Tayari's Blog: April 2007
April 29, 2007
ATLiens Unite!
I've just received word from a certain bold-genius that
the Atlanta Writers Club is hosting a read-in at the Atlanta Journal Constitution to protest the abolition of the book section. If you are in Atlanta, I hope you will join in. Participation is pretty simple. You just show up and read.
WHAT: ATLANTA “Save the Book Review” READ-IN! Bring a book (or many books!)you love, and let’s create a critical mass of readers to put the pressure on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reverse its terrible decision to “reorganize” its book review out of existence! They got rid of the book review editor, and without an official champion for books within the paper, the quality of books coverage is endangered! It will become disorganized and sporadic, if not simply perfunctory, until, worse, it’s no longer there. TIME: 10:00 AM until…you decide! DATE: THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2007 *rain or shine
If you go, take a picture with your camera phone and email it to me.
Posted at 09:15 PM | ![[comments]](http://www.tayarijones.com/images/comments.gif){kind=small}
Comments (0)
Category:
Current Events
Around The World in A Day
This weekend, folks who live in New York get to attend the Pen World Voices Book Festival. Novelist Martha Southgate is keeping a blog of the event. I'll warn you, the blog interface they're using over at Pen isn't the easiest to follow, but just keep clicking for her reports. It's the next best thing to being there.
Posted at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Current Events
People Who Read This Blog Are Going Places
this summer!
It's almost May, and people are hearing back from the applications they sent out for summer workshops. I am happy to tell you that the news has been good.
Congrats to all of them. Have you heard some good news? Let us know about it. Don't fight the love!
Posted at 07:29 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
April 26, 2007
Key West Literary Seminars- **update
I just gotten word that I will be participating in the second session of the Key West Literary Seminars. The dates are Thursday, January 17- Sunday, January 20th. Read my original excited post. Apply! Apply! Key West in January? What's not to like?
Posted at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Pop Quiz: NAME THAT NOVEL!
Yesterday, I treated myself to a fancy dinner at Kinkead's, one of DCs nicer restaurants. I like to go to such places alone, pop up to the bar, and have my meal while reading a trashy mystery and people-watching. A charming older gentleman with similar plans sat near me and we struck up a conversation. He asked me to help him remember the name of a novel he'd read recently and enjoyed. I'm going to give you the description he gave me, word for word. The first person who gets it wins!
I am trying to remember the name of this book I read. It was quite good. Powerful, even. The author is a black woman. Older than you. The book is about a young man who has all these problems with his father, so he goes back to try and suss out the family history.
Let the brainstorming begin!
April 24, 2007
Tayari's First Art!
Tonight I went to see Victor Ehikhamenor's art opening on U-Street. I am leaving DC in just a few weeks and I am trying to binge on the happenings of the city.
I am sad to admit to you that before tonight, I owned no real art. I was still enjoying my prints that I bought when I was in grad school. Not classy, but the walls were covered and I was sort of pleased with the looks of things.
This was until I got my eyes on some original artwork, specifically Victor's. I'm posting photos here, but photos just don't do justice to the texturing and layering of his work. I am thinking that I may just have to get a new couch. My current furniture isn't worthy of this beauty!
Posted at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Book Reviewing Under Fire
This is serious business. The Atlanta Journal Constitution is planning to do away with it's book section. Sadly, it's not just the AJC that is making such terrible decisions; this is a national trend. The National Book Critics Circle is launching a campaign by which readers, writers, and reader/writers can make our voices heard.
Like all writers, I have received the smack-down in print, and limped away howling. (Look up Kirkus Reviews's mean-spirited takes on both my novels.) However, my main quarrel with book reviewing in this country is that not enough books are reviewed. So many wonderful books are overlooked each year because the major papers could not find the space or the care to review them. Both my novels were ignored by the almighty New York Times-- and books that don't get reviewed by the NYT are seldom chosen for any major awards, etc. I was once interested in teaching in a summer workshop and the organizer told me, "Get reviewed in The Times, I can put you on. If you aren't....."
Well, I wasn't. Luckily the NYT isn't the only newspaper in the world. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reviewed each of my books, and reviewed them well. By "well" I am not saying this because the reviewer gave a favorable opinion, but because the book was assigned to a person knowledgeable about the subject matter of my book, and knowledgeable about the literary traditions in which I situate myself. Such care was given because the AJC had a book review section with a capable, thoughtful, and intelligent editor, Teresa Weaver-- whose position has just been abolished.
I know many people say they don't read book reviews, preferring to "make up their own minds." While I endorse independent thought, I think it's wrong to look at reviewers just as taste-makers. They are not the literary equivalent to the commentators who comment on red-carpet fashion. Rather, book reviewers are part of a dialogue between writers and readers. They ask the hard questions and air the issues contained within a work of literature-- be in fiction or non fiction.
Book reviewers also provide us with an look at literature that is not sponsored by the publishers. If book reviews are abolished, all we have to inform us about new books with be ads paid for big publishers. Is it not enough that the books at the front tables of the big chain book stores are those whose publishers have the cash to buy such prime placement? Theoretically, a book reviewer is a source unconnected to the deep pockets of the three of four corporations that control all of New York publishing.
I am not naive. I know that often the reviewing business is afflicted with the same sickness that corrupts the publishing industry in general. All too often women, minorities, authors who publish on small presses, are shut out of the book review sections, and thereby all but disqualified from participating in our literary and book culture. But the book review pages of newspapers often discover and champion writers whose books deserve to be read and would be read, if only readers were aware of them.
You can go here to sign a petition imploring the AJC to keep Teresa Weaver and the book section. Please click. We need your help.
Posted at 12:25 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
The Writing Life
April 22, 2007
To Sir, With Love
Far be it from me to jugde anyone for being a groupie. From time to time, I put the fan in fanatic and I think it is a 
healthy way to express yourself. So when I call my friend, Raquel, a "hard-core groupie", please don't take it the wrong way.
Rocky came to DC yesterday, all the way from Bloomington Indiana. She invited me to a show. I could get the tickets from ticketmaster. (Y'all know I love myself a concert, so I agreed, still fuzzy on the details.) I hopped on line. "What am I searching for?" I asked her, all while clicking keys.
"John Hope Franklin," she sighed.
"The historian?"
"Yes," said Rocky. "I just love him."
Well, different strokes and all of that. Some people love the Brand New Heavies, other, more sensible people, like Rocky, have a thing for 92-year-old historians who have changed the world.
Posted at 08:54 AM | Comments (10)
Category:
D.C. Diaries
April 20, 2007
When Does "Crazy" Become Deadly?
I wonder if teachers of creative writing get more than our share of 
students who seem a bit "off". In light of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, the issue of troubled students has been on my mind. As many people know, Nikki Giovanni threatened to resign if Cho Seung-Hui wasn't removed from her class. To many people, this should have been enough of a red-flag to have the student removed from school.
In my experience as a university professor, I have dealt with quite a few disturbing students. Each time, I have gone to the supervisor. The responses have ranged from "Oh, don't worry, a lot of people have had problems with him. It doesn't develop into anything." OR "Him? I've taught him before and he's a nice kid." It's as though past incidents mean he is harmless, as does a clean record.
Posted at 07:00 AM | Comments (3)
Category:
Current Events
April 18, 2007
Nikki Giovanni Puts It All In Context
Nikki Giovanni delivered the closing remarks at the memorial convocation at Virginia Tech on yesterday. She struck a perfect ballance between honoring the sadness particular to the Tech campus and linking it with the horrors around the world. So many people in the world are suffering; as she says, "no one deserves a tragedy."
Just yesterday, I was thinking of all the bombings happening in Iraq. How often do we hear "twelve killed", "twenty killed"... Maybe one thing we will learn from this tragedy at Virginia Tech is a greater degree of empathy for the suffering all over the globe. And once we have felt the sorrow and mulled its implications, maybe we will act.
I am posting the YouTube here, but there is a clearer video over at CNN.
(via crystal)
Posted at 08:15 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Current Events
It's CAKETRAIN season!
It's spring (regardless of what the thermometer says). And this means it is time for you poets to enter the CAKETRAIN chapbook contest. The winner gets $250 and 25 copies of the book. Donna Weaver, editor of Caketrain is a pretty amazing woman. I want to get her on here for a Q&A.. The Caketrain chapbooks are always beautiful and Donna Weaver does an excellent job of getting the word out about her titles.
So, for those of you poets out there who were imspired by our very own NATASHA TRETHEWEY scoring the Pulitzer-- get busy. You've got to start somewhere and the Caketrain contest will put you on the right track. (Get it, that was a joke. Right track... Caketrain. hee hee.)
The judge is the magnificent Claudia Rankine, so this is no penny-ante competition. This is your chance!
Posted at 07:39 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
The Writing Life
April 16, 2007
FANTABULASTIC NEWS!
NATASHA TRETHEWEY JUST WON THE PULITZER PRIZE!!!!
Posted at 02:20 PM | Comments (2)
Category:
News From Virginia Tech
Like the rest of the nation, I was horrified by the news of a massacre at Virginia Tech University. I was concerned on a personal level as I gave a reading at Tech a couple of years back and have maintained a friendship with a few of the professors there. I am very relieved to report to you that I spoke with Virginia Fowler this morning and she assured me that both she and poet Nikki Giovanni are safe and sound.
Posted at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Current Events
April 15, 2007
Weekend Links
Posted at 05:13 PM | Comments (2)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
April 13, 2007
Cassandra Wilson to Honor Toni Morrison
I wish, I wish, I wish, I could be there!
On May 5th in NYC. Cassandra Wilson, Ron Brown, and Evidence Dance Company will perform to celebrate Toni Morrison receiving the Ellie Charles Award. Ms. Morrison will be in attendance and if I didn't have to work, I would be there too! More details here!
Posted at 05:25 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Thanks for Voting for Kiri Davis, but...
It doesn't even matter. Cosmogirl has determined that there have been "one of more instances of tampering" with the on-line voting for the young filmaker contest. So, all of the votes are going to be thrown out. The editors, apparently, will just pick a winner.
I try not to be a paranoid conspiracy monger. I really do.
Posted at 06:57 AM | Comments (5)
Category:
Current Events
April 12, 2007
David Sedaris Writes NON-FICTION?
Okay. I feel like a dummy. There is an article in The New Republic which fact-checks David Sedaris's stories and discovers that the guy makes up most of the good parts. Then there is an article in Slate musing over the fact that there is no outrage about this.
And then, there is me. I had no idea that Davis Sedaris's stories were suppossed to be true! I honestly thought he was the author of short, albeit autobiographical, fiction. I loved the Elf at Macy's story and many of the others. I find Sedaris to be hillarious, but I did not know I was suppossed to believe him. Granted, I was never fan enough to actually buy one of his books, but still. I feel pretty foolish.
So this brings us back to the James Frey question, I guess. But really, I am so tired of the discussion. I am from the camp that thinks that if we are going to use the labels fiction and nonfiction, they need to mean something.
Of course it's all market-driven. People like to buy a good story that "really happened." They like so-called true stories that makes people say, "truth is stranger than fiction!" But really, for the most part, it isn't. That's why people make stuff up.
Have You Voted for Kiri Davis Today?
I went to the site. It's perfectly legit to vote everyday. So VOTE for her.
Posted at 06:20 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Current Events
April 11, 2007
Moving countdown: 53 days to go!
All the cool kids live in Jersey City.
Posted at 01:21 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Current Events
UP AND RUNNING
The blog is fixed! If you are still having issues, empty your cache. (If you are on AOL, go to "Clear My Footprints.") Phil, my webmaster, the genius, has got us up and running again!
Posted at 10:42 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Happy Birthday Spelman!
On this day, 126 years ago, Spelman College was born! Happy Founders Day, Ladies!
Posted at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Current Events
Don't Forget Kiri Davis-- A GIRL LIKE ME
Yes, I am beating this drum, AGAIN. Let's vote for Kiri Davis's "A Girl Like Me" in the Cosmogirl film competition. I went to the site this morning and Kiri is out of last place, but she is no where near winning... YET.
And, if you're in the the mood for early-morning irony... Kiri is the only girl like her on the Cosmogirl site.
So, go vote! It's a little tricky. The site is clearly designed for a younger demographic. I was over there trying to figure out where to click while a perky voice was advising me how to more effectively shave my legs...
Anyway, here's how it works:
I really want this young lady to win. Help out. (And FYI. I'm not trying to be trifling, but I think you can vote more than once as long as it is on a different day...)
Posted at 07:45 AM | Comments (5)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!
I have been getting some emails saying that folks cannot view this blog. If you can read this, please let me know in comments. I need to know if you use Mac or PC, and what browser (explorer, safari, firefox, etc.) If you know someone who says they can't see it, tell that person to scroll halfway down the page and that's where the entry is. I've alerted my webmaster to the problem.
(I almost said, "let me know if you can't see it." It's early. I am going to go get my coffee.)
Posted at 06:59 AM | Comments (4)
Category:
April 10, 2007
Remembering Phebus
On March 31, 2007, the beautiful, talented poet Phebus Etienne passed on. Phebus-- whose name meant light-- meant poetry. Phebus, crafter of language that captured the spirit of loss and of love and of longing, whose quiet smile could make you smile, whose smart, sly wit rode out on her every word.
I have her unpublished manuscript, Chainstitching, on my shelf with all my books of poetry because this book, printed at her desk and bound only by a clip, deserves a dust jacket, a cover photo, an ISBN. And this is part of why I mourn the loss of Phebus Etienne.
Although her gorgeous book was never published, know that she was not unsung. Those of us who knew her and knew her work know her unique relationship to beauty and the way it has benefited all of us. We understand why she has been anthologized in Cave Canem's Gathering Ground, in Edwidge Dandicant's The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States. We understand how her manuscript was often recognized as a finalist in first book contests (Tupelo Press, 2005, Alice James Book, 2006…) But we don't understand how any judge could resist choosing her as a winner. We understand that this brilliant Haitian-born, New Jersey-based woman, whose mother "packed for diaspora in one suitcase and left Port-au-Prince with warning to none," had the power to speak through her poems, and that her poems, thank heavens, will live on with us.
But there will be no more of them. No more of her soft words, the gleam of her smile, no more of the quiet support she unselfishly offered the people and organizations she believed in.
No more Phebus? She was only 41. She could not be with us long enough. I've said it to others, and I'll say it again. This is how it will be for a lot of us, for a long time. We're going to be steady missing this one. This marvelous, talented, brilliantly beautiful one.
--Camille T. Dungy
To read some of Phebus's poetry, click here.
Photo credit: Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Posted at 08:47 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Guest Bloggers
April 09, 2007
Let's Win it For Kiri Davis **updated
Remember the film, "A Girl Like Me" by a young film maker, Kiri Davis? In her film she asked her peers about thier feelings about skin color and at the end, she recreate the famous experiment in which she asked children which doll they preferred, the white one or the black one? Heartbreaking and serious stuff. And to think that the Kiri Davis is just a teenager.
Well, Cosmo Girl is sponsoring a contest for best youth-made film. Let's all trot over there and vote for Kiri Davis. You know she will put the $10,000 prize to good use.
**UPDATE: I went over there and voted. Kiri is really taking a beating. Let's try and get some votes for her. (This is not the appropriate venue for a lecture on the DIGITAL DIVIDE, but I have a feeling that we are seeing it right here.
(via Eisa)
Posted at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Current Events
Really Good Things Are Happening
To people who read this blog!
You can congratulate them in the comments. And, if you have good news, don't be shy. Or even if you have news about someone else that is a member of our community and want help shouting it to the rooftops, shoot me an note.
Posted at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
April 07, 2007
Unclaimed Baggage!
Last year, I read a story called "Some Thing Blue" at the Pen/Faulkner Gala. (You can listen to me read it on my myspace page.) The story begins,
"In Scottsboro, Alabama, there is a warehouse store that sells everything that people leave behind on airplanes. This is where your mother has found your wedding dress." (more.)
Anyway, I just got an email letting me know that the Unclaimed Baggage store is now on line! I think I feel a new obsession coming on...
Posted at 10:07 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
April 06, 2007
I Think I'm Hip, but TRANQUIL???
I don't know what made me fall off The Artist Way wagon. Something happened around chapter seven and I just sort of drifted off. This is very unlike me. I am a follow-through kind of person. I am not even doing the morning pages any more....
Well, look what I got in the mail! Lauren sent me Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life on and Off the Yoga Mat. It got lost in the mail room, apparently and just made it's way to my door. I'll admit, I was iffy--- as I bear little resemblance to the "hip chick" on the cover, and no one has ever accused me of tranquility. But Lauren sent it and if Lauren sent it, it's got to be good. (She hipped me to Instant Love last summer, which I loved.) So, I peeled back the cover and looked inside. Lo and behold! A manifesto. Just what I needed as I am getting ready to move into my New York Life!
This book-- I'll admit to not having read it, just done some targeted page-flipping --- seems to combine the get-yourself-togetherness of The Artist's Way, with a little bit more fun and a lot more yoga. It's like The Artist's Way, with shoes and stretches.
April 05, 2007
Much As I Hate To Admit It
I'm going to have to read The Honeymoon is Over. I was just telling my students last week that love gone right, is great fun for the participants, but as a spectator sport...(as Ladylee would say:) **crickets**.
Love makes for good (if guilty)reading when it goes terribly wrong. And this books is full of heartbreaking remembrances and serious drama. The star, of course, is Terri MacMillian, with 100 Questions she wishes she had asked while she was so busy getting her groove back. For the ultra-nosey, here is a recent interview with Ms. MacMillan.
Summering At A Colony? FAQs!
Since I announced that I will be spending much of the summer at MacDowell, I've gotten quite a bit of email from folks who are colony-bound for the first time. I thought I would try and make a list Frequently Asked Questions for newbies.
Tayari, what colonies have you been to?
Yaddo, MacDowell, Ledig House, Chateau de Lavigny, and Gilbraltar Point.
I have heard that writers colonies are just party-central with your occasional orgy. Is this true? How can I get my work done?
I think the orgy days are long gone. At least I have not witnessed any, nor received any invitations.
The days are pretty solitary. You will likely spend the day in your studio. It is considered rude to knock on a fellow colonist's studio door without having made prior arrangements to do so. Of course, in a case of emergency, knock away. But if nothing is on fire, you just have to wait until the dinner hour to talk to that person.
The evenings are when the fun happens. Some colonies have ping-pong tables, checker boards, Scrabble and other nerdly entertainment. After dinner, folks tend to socialize.
But, wait a minute! I was really hoping to participate in an orgy or something! Are people allowed to get friendly? (wink wink)
Well, yes. But let me warn you. This is not Vegas. What happens at a colony will be instantly emailed to Brooklyn. You can try and be discrete, but really, how discrete can you be in such a close environment? So, don't do anything that you wouldn't want to see on a blog somewhere.
Posted at 10:38 AM | Comments (3)
Category:
The Writing Life
April 04, 2007
Happy Dance! MacDowell Here I Come
I've just got the news! I'll be spending eight weeks this summer at The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
I been to many many colonies, but MacDowell is my favorite. It's a 
nice space, so you feel pampered, but not so fancy that you feel that you should be eating bonbons rather than writing. I also love that MacDowell is pretty egalitarian. All the studios are unique, but they are pretty much equal.
(This is in comparison to, say, Yaddo. Over there, some people stay in what was once the suite of rooms reserved for the lady of the house. Others of us were assigned to what used to be maid's quarters. I suppose there is nothing that can be done about that-- Yaddo was built as a mansion for the super-rich and the architecture is what it is. Nevertheless, it's hard not to spend the first week you're there wondering how they go about assigning the rooms.)
Anyway, I am just thrilled to be making a return visit to MacD. (Lunch is delivered each day in a picnic basket!) I have applied three times since my first visit back in 2002 and have been denied, denied, denied. I starting wondering if I had done something to annoy them. (Did I eat too much? Monopolize the laundry facilities???)
I'll take photos, etc while I am there and I will probably feature quite a few guest bloggers. If you have any ideas of who I should solicit, give a holler.
April 03, 2007
Life Stories **updated**
Rebecca Walker's second memoir, Baby Love, is out. I found her first memoir Black, White, and Jewish to be really disturbing, but oddly enough, my dad did enjoy it. Her new book is about her decision to have a child with her partner,
Mechell Ndegeocello. (**update: wrong partner.) And, according to the Publisher's Weekly review, the novel also details her big fight with her mom, Alice Walker, about the way that Rebecca portrays her in the first memoir. (Major drama. Apparently, wills have been changed.)
And look, Rebecca Walker has a blog.
And speaking of memoirs, A.M. Homes new memoir, The Mistress's Daughter is on the shelves. I tell you, when I had my idea for my third novel, I thought it was such a novel concept. I was wrong and keep getting wronger.
Leaving Atlanta, The Movie?
I am thrilled to tell you that Aletha Spann of 30Nineteen Productions has renewed her option on the film rights for Leaving Atlanta. I know this is just the first step on the road toward seeing the story on the screen, but it an encouraging development, indeed.
Did I tell you that I once tried to sit down and write a screenplay for Leaving Atlanta? (I was motivated by the odd experience of finding a screenplay for the novel sitting on my doorstep when I got home one day.) I thought it would be easy- afterall, I know that book better than I know my own hand. Also, when I was at MacDowell a few years back I met a very very famous and successful novelist/screenwriter who told me that he can adapt a novel for screen in three days. He just pretends to take longer so his employers will feel like they are getting thier money's worth!
I bought the screen writing software, and wrote the first scene. It was so difficult. I had to take a nap. I have since uninstalled the software and I am leaving that movie aspect of things to the movie people.