Writers.com/Writers on the Net

My popular course, Writing the Literary Short Story, begins a new session on June 14. It's a great value, I think. Not only do we workshop stories (and revisions) by each of the participants, but we discuss important elements of short story writing as well as look at examples of great stories by well-known writers. There are also weekly exercises to keep everyone writing and engaged.


For more information and to register, visit: Writers.com/Writers on the Net

The New Yorker: "Agreeable" by Jonathan Franzen

A year ago, The New Yorker published a story by Jonathan Franzen called "Good Neighbors," which I discussed here. I rather liked the story, and even thought it had a good story structure. It turns out, though, that that story was an excerpt from Franzen's new novel, Freedom, which comes out in September.

The reason I looked into that old story and the novel is that I suspected this new story, "Agreeable," might be an excerpt. It begins with a lot of exposition, as if the author needs to fill the reader in on what happened before the beginning of the chunk of the story that he wants to have fun with. And the ending of the story also seems somewhat weak, as if anticipating a greater resolution of the conflict that we'd expect in a novel.

And, indeed, there is a connection. This new "story" provides the background about Patty, the suburban wife we meet in the excerpt from last year. But unlike last year's story, this one doesn't stand well on its own.

As an excerpt, it's okay, I suppose. As a story, I don't much like it. There's the early exposition, and then there's the somewhat familiar date rape in which the victim is left to deal with her problem without parental support. Here, Patty is raped by the son of a wealthy connection to Patty's parents, and so they convince her to drop the matter. It's almost unbelievable that parents would do that, but Franzen has created characters for whom it's credible. In the aftermath of their weakness, Patty becomes stronger--in an angry, aggressive way. But we don't really see who she becomes or what her parents' decision has done to her.

For that, you have to look back a year, to the earlier "excerpt"--or forward a couple of months to the novel.

May 31, 2010: "Agreeable" by Jonathan Franzen

Where I Must Go by Angela Jackson

Where I Must Go
Angela Jackson
Triquarterly Books/Northwestern University Press (2009)

I started at Northwestern University in the fall of 1971. I was not yet 18, and although I was looking forward to the challenge, I remember being bewildered. I lived in a triple in Latham House, a dilapidated residence on Clark Street in Evanston that once housed George McGovern. (Not long after I moved into my fraternity house the following year, the building was torn down by the university. It's now the parking lot of the Burger King.) The roommates, also freshmen, were fine, but a few of the other residents--I'm not sure how to put this--were way outside my comfort zone. I don't remember much about them except for the morning I left my room to go to the bathroom down the hall to find two naked people--one a woman, and it wasn't a co-ed dorm--sitting on the floor in the hallway talking on the phone. My phone.

But my experience was nothing like that of Magdalena Grace, the protagonist and narrator of Angela Jackson's Where I Must Go, who arrives at Eden University (which is clearly Northwestern, where Jackson also went to school) from the South Side of Chicago (although not so identified in the novel--it's merely called "the City"), just a few years earlier. It's 1967, and Maggie Grace is the same age I was as a freshman. But Maggie is black, and that makes a big difference. At least it certainly did back then.

In my high school, there were few blacks. I just looked at the yearbook from my senior year and I see six black faces out of a graduating class of over 500. At Northwestern, I remember few blacks. We had none in my fraternity. I knew none socially or in my classes. The blacks on campus, as I recall, pretty much stuck to themselves, and, I suppose, the rest of us also pretty much stuck to ourselves.

It was at the end of anti-war activism, although Northwestern never did see the disruption that many other campuses saw. During my freshman year, I remember one large demonstration that shut down Sheridan Road (the major North-South artery that bisects Northwestern's Evanston campus), but that seemed to me, as a clueless freshman, to be as much a celebration of spring as it was an outpouring of anger over an unjust war. In terms of race relations, though, I don't remember any problems, except for one case, a minor clash between two dorm residents, that came before the campus judicial board, of which I was a member. Even that seemed quiet. The school wasn't segregated, exactly, but there sure wasn't much mixing.

So, because I was basically THERE, in the time and place of the novel, I found it especially disturbing. Not because I doubt a single word Jackson is saying, but because I believe EVERY word she's saying. The book is fiction, of course, and so I don't know how much of the plot is based on events that actually happened. But the plot is almost beside the point, at least for me. The book tells a good story, and at times it's even exciting and suspenseful, but it's really about the environment and the times, and that part of it was TRUE, even if I didn't recognize it back then.

So, Maggie Grace arrives on campus and gravitates naturally toward the other black students, in part because the white students aren't exactly welcoming. There are clashes with the white students and administration, and eventually the tensions come to a head--a demonstration that promises to get very ugly. Meanwhile, Maggie has issues at home, and back in Mississippi where her family is from originally, and there are various other conflicts between Maggie and her roommates, Essie and Leona, and the other students at "Blood Island"--essentially a university-owned house where the school's black students hang out.

Maggie lives in a dorm I recognize. She goes to classes in buildings I recognize. She walks streets I recognize. And yet this isn't an experience I recognize at all. Which I find embarrassing, because it was happening before my eyes. The white students in the book are bigots -- there are few or no exceptions, ultimately. And I suspect that's the way it really did feel back then to students like Maggie. Of course it wasn't everyone. But it might as well have been. I know I didn't do anything to make it better. Hell, I didn't know it was happening because my eyes weren't open. A book like this can open your eyes.

Jackson is a poet, and the language of the book illustrates this. Open to any page: "Trains then were the veins and arteries of the nation, not the free-floating circulatory system of the sky, and dapper men of color with quick, quiet tread skimmed the railed ropes to the heart of the country, which was this City by the lake where the Hawk that did not then have a name blew and tore the skin off people and the hordes of farm beasts routed there for dying." The novel is worth the read for the language alone, but there's a lot more to it than that.

And, as an aside, it's published by Northwestern University Press. Below is a video of Jackson returning to Northwestern for a reading from the novel.

The New Yorker: "Ash" by Roddy Doyle

Let me first say that I’m annoyed with The New Yorker. Or the Post Office. For the fourth week in a row my copy of the magazine has arrived late. Significantly late. I know I could read the stories online, but I shouldn’t have to. It’s beginning to tick me off.

And if only they were worth the wait!

This story by Roddy Doyle is notable mostly for the banter between brothers Kevin and Mick about the crumbling state of Kevin’s marriage (and the defunct state of Mick’s). Kevin’s wife, Ciara, has announced that she’s leaving. Except she doesn’t. She stays and they have sex. She is late coming home one night and so he thinks it might be for real this time, but she comes home late and they have sex. And then she really does disappear, and he starts thinking that it might be permanent.

He’s dealing with their children and also getting bad advice from the well-meaning Mick, whose bad judgment doomed his own marriage.

Suddenly Ciara returns, along with the news of the Icelandic volcano that is spewing ash and shutting down airports all over Europe. And so the reader suspects—this reader, anyway—that the reason Ciara is back is that she couldn’t leave. Maybe she’d wanted to, but she couldn’t. “The airports were crowded and shut. There was no escape.”

But Kevin understands that the situation isn’t permanent. Eventually, the escape routes will open again.

The subject is a tired one, for sure, but it’s amazing that such a timely story has appeared in The New Yorker. And that’s about the best I have to say for it.

 May 24, 2010: “Ash” by Roddy Doyle

Peace Corps Writers - Nominees for best RPCV books of 2009

Each year, Peace Corps Writers, now part of Peace Corps Worldwide, recognizes the best books published by former Peace Corps Volunteers in several genres. This year, I'm pleased to learn that my book, In an Uncharted Country, is a finalist for the Maria Thomas Fiction Award. The winners will be announced in July.

See all the finalists: Peace Corps Writers - Nominees for best RPCV books of 2009

Online MBA’s Recommended Books Giveaway! - Online MBA

I just won a book from Online MBA’s Recommended Books Giveaway! - Online MBA. You can too!

Alessandro Kokocinski

When I visited Italy about 25 years ago (has it been that long?), I acquired a painting by Alessandro Kokocinski. It was and is stunning and hangs over my fireplace. I've been watching his career ever since -- the Internet makes that way easier.

New Issue: BiblioBuffet

Check out the new issue of BiblioBuffet

Signing in the Waldenbooks

w i g l e a f : (very) short fiction

Wigleaf announces it's annual Top Fifty:

w i g l e a f : (very) short fiction

Amazon.com: Perpetual Folly: Kindle Store: Clifford Garstang

Subscribe to Perpetual Folly on your Kindle!

Amazon.com: Perpetual Folly: Kindle Store: Clifford Garstang

Book Clubs

In my life, I've been in a number of book clubs. I've always enjoyed them because I love to talk about books. I don't think I've ever been in a book club meeting with the author of the book, however. But since In an Uncharted Country came out last September, I've met with several book clubs. The experiences have all been quite different, but all wonderful.

Yesterday afternoon I was invited to meet with a local club of retired James Madison University faculty members at the home of new friends Rex and Jane. It was a big group--11 people--and for the first time a mix of men and women. (Both of the previous clubs I visited were all women.) I enjoy talking about the book and my process, so I love answering the many questions people have about the stories. Sometimes, in answering the questions, I reach insights that I hadn't had before. (This happened yesterday, concerning the story "White Swans".)

If any book clubs are interested in having me appear, I'd love to do it. I'd even travel a bit or, if it's too far, I could appear by Skype. Seriously.

Dark Sky Magazine: In the Spotlight

This week, Dark Sky Magazine turns the spotlight on me!

Literature News | Dark Sky Magazine

Troubles wins Lost Man Booker Prize

Troubles wins Lost Man Booker Prize

The New Yorker: "Free Fruit for Young Widows" by Nathan Englander

Although there’s more to Englander’s story than there was to Gilb’s story last week, I’m not sure, ultimately, that it’s more satisfying. I’d welcome other views.

Essentially, the story is about a young Israeli boy, Etgar, who is trying to understand his father’s treatment of Professor Tendler. The father, Shimmy, runs a fruit and vegetable stand and always gives free vegetables to Tendler, just as he gives free produce to young war widows. At first, when Etgar is very young, he gets one version of the story. As he ages, he is allowed to know more. Eventually, when he turns thirteen—the age of bar mitzvah—Shimmy tells Etgar the whole story. At this point, the reader thinks he knows what Etgar is about to hear, because Englander begins the telling of his story with a horrific incident in which Tendler kills a group of Egyptian commandos and then beats Shimmy senseless. But the incident that Etgar needs to understand took place much earlier than that, in World War II.

The way Englander has Shimmy tell this story is worth noting. He tells of Tendler’s improbable survival in the war. And then there is more to tell, and more. (I won’t reveal what happened—read Englander’s story!) Finally, Etgar hears the truth and he learns his lesson, which is that life is complicated, filled with excruciating choices.

Which is a good way for a story to end.

 May 17, 2010: “Free Fruit for Young Widows” by Nathan Englander

Spotlight on . . . Mary Miller

Ethel Rohan continues her Spotlight feature, this time turning the brights on Mary Miller:
Literature News | Dark Sky Magazine

Beebe Barksdale-Bruner - Fine Art

Check out the cool artwork of my poet/painter/photographer friend Beebe:

Beebe Barksdale-Bruner - Fine Art

In an Uncharted Country wins Gold!

I didn't think the results were going to be announced until the ceremony later this month, but I guess I was wrong. And, moreover, it appears that my book, In an Uncharted Country, has been awarded a Gold Medal for best fiction in the Mid-Atlantic Region! Here are the results: Independent Publisher Awards for 2010.

And congratulations to Mary Akers for winning Gold in the Short Story category, against some very stiff competition!

Crazyhorse news

Close, but no cigar. It appears that my story "Replacement Wife" was a finalist for the Crazayhorse Fiction Prize, judged this year by Aimee Bender. See: Recent Winners and Judges. Congratulations to the winner, Marjorie Celona. I really like Crazyhorse (and would love to have seen "Replacement Wife" in their pages). Oh, and the prize money would have been nice, too.

Chattahoochee Review

A friend pointed out this morning that Duotrope.com lists Chattahoochee Review as a dead market. I'm happy to say that rumors of Chattahoochee's death have been greatly exaggerated.

I have it on good authority--I emailed Marc Fitten, CR's Editor, and he replied--that Chattahoochee is not dead and is in fact putting together it's next issue right now. He said he'd contact Duotrope right away.

So. One less dead magazine!

The New Yorker: "Uncle Rock" by Dagoberto Gilb

This is an okay story, but it’s not something I want to read in The New Yorker. Erick is 11, Mexican, being raised by his hot mother in Silverlake, part of LA. He’s quiet—as in, he doesn’t speak—because men are always, constantly hitting on his mother. At one point he decides that the engineer his mother is seeing—she works for the guy—will be his new father. The guy is rich, owns horses, has a big house. But then it doesn’t work out and Erick is embarrassed.

Then Roque comes around—Uncle Rock, so-called by Erick because he’s told his friend Albert that the engineer will be his new father. Uncle Rock is a steady guy, nice enough, pretends to be interested in baseball for Erick’s sake, and treats Erick’s Mom well enough. Rock takes them to see the Dodgers and the Phillies and in the most thrilling moment of Erick’s life, he catches a homerun ball. As they’re leaving the stadium, a player on the team bus offers to sign the ball, and gets the whole team to do the same, but when he gives it back to Erick he also gives a note that Erick is supposed to pass to his mother, inviting her to the team hotel.

Erick throws the note away, and proudly tells his mother and Rock that the team signed his ball.

End of story. We’re supposed to be moved that Erick has made this choice and has also broken out of his shell, presumably because he thinks Uncle Rock might be okay.

Nice. But not New Yorker material.

May 10, 2010: “Uncle Rock” by Dagoberto Gilb

Independent Publisher Book Awards

I'm a finalist.

Each year, Independent Publisher, the voice of the independent publishing industry, bestows Independent Publishing Awards, known as IPPYs, on books in several categories (several being an understatement). IP has just announced the 2010 finalists: Announcing the Finalists in the 2010 Independent Publishing Book Awards.

You'll have to scroll down to the regional awards, but there you'll find that I am a finalist in the Best Regional Fiction, Mid-Atlantic category for my book In an Uncharted Country. It appears that there are only three finalists, so I suppose I get a bronze medal in any case--but I'll cross my fingers for gold all the same!

Why I Got an MFA (And Why You Should Too) « The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog

I'm guest-blogging today at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog . . . Period.

Why I Got an MFA (And Why You Should Too) « The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog

Literature News | Dark Sky Magazine

Ethel Rohan is beginning a new feature at Dark Sky Magazine, called "Spotlight On . . ." in which she asks writers a few probing questions. First under the spotlight is Kyle Minor. Check it out!

Literature News | Dark Sky Magazine

SMU Press

SMU Press is in trouble and you can help. See the letter below. All you have to do is send an email of support for the press, which has published some wonderful books.Write to klang@mail.smu.edu

5.5.10

Dear Friend of SMU Press:

Last Thursday Keith Gregory, director; George Ann Ratchford, production and marketing manager; and I, acquisitions and developmental editor, were summoned to a meeting with the SMU Provost, at which we were told that the operations of the SMU Press would be closed down on June 1, 2010. We had no hint or prior warning that this was coming. We have fifteen stranded new projects under contract and 130 other titles in print, effectively unsupported if this should come to pass.
Would you please e-mail me a statement in support of the Press ASAP (today, if possible, for us to take to our editorial board meeting—and later this week, if not)?

Many thanks,

Kathryn Lang
Senior Editor, SMU Press

Nice Review of IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY

I had managed to get a copy of this nice review when it appeared, but now it's available online:

A heartfelt collection of Virginia people | The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA Newspaper | Find Articles at BNET

The view from here literary magazine

Here's an interesting literary magazine that's new to me:

The view from here literary magazine

Click to Give @ The Hunger Site

The first thing I do every day:

Click to Give @ The Hunger Site

Clifford Garstang: On New Beginnings

Here I am, guest blogging in the Los Angeles Review:

Clifford Garstang: On New Beginnings

Matt Stewart: Pick Me! A Call for a Literary Draft

Sure, why not? With all the MFA programs in the U.S., why not borrow an idea from pro sports and begin a new system of recruiting and nurturing talent?

Matt Stewart: Pick Me! A Call for a Literary Draft

Guest Blogger: Kim Wright, author of Love in Mid Air

Kim Wright: Journey to Publication

The single question that authors are asked most is “How long did it take you to write your book?” and while it sounds pretty straightforward, for me that’s one of the hardest questions to answer.

When I got divorced fourteen years ago I kept a journal in which I put down not only my own experiences but those of other women like me. One of the weird effects of divorce is that you suddenly become the person it’s okay to confess to. You’ve publicly failed yourself, you’re wearing the big red D on your chest, and so other people, even those you barely know, feel free to tell you about the failures and frustrations in their own marriages. I filled up one journal, then another, then two more, and started keeping them in a Hefty bag in a back closet. Pretty soon I had a big old sack ‘o female discontent.

But I thought it was going to be a nonfiction project. I’d been a journalist by trade for twenty years and I envisioned a book about women who initiate divorce. Women actually are the ones who leave nearly 2/3 of the time, and the older the woman the more likely she is to be the one to file, but most books show the woman as being left, as the victim. I had the feeling I was sitting on a great, untold story.

The only problem is that I was still too close to it. It felt autobiographical and painful and I knew I didn’t have any perspective at all. So I closed the closet on my Hefty bag of journals and didn’t look at the material for a full two years.

When I finally dug it out, it was like someone else had written it. It felt fresh and I as I was reading, I thought “This isn’t creative nonfiction, or even a memoir. It’s a novel.” I could see the basic shape – the time frame, the number of characters, the point where the story logically begins and ends. There’s no way I would have had that sort of cold-blooded ability to slice and dice the stories – both my own and other people’s – two years earlier.

So then I worked on it for three years.

And it took me two more to find an agent.

For me, finding an agent was the hardest part of the process. I had been going to writer’s conferences and workshops and critique groups for years by this point, working on a variety of projects including two more failed novels, and I had a strong network of writing friends. Some of them had preceded me into publication but most of us were still in the soup – we’d get a fiction publication here or there, have an agent ask to see a couple of chapters. There would be flares of hope. But one friend, Alison, had not only gotten an agent but had sold a book for a really big advance.

To this day I don’t really know why it took me so long to ask for Alison’s help. I’d probably been turned down by 30 or 40 agents at that point. But when I finally swallowed my pride - or whatever it took – and asked Alison to introduce me to her agent, David, he and I were a good fit. He took me on and sold the book within four weeks.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting connections are everything, although you’d have to be a lunatic to pretend they don’t help. By that point I’d worked on the book really hard and it was strong. If it hadn’t been, David wouldn’t have signed me up just as a favor to Alison. But the fact that he read it at all and considered it seriously was partly a favor to Alison. A friend connection isn’t a slam dunk. Since then I’ve suggested two friends to David and he hasn’t taken on either of them. No reflection on either as writers, he just doesn’t personally know an editor he thinks he would buy those particular books and that’s what it usually boils down to. If an agent thinks he or she can sell the project, they’ll take it. But if he or she can’t think of where to place it, they’ll pass on a project, even if it’s well-written or interesting.

Ok, now I had an agent and, rapidly following, an editor. But here’s the kicker. My book sold in December, 2007 and my publisher wanted to bring it out in March 2010.

Still counting? That means, despite the fact that virtually no edits were needed, they were going to sit on it for 2 years and four months.

It was a marketing decision and I won’t bore you with details here but the bottom line was that this book which had already gone through one enormous fallow period at the beginning was going to have to wait through another one at the end.

Now that all is said and done and the book is out, I’m actually sort of glad. For starters, I don’t think I missed anything sitting out the 08 and 09 financial markets. Secondly, two year gap gave me the chance to write the sequel. But mostly because the long wait once again gave me a kind of perspective. I got distance from the concept, worked on other things. Began to think of it not just as “my book,” but as “my first book,” which is hugely different. Bad reviews and rejections and slow sales will undoubtedly still hurt but I suspect they’ll hurt a little less.

The bottom line to this little essay is this. The road to publication is long and winding and most people have periods along the way where their books seem stalled or maybe even dead. But these fallow periods can be extremely useful because they’re the point where you detach and begin to develop a more critical eye. The two years where the journals sat in the Hefty bag allowed me to see more clearly the form it should take. The two years while the novel waited in the publication chute gave me the chance to cover a little authorial distance. Pauses, even though painful at the time, are actually part of the process.

Note: Kim Wright is the author of Love in Mid Air, published in March 2010 by Grand Central.