Posts Tagged‘Writing on Writing’

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Writing About Writing Programs

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I’ve been feeling pretty unwell this week (but my doctor says I do NOT have swine flu, and for that I am grateful). I nearly missed Louis Menand’s review-essay in The New Yorker, which centers on that old question: Should creative writing be taught?. But my ever-thoughtful mother, knowing that I haven’t been reading with my usual clarity, pointed it out to me. (Thanks, Mom!)

And online, there’s more.

I can’t help wishing Menand had said at least something about low-residency programs–I’ll have to see if the new book he writes about in this piece (Mark McGurl’s The Program Era) focuses on them at all.

In any case, it’ll be interesting to see the letters to the editors on this one….

Friday Find: Off the Shelf–Writers on Writing

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

During a recent visit to the Jacket Copy (Los Angeles Times) blog, I learned that the good folks there are bringing us a new series called “Off the Shelf: Writers on Writing.” Every Friday, we can expect an essay of that sort. Contributors to date include Art Spiegelman, Taylor Antrim, Nahid Rachlin, and Tod Goldberg. By the time you read this (depending on your time zone), today’s essay may have already been posted. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Three Full-Text Tales for Short Story Month

by Erika Dreifus on
5

I’m not feeling at my blogging best. First I mis-scheduled yesterday’s “Monday Markets/Jobs/Opportunities” post (it posted on Sunday). And right now I’m trying to type with very dilated pupils (good news: no eye infection; bad news: no contact lenses for a week to 10 days–oh, vanity!).

So I thought I’d cheer myself up with a small (very small) contribution to the ongoing efforts to celebrate May as Short Story Month. I thought I’d point you to online versions of three stories that I seem unable to read too many times. Every time I read them, I seem to discover something new, and I marvel over the skills of the writers involved.

In alphabetical order by author, the stories are:

–Anton Chekhov’s “Lady with the Dog” (also translated as “The Lady with the Lapdog,” “The Lady with the Little Dog,” etc.)

–Lorrie Moore’s “People Like That Are the Only People Here: Canonical Babblings in Peed Onk.” (scroll past the document’s “introduction” to get to Moore’s story)

–Joyce Carol Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

Which stories do you read over and over again? Please share, in comments. (And if you can include links to full-text versions online, so much the better!)

The Wednesday Web Browser: Women Writers Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

I seem to be having a lot of fun running themed “Wednesday Web Browser” posts. Long may it continue!

–Tayari Jones offers an eloquent tribute to Alice Walker.

–Ayelet Waldman talks to Terry Gross about her new book, Bad Mother. (Warning–some NPR commenters seem to have been very offended by some of what Waldman reveals in this interview.)

–Lisa Romeo, essayist, describes a special “Depression-Era Quilt.”

The Wednesday Web Browser: Poets & Writers Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

A couple of days ago I pointed you to the classifieds in the May/June issue of Poets & Writers magazine. Today, I’m going to spotlight some articles the magazine has made available online.

–In a special section on literary journals, Sandra Beasley writes about the evolution of online journals.
–The super “Agents and Editors” series continues, this time with Jofie Ferrari-Adler speaking with agents Maria Massie, Jim Rutman, Anna Stein, and Peter Steinberg.
–Kevin Larimer updates us on small presses and lit mags.

There’s plenty of great content in the print issue, too, including Mary Gannon’s profile of Jay McInerney. Since I encountered resistance from some fiction workshop-mates when I wrote stories (in 2002) with connections to the attacks of September 11, 2001, I particularly appreciated this snippet: “And, as he did by using the second person in his debut, in The Good Life McInerney took a risk by writing about New York City in the immediate aftermath of September 11, despite advice from the late Norman Mailer to hold off ten years. ‘I was writing about the emotional texture of those three months afterwards,’ he says. ‘If I had waited, that would have faded for me.'”