Sunday Sentence

f_mcdermott_someoneIn which I participate in David Abrams’s “Sunday Sentence” project, sharing the best sentence I’ve read during the past week, “out of context and without commentary.”

It was painful, the way my mother gripped my hand as we made our way through that forest of adults, all red knuckles, for me, and wedding bands and the hems of jackets, until the figures suddenly parted and there before the glass of the bay window was the gleaming box and Pegeen in its satin bed.

Source: Alice McDermott, Someone

Midweek Notes from a Practicing Writer

I won’t lie. It hasn’t been the brightest week.

Alan Cheuse, 1940-2015

Alan Cheuse
Alan Cheuse

Last Friday afternoon came the sad news of Alan Cheuse’s passing. Very shortly thereafter, I went to work on a statement for the Fig Tree Books website. You can read it here. But I’ll point you also to a couple of online appreciations and tributes I’ve found especially memorable: Bethanne Patrick for Lit Hub and Susan Stamberg for NPR.

Most of all, though—and turning to happier thoughts—I’ll point you to one of Alan’s essays about his own writing life and to his recent interview with Michael Silverblatt of KCRW (I loved this conversation when I listened in at the time), so you can figuratively and literally hear Alan’s voice. (more…)