Innehållsförteckning för October 2013 från The Writer

YEARS AGO WHEN MY SISTER WAS VISITING, she deposited a lucky charm in my garden. The polished green glass stone remained hidden for a long time, maybe most of the summer – which is more of a testament to my ineffectual weeding habits than her camouflage techniques. When I eventually found the stone and wiped off the mud, one word gleamed at me: WRITE. At that moment, I had no idea about my sister’s mischief. All I knew was that a talisman seemed to have revealed itself to me with a clear directive. Only later did I learn the provenance of the engraved stone. But the message now greets me every day when I sit at my desk where the stone has been added to a small collection of trinkets.…

Said Sayrafiezadeh Said Sayrafiezadeh’s first book was the Whiting Award-winning memoir When Skateboards Will Be Free, which details his childhood in Pittsburg with an Iranian-born father and a Jewish American mother, both of whom were heavily involved in the Socialist Workers Party and convinced that the U.S. would soon fall to a socialist revolution. Sayrafiezadeh’s writing is characterized by a wry humor grounded in solid political and social realism. In addition to his memoir, he has written plays and has published journalism and fiction in The New Yorker, The Paris Review and Granta. His most recent book is the short story collection Brief Encounters with the Enemy, which met with strong reviews when it was released in August after having previously been excerpted in The New Yorker and named a…

Occasionally on Facebook, we ask friends to respond to a visual prompt. This image of a young man sitting on the steps outside a house motivated many writers to offer stories about what he is doing there. Here’s our original prompt: “Your lead character looks out of the window and sees this man waiting on the doorstep. Is he a friend or enemy? a lover or ex-lover? Why is he waiting?” The following are our favorite responses. “She saw him sitting on the stoop, didn’t want to believe it was him. Nine years after he stormed out of the house crying because we ‘didn’t understand him.’ He looked beaten, tired. She imagined he smelled, too. What to say? ‘After six months we stopped looking for you,’ ‘Your dealer was just…

One semester short of completing my doctoral program in literature, I had to leave school. My finances crashed. The prospects for a job in academia were thin. And my daughter needed braces, which I could not afford. In a desperate move, I took a job as an arts reporter at a daily newspaper. The transition from academic writing to reporting was challenging but not insurmountable. My colleagues were helpful, and my editor believed in me and supported the tone I brought to her section. In about six months, I was rolling along, submitting regular stories about theater, music, painters, writers. I felt I had hit my stride writing passionately and thoughtfully about the arts. I could sit back and become one of the nation’s next revered arts critics. My editor…

Fiction writing makes me happy. It also makes me want to stick tacks in my eyes. It’s hard work, and unlike my other writing projects, it doesn’t pay my bills – yet. So it’s easy for me to put it aside, promising myself I’ll get to it when there’s time, or I have energy, or I’ve got the plot untangled. The list of promises is long. I thought about committing to things that are sometimes painful – or at least challenging – as I went through my daily physical therapy routine. I’ve been in PT for a year in an effort to loosen my left hip, which would ache after I’d run or sat too long at my desk. My physical therapist recommends four or five exercises at a time,…

Every day, TONI MORRISON RISES when the garbage trucks in New York are still collecting rubbish, when the ink from the morning newspaper still smudges on the fingers. If at work on a book, America’s most fabulously praised literary novelist sits down with a pencil and yellow legal pad, and writes until her hand hurts. “I don’t like the act of writing for long periods of time,” the seventy-three-year-old says, half-reclining on a divan in her lofty Manhattan pied-à-terre, dressed in a white T-shirt, black cardigan, and flowing black trousers. “Some people think, ‘Oh she’s so virtuous to get up that early,’” Morrison says, letting loose a smoker’s cackle. “It has nothing to do with that. I get up because a) the sun’s up, and b) I’m smart in the…

BUSINESS JOURNALIST JOANNE CLEAVER credits her college internships at a savings association for launching her writing career, which began with a 17-year gig for Crain’s Chicago Business. Nonfiction author and journalist Caitlin Kelly never studied journalism, but she wrote for her college paper and used the clips to sell her work to national magazines and newspapers while still a student. Entertainment reporter Libby Slate, who has written for The Los Angeles Times, Emmy Magazine and TV Guide, started her journalism career writing for the UCLA Daily Bruin. Author and pet columnist Susan Ewing never wrote for her college paper but credits her English and writing professors for nurturing her love of literature and encouraging her to become a writer. From campus publications to career services assistance to school websites, colleges…

Jason Porter is struggling to finalize the summary of his forthcoming novel. His book Why Are You So Sad? comes out in February 2014, and he’s in the process of working with the marketing team at Plume, his publisher, to refine the book jacket copy for the novel. “By its nature, [the summary] undoes everything I’m trying to accomplish by writing the novel,” says Porter. “It simplifies it, and it’s ruining all the surprises, and that’s hard for me. It’s hard to look at this thing objectively because you know how you would like people to experience it – but you don’t really know how people will experience it.” For authors of fiction, encapsulating a novel into an approximately 200-word overview seems impossible. After years of toiling over a manuscript,…

Several times a month, the staff of Brain, Child meets in editor Marcelle Soviero’s bright yellow studio overlooking the Saugatuck River in Connecticut to discuss submissions that tackle the challenges and triumphs of parenthood. At a table surrounded by art depicting mothers and children, the women – all moms themselves, and most of them writers – discuss which pieces are best suited for the print issue, the website and the blog. “We really understand writers,” Soviero says. “They are the most important part of this process.” Stefanie Wilkinson and Jennifer Niesslein founded the publication in 2000 and sold it to Soviero in 2012. Although Brain, Child sports a subtitle – The magazine for thinking mothers – men are welcome to submit. In June, editors welcomed Jon Sponaas as a contributing…

I lay in bed, my leg in a cast. The sun outside couldn’t penetrate the gloom in my room. It was autumn of my final law school year. My knee had been shredded, unheroically, during an intramural flag football game. Confined to bed for 10 days, I had little to do but stew. On my nightstand was Student Lawyer, the American Bar Association marketing magazine. Despite its title, no self-respecting law student ever read it. Except, now, me. It was 1979. Law schools were packed with Baby Boomers, raised on the civil rights revolution, angry or cynical about the Vietnam War, inspired by the power-toppling spectacle of Watergate. The world needed changing? We would change the world. And arming ourselves with a legal education seemed a smart move. But buried…

Each year on October 16, we celebrate the birthday of Noah Webster, the innovative lexicographer who wrote the most indispensable guidebook for writers: the dictionary. In honor of National Dictionary Day, we asked five creative writing professors for their must-have writing resources. “My favorites [for teaching] today are Tell It Slant by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola for creative nonfiction and Writing the Memoir by Judith Barrington for memoir specifically. For myself, I have no go-to resource but keep reading as widely (and critically) as I can, learning from the best of writers, past and present.” —Nancy Lord, fiction/nonfiction, University of Alaska Anchorage “I often return to Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft. Rather than marching readers through the usual atomistic descriptions of plot, setting and character, Le Guin focuses…

Kristen K. Tucker @KristenKTucke Finally, sitting down to write. I hope the headstand I did last night and the inversions I did this morning make me creative. #writing Grace Pardun Alworth @galworth @WritersRelief For some unexplainable reason, every time I write, the kitchen gets spotless. #procrastination Caroline Leavitt @Leavittnovelist Venturing towards Chapter Three cautiously, fueled with anxiety repellent and bolstered with caffeine. Daniel Waugh @dm_waugh Writing articles in the sun. A tasty craft beer would indeed go down nicely! R.L. Murphy @TheRLMurphy I love writing the day after seeing something inspirational. It’s like someone just recharged my writing battery. Tina Ann Forkner @tinaannforkner Writing outside in the mornings makes me want to pull weeds...just a form of procrastination if you ask me. Not gonna do it. :) #AmWriting Joanne DeMaio…

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster."-Isaac Asimov If you had only six minutes to live, what would you do? Science fiction and fantasy writer Jay Lake has 10 novels in print, 300 published short stories and five collections. He has edited 15 anthologies. And Lake, 49, is dying. After a five-year battle with colon cancer, he’s in the process of formally retiring from writing. He may have a few months or as much as a year left. How is he spending that time? True to his generous nature and love of the craft, Lake offers the following wisdom to veteran and aspiring writers alike. Start early. “The main thing I wish I’d done differently, truthfully, is…

The poems that day are being passed around the big table at the 92nd Street Y senior poetry-writing group in Manhattan. Gusts of laughter send them on their way. Women’s laughter. The only man with a poem to read is no laughing mood. He is ill with pancreatic cancer. First thought of writing about seniors and poetry after reviewing two books on aging by poets: Alicia Ostriker’s The Book of Seventy and Shirley Kaufman’s Ezekiel’s Wheels. Their poems, works of perception without illusion, posed an important question: What does life get filled with as it’s being emptied? Permission to sit in on senior poetry writing classes involves all sorts of hesitations and stipulations: no taping, no photographing. The students are protected like vestal virgins. A septuagenarian myself, I transgress almost…

IN FICTION, place is often seen as a secondary player in the shadow of character and plot. But in the hands of a skilled writer, place plays essential roles. In her essay “Place in Fiction,” Eudora Welty says “recognition, memory, history, valor, love, all the instincts of poetry and praise, worship and endeavor” are “bound up in place.” This strikes me as a tall order for a writer. I suspect that creating a sense of place that adds such depth and meaning to a story must come intuitively from the writer and be refined over time. Examining good writing can help the process. David Rhodes, who brings to life the world of Words, a small rural community in his previous novel Driftless and now in Jewelweed, masterfully uses place both…

For students, internships at newspapers, magazines, literary journals, book publishers, literary agencies or book packagers can be a golden opportunity to get an insider’s view of a trade they’d like to enter. Even though metropolitan areas such as New York City offer more publishing internship openings than others, opportunities can be found virtually anywhere. Begin the search. Troll the Internet to see what’s available. Keep an open mind; even if your dream internship is not listed, other kinds of internships may still be worthwhile. Check internship websites. A number of sites list internship opportunities. These are often general search sites, so you may have to type in a particular location where you wish to work. Check company websites. Some company sites have an internship page with listings of open positions…

True to herself and to her characters. That’s film and TV writer Callie Khouri. As creator, writer and executive producer of the ABC smart musical drama series Nashville, returning for its second season this fall, Khouri is part of the hard-working TV industry elite. But it wasn’t always that way. If hers seems a bit of a Cinderella story, well, yes, in a sense, it is. Before Khouri got her writing start, she waited tables for a time and worked her way up, in classic Hollywood style, from production company receptionist to production assistant to music video producer. Then in 1991, her first screenplay, Thelma & Louise, snagged the interest of famed movie director Ridley Scott, who turned Khouri’s heartfelt words into a filmic tour de force. Deftly nuanced as…

New England BENNINGTON COLLEGE Degree type: Low-residency MFA in writing. Concentrations: Fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Application deadline: March 1 for summer residency; Sept. 1 for winter residency. Contact: Dawn Dayton, Program Coordinator. Bennington College, One College Drive, Bennington, VT 05201. 802-440-4452. writing@bennington.edu bennington.edu/MFAWriting BOSTON UNIVERSITY Degree type: MFA in creative writing. Concentrations: Fiction and poetry. Application deadline: March 1. Contact: Creative Writing Program, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. 617-353-2510. crwr@bu.edu bu.edu/creativewriting BROWN UNIVERSITY Degree type: MFA in literary arts. Concentrations: Fiction, poetry, electronic writing (hypertext) and mixed media. Application deadline: Dec. 15. Contact: Literary Arts, Brown University, Box 1923, 68.5 Brown St., Providence, RI 02912. 401-863-3260. writing@brown.edu brown.edu/academics/literary-arts EMERSON COLLEGE Degree type: MFA in creative writing. Concentrations: Fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Application deadline: Jan. 15. Contact: Steve Yarbrough,…

WHERE DO YOU READ THE WRITER? Send a photo of yourself and a short description of the location to tweditorial@madavor.com. Freelance writer Susan Sommer reads The Writer at her family’s commercial fish camp on Kalgin Island, Alaska, where she has visited every summer since childhood. And yes, the shed is really tipped at that angle. During down time at the annual Baltimore Urban Book Festival, author Norwood Holland reads The Writer. The beautiful setting of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is where Susan Baker enjoys reading The Writer. In Hamburg, Germany, reader Nancy Jorgensen met up with her daughter Gwen, a 2012 Olympian, after she competed in the ITU World Triathlon Series. Pilot Dan Ernst spends part of every layover writing his first nonfiction book. “My preflight checklist includes having…

This is a personal decision, one that can only arise from your own interest in the work. It would be easier, wouldn’t it, if we had assurance that once you hit, say, 432 hours of revision, you’ve done all you can? That’s just not the case, though, so the decision is up to you. If you’re still engaged in the piece and eager to strengthen it, then continue revising. Be aware of how you’re revising. If you’re tinkering with language, even though you know the plot needs a major overhaul, you might consider how you can better focus your efforts. If you’re taking it apart in a more genuine and productive way, forge ahead. However, if you’re not still engaged with the story, perhaps it is time to put it…

CUSTOMIZABLE WALL MANAGER Consolidate notes and outlines with this modular wall system designed by Martha Stewart. Easy to install and customizable for any sized office, the system allows you to mix and match corkboards and whiteboards with caddies, drawers, hooks and shelves. It’s the perfect home for all your writing tools. Prices vary. staples.com BOOKENDS Tidy up your library with sleek and clever bookends from Mod-Cloth. The silver set provides solid support for writing guides and go-to handbooks. Get your favorite volumes organized from beginning to end – literally. Start at $32. modcloth.com HEMINGWAY PEN BOX Finished in dark antique bronze, this decorative storage box is engraved with timeless advice from Ernest Hemingway: “A writer must write what he has to say, not speak it.” When you’re facing writer’s block,…

Hope and despair I’M SO STRESSED OUT I can’t write, even though I’m no longer subjected to chemo-induced writer’s block. In over a decade of being a professional writer, I’ve never had writer’s block in the usual sense for more than a two or three days in a row. Until now. My despair is showing through. In ways that are alarming my family. In ways that are probably undermining my own treatment course. My therapist is very concerned. What I’ve said to both of them is that my day-to-day life is still a joy to me, but my sense of the future has retreated to a deep and profound negativity. Over the past few years, hope has been frankly poisonous to me. Every time I’ve started to have serious hope,…

There is no one correct path to become a published novelist. That is the overarching message in John Freeman’s book How to Read a Novelist. Over the past 13 years, Freeman, who has written for 200 publications worldwide and is the one-time president of the National Book Critics Circle, has reviewed thousands of books and interviewed hundreds of authors. In How to Read a Novelist, Freeman brings readers along on the journeys taken by 55 novelists. Freeman selected the profiles for this collection from hundreds that he has written, largely for newspapers or magazines. His criteria, spelled out in the book’s introduction: “True storytellers write, I believe, not because they can but because they have to.…When it came to selecting the pieces I wanted to include in this book, my…

O BRAVE NEW WORLD… Paying attention to the specifics of place, or location, can reveal valuable clues to a story’s overall world and progress. The following excerpt from the first chapter of David Rhodes’ novel Jewelweed offers hints about where the story is headed and what Rhodes wants us to know about the landscapes of character and setting. 1 The first sentence offers a strong sense of place: open spaces, harsh climate, a highway. What we learn: Something’s brewing. 2 The truck is the first “interior” of the story. What we see: panorama from an elevated dashboard. 3 Not a city library. Not a university library. The Grange Library. Message: rural setting. 4 A prison means a “past.” What we think: What happened to Blake to land him in prison?…

When I open a book to the first chapter, I like to be plopped right down into the world of the story. I want to immediately have a feel for the author’s voice and the characters’ circumstances, and by the end of that first chapter, I’m going decide whether I’ll dedicate my time to finishing the book. So the author better put all he or she has into those introductory pages. The first chapter of Bill Cheng’s debut novel Southern Cross the Dog opens with a scene of childhood play, but the rural Mississippi woods in which the scene takes place feel creepy and menacing. A heavy rain is falling, setting up the main event of the first chapter: the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Robert, the main character, also…

Lewis DeSoto first attended the International Festival of Authors as a bookstore employee. At the 20-some festivals that followed, he interviewed writers, met his agent, wrote an international best-selling novel, joined the IFOA board of directors and was nominated for a Man Booker Prize. This year, he’ll attend not as a bookstore employee, but as a distinguished author. “I feel so much a part of the festival, it just seems natural,” he says with a laugh. Dubbed “the Olympics of literature” by The Los Angeles Times, IFOA and its weekly reading series has hosted more than 8,000 authors – including 20 Nobel laureates – from more than 100 countries since 1974. DeSoto says the festival shows attendees “how writing fits in with the world, with culture, that you’re not alone,…

At 6’4” and built like a grizzly bear, Jonathan Maberry, a former bodyguard, bouncer, martial arts instructor and eighth degree black belt in jujutsu, is an imposing figure. His booming voice grabs the attention of nearly anyone within earshot. Yet Maberry is very approachable and friendly. At writing conferences, he frequently dresses casually in a Hawaiian shirt and goes out of his way to make himself available to attendees throughout the conference. In his speeches, he urges budding writers to respect their audiences when they meet them in person and to make it a positive experience. Maberry has won multiple Bram Stoker Awards and authored 18 novels, including the Joe Ledger thriller series. Maberry has written more than 30 nonfiction books, 1,200 feature articles and 3,000 columns. He also writes…