of self-discovery among conflicting messages on women, sex, and freedom)’s observations: “…when the patriarchic system was rightfully dismantled, it was not necessarily replaced by another form of protection…If I am truly to become an autonomous woman, then I must take over that role of being my own guardian.”

This novel chronicles Norma’s journey towards learning to protect and define herself, choose who she wants to become and what she values.

Birthday this and that

A portion of the memoir I've been working just came out in the most recent issue of ZYZZYVA.

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Yep, I'm 46 today. I remember sitting on my bed 30 years ago and writing, "Today I turned 16." I still have that diary in a box with a pile of others, stuck in my dark basement.

In spite of all our watches, calendars, techie devices...time is a mystery.

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If it's not raining, we're hiking in the redwoods for my birthday. No matter the weather, we are having food and great beer at our favorite pub in the mountains. They always have a roaring fire this time of year.

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone. In ee cummings custom, I give thanks for the "leaping greenly spirits of trees and the true blue dream of sky."

Sexy, who me?

The always fabulous Didi Menendez (pictured here in a self-portrait) has done it again: put out an amazing issue of MIPOeisas. The theme this time is "sexy." I'm kind of shocked I'm in it. I mean, really ...

A Prop 8 Analysis from The Onion

Conversation between Kate and Annie

My spouse/wife/partner/soul mate Annie interviewed me for the Orchard Valley Review:

AN INTERVIEW WITH KATE EVANS by Annie Tobin

Kate Evans is a faculty member in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at San Jose State. Kate’s stories, poems, essays and book reviews have appeared in more than 50 literary magazines and anthologies such as the North American Review, Santa Monica Review, Seattle Review, Cream City Review, and ZYZZYVA. Her novel For the May Queen was published in September by Vanilla Heart Publishing of Seattle who will also be releasing her second novel, Complimentary Colors, in Summer 2009. Her previous books include a collection of poems (Like All We Love, Q Press) and a book about lesbian and gay teachers (Negotiating the Self, Routledge).

In 1991 she received an M.A. in English Literature from SJSU. She then went to Yokohama , Japan, where she taught English for a year. When she returned to the Bay Area, she took a poetry class at SJSU from the poet Virginia de Araujo—a class I was also taking. That is where we met, and we’ve been together now for 15 years. During that time, we’ve lived in Santa Cruz and Seattle (where Kate received her Ph.D. in Educational Philosophy at the University of Washington). We now live in San Jose. I’m currently working on my MFA in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction while also teaching Art at Gilroy High School. Kate and I recently married on a boat off the coast of Santa Cruz. When it was suggested I interview Kate it seemed like an interesting angle—being an insider and all.

Annie: How has graduating from San Jose State’s MFA program affected your career as a writer?

Kate: Applying to the program was a great way to signal to myself and others that I was making a commitment to writing. When I decided to apply for the MFA, I was teaching at San Jose State but in a different department, in Education. I was feeling restless, feeling like I wasn’t really doing what I wanted to do in my life. So when I decided to go for it and do the MFA—you were there, you remember because you’re the one who suggested it!—when I made that decision I knew I was veering my life in a new direction, toward what I truly wanted to do. I’d been writing my whole life, starting as a kid. But I’d never fully focused my life on it. So deciding to leave my full-time job and return to part-time teaching while doing the MFA was a huge life decision. That was more than, what—six, seven?—years ago, and I’ve never looked back. So graduating from the MFA has affected my career as a writer by allowing me to devote myself to writing, to say I am a writer, and to truly be one.

How does teaching at San Jose State influence your writing?

I have less time to write! You know how time-consuming teaching is.

And how much energy it takes.

True. After a full day of teaching it’s hard to even think sometimes. And for you, even more so since you teach high school. I don’t know how you do the teenagers thing.

I guess I never grew up myself.

No comment. (We laugh.) But of course there are advantages to teaching English. I’m surrounded by colleagues and students who value the arts. In preparing to teach, in teaching and in reflecting on my teaching, I’m always learning new things about writing and literature. There are so many great literary events happening on campus that I learn from and that keep me fired up.

Why do you write in so many different genres—fiction, non-fiction, poetry? Are you drawn to one genre more than another? Is there a common thread that runs through all of them?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve written stories, poems and essays. Each genre has its own power. I like to read writers like May Sarton, Margaret Atwood, Mark Doty, etcetera who write in multiple genres. I like to see how they treat their obsessions from different directions.
That’s one thing, by the way, that I like about San Jose State’s MFA program is the requirement to focus on two genres. If I could have, I would have done three. When I came out of the program I’d completed a story collection and a poetry collection. Do you like being forced to focus on two genres in the program, Annie?

Actually, yes. I think poetry and memoir are related—at least for me. The autobiographical component of both appeals to me. Sometimes only a poem takes me deep enough to express certain things; I guess that’s why poetry is my primary genre. What inspired you to write your latest release For the May Queen, a novel about a 17-year-old woman’s first year away from home, living in the dorms?

Everyone leaves home at some time and has to make decisions about how to live life away from their family. That’s a meaty topic, filled with lots of built-in personal and social conflict. Also, I’d been wanting to write about the world of the dorms for quite some time. I think it’s a unique culture. It doesn’t hurt that in the dorms there are a lot of sex, drugs and rock and roll.
Although people don’t have to live in dorms to experience that life.

Right. You have three projects: your novel Complementary Colors, a memoir about care giving, and a historical novel. Do you normally work on so many projects at once? How do you keep focus on each?

Generally I focus on one project at a time. Complementary Colors is the second novel I wrote. I was working on it while finding an agent to represent my story collection (which was my MFA thesis) and my first novel, For the May Queen. After finishing the second novel, I began on the historical novel. I was in the middle of doing a lot of research and some writing on it when my dad died. As you know, he was sick for a really long time, and we’d been hoping my mom would have a new lease on life once she was released from all the caregiving she did for him. Well, just weeks after he died, she had a series of accidents that led to months in the hospital followed by an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. As you well know, this was on the heels of your mother’s long illness and all the caregiving you gave her.

So I’d been thinking a lot about mortality and caregiving and modern medicine and families—and in fact, a lot of the poetry I’d been writing had focused on these issues. After all that happened, I had a hard time going back to the historical novel. I found myself beginning to write about my dad, my mom, you and your mom—all of us. I wasn’t sure what I what I was writing, I was just writing. Soon, though, it became clear I was writing a book. That was the memoir. Now I’m back to the historical novel.

What compels you to write? What, for you, are the hardest things to write about?

Life compels me to write. I’ve always been compelled to write, ever since I was a kid. So it’s kind of a mystery to me, actually. I do think it’s connected to reading. My mom used to read with me every night before bed. I felt extra alive then. Perhaps I’m always trying to achieve that feeling as a writer.

The hardest things to write about? Perhaps things that are pure imagination and not so much rooted in my experience. Then I have to find the emotional connection and the voice so that the story will take off.

Do you have people read your work as you write, or do you wait until a project is complete? What would you say are the benefits to either approach?

You are my number one reader. Whether you like it or not. (We both laugh.) I know I am for you too, so I know we’re lucky in that way.

It’s good to have another writer living with you. A lot of our relationship is built on our love for literature, writing, the arts.

And dogs. . . . I began writing For the May Queen in a writing workshop headed by the Santa Cruz poet Ellen Bass. I’d come each week and read a chapter aloud and was spurred on by the group’s feedback, and especially their laughter. I enjoyed writing each chapter with them as an audience in mind. I also read each chapter to you as I wrote it.

I had something to look forward to every couple of weeks. Kind of like you were serializing the book.

Exactly. That was fun. However, I didn’t want too much critique too early on. I just wanted to hear what you liked and what questions the chapters raised. It wasn’t until I’d finished the first draft that I asked for full-on critique from several people, including you. For me, too much criticism too soon can stunt my progress.

Which authors do you read? Is your writing influenced by other writers?

I’m an eclectic reader. And definitely, my writing is influenced by everything I read. I’m always reading on two levels: for the power or enjoyment of the piece, as well as for an awareness of the writer’s craft. All writers are my teachers. I read poetry, stories, novels, memoir. I have a huge list of writers I admire, including Emily Dickinson, Jeffrey Eugenedies, Virginia Woolf, Isabelle Allende, Marilyn Hacker, Toni Morrison, Monique Troung … I could go on and on.

What are some of the things you do to improve on your craft? Do you attend conferences? Take workshops? What works best for you to improve how and what you write?

Mainly I read a lot. And write a lot. Those, to me, are the best ways to improve as a writer. As I mentioned previously, I was in a workshop with Ellen Bass for a few months. Since I finished the MFA, I’ve taken a few weekend courses and attended the Foothill Writers Conference. I also teach and present at writers conferences. I’m not sure these are the best ways to learn to write. Your time might be better served just reading and writing. They are great ways, though, to meet other writers.

What do you look for in a prospective publisher? How did you get a publisher?

I look for someone who likes my writing! I got my publisher when I saw a book they’d published, didn’t recognize their name, and looked them up. I saw they were accepting manuscripts and that they specifically liked coming-of-age stories. It turned out to be a good match.

What were your best and worst experiences with an editor? What is the role of the editor?

One of the best was when one of my stories was accepted into the Bellevue Literary Review. The editor made some suggestions that were small and elegant, and they helped the story shine. Another good experience was recently when something happened to me that had never happened before. The editor of ZYZZYVA, Howard Junker, had read on my blog that I was working on my memoir, and he emailed me asking to see it. I sent him the manuscript, and he pulled out two sections to put in the next issue.

A bad experience I had was when my agent was sending out For the May Queen to some of the big publishers. An editor wanted the book. She’d told my agent she loved it. She took it to her group, and she was shot down. The decisions for what gets published at the New York houses are made by committees of editors and PR people. One of their concerns was that the novel was a cross-over between an adult novel and a young adult novel. Soon after, Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Prep was published to rave reviews. It was on the New York Times bestseller list. And it was considered a cross-over sensation between, yes, an adult novel and a young adult novel. In fact, it’s shelved in both areas in most bookstores and libraries. It was disheartening to have my novel rejected for what turned out to be a strength.

I witnessed that whole process firsthand. How do you not get discouraged when things like that happen?

I do get discouraged, but I try not to let that feeling overwhelm me. The best way to do that is to keep writing.

What, from your perspective, are some of the most common mistakes first-time authors make when starting out in the business?

Perhaps focusing too much on the business and not enough on the art. Perhaps forgetting what they love about writing in the first place. Listening too much to what other people say they “should” do and should write as opposed to following their hearts.

What do you think are some of the most effective things an author can do to advertise her or himself?

An online presence is always a good thing: a blog, Facebook, MySpace, all that stuff that can bring you free PR. An excellent site for connecting to other readers and writers is Goodreads. Because of my online presence, I’ve had a number of requests for print and radio interviews. Of course the problem is all of this can suck time and energy that could otherwise be used for writing.

Right, which is why we’ve unplugged the internet at our house.

I’m still having some withdrawals!

How much time do you spend on publicity and marketing? Does this aspect of being a writer hinder or enhance your writing process?

I’ve been spending a lot of time on this stuff lately since my novel just came out. I just got back from five days in Atlanta where I was featured at a literary festival, and I have about ten readings and other events scheduled over the next couple of months. It’s fun to an extent but it’s also absolutely time consuming and has kept me away from writing. I just keep realizing that the marketing intensity is high now because the novel was just released and that things will calm down soon.

Lastly, what’s your favorite thing about being a writer? And what do you totally hate?

I love the solitude of writing, the way I can lose myself in a world of my making. What I hate about it is that at times it can be really hard. Sometimes just pushing the words out is hard. I crave those days, which don’t happen as often as I’d like, when writing is complete fun and flow. At those times I feel that writing is the most difficult thing I’ve ever loved—other than you. Ha!