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Much Love to Our Guest Bloggers!

This year, a number of members of our blog community were kind enough to share thier experiences with the rest of us. As we bid goodbye to 2007, I wanted to thank them for thier contribuitions. Here's a little recap of thier generous offerings:

Ladylee kicked off the year by taking an artist date to The Junkman's Daughter in Atlanta. (Remember when we were all doing The Artist's Way? We might have fallen off the wagon, but we all fell off together.)

Remica Bingham wrote about bringing her family together with her of book of poems, "Convergrance."

Camille Dungy wrote in memory of Phebus Ettienne, who passed away last March.

Jacqueline Jones LaMon fell in love with her novel all over again.

Renee Simms-- writer, mother, teacher-- reminds us that sometimes, when it comes to writing, you just have to "jazz your way through."

Summer Reports: Nicole sang the Cave Canem Song; LeConte and Terri went to VONA and said it saved thier lives; and Felicia brought back the 411 from the Tin House Workshops.

Martha Southgate provided the "Director's Cut" of her NYT article, Writers Like Me.

Tara Betts gave a brief history of Slam, and a glimpse at the future of poetry.

And just last month, Sarah Schulman reminded us why everyone loves Grace Paley.

Thank you, thank you, so much for sharing with us. I look forward to more group-love in 2008!

Posted at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
Category: The Writing Life

Alice Walker Gives Her Papers to Emory

Just before the holiday break, Alice Walker's papers arrived at Emory Univeristy. As I understand it, a writer's papers are anything of her life that she has saved. This can be highschool journals, scrap books, drafts of novels, snapshots-- whatever evidence she chooses to hand over.

There was a point in my own life when I used to save all sorts of stuff. (My father once told me that W.E.B. Dubois started saving his papers at 12. I was about ten at the time and figured that this was a good a time as any to get started.) I am not sure what happened to all those carefully preserved slips of paper. I can't remember throwing them away, but my parents have moved twice since then and I am pretty sure that no one wanted to save my pop-sickle stick collection for posterity.

But on to Alice Walker. She says that she chose Emory for its location in the south, its relationship with the Dalai Lama, and because of all the other wonderful authors who have chosen to deposit thier papers in its care. (Langston Hughes!)

Not that anyone is asking for my papers, but I would imagine that it is pretty tough to decide where to store them. My impulse would be to put them at my alma mater, Spelman College. Afterall, this is where I became a writer. But at the same time, I don't know if Spelman would have the resources of a place like Emory to store and care for the papers. Also, a person would want her papers to be in a place that is frequented by scholars.

Anyway, I will be certainly going to Emory to check out Alice Walker's archives when they are open to the public. I have always been fascinated by her life. (More on that in another post.)

Posted at 08:58 AM | Comments (2)
Category: Current Events

I'm Back!

I'm easing back into blogging with a little link-a-dink.

Debra Dickerson and Jonathan Safran Foer may be haters, but Melonyce McAfee has a soft spot for the other December holiday:

My simple defense of Kwanzaa is that in the short time that we celebrated the holiday, it brought my family together. We weren't hitting the after-Christmas sales or trying out our new bicycles. We were kneeling around an altar and watching as the water ran from the jug in my brother's hands.

Creeped out by "Christmas letters?" Me too, but K.G. Schneider provides us with an honest and inspirational report from 2007.

2007 started out badly for me, and got worse. I was unhappy, and getting more so. I was mourning my old life, where I had the perfect job, in the perfect place to live, and had ever so perfectly spent my free time happily studying writing. Here, in this new place, I was sad, but so stressed and busy that I did not have time to do any of the things that make me happy (like writing).

Brad Listi loves himself some YouTube. He's got four videos up to help promote his books. The latest is a sort of "BUY MY BOOK!" direct approach. I thought it was pretty funny, but I didn't run over to amazon to place an order. But then again, the video did move me to post here. I guess that's something.

Not that you asked, but it is snowing like crazy here in Montreal.

Posted at 01:52 PM | Comments (2)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Christmas in Canada!

I am blogging from Montreal. I would send pictures, but it is raining and yucky and, well, just not very photogenic. The blogging will slow down between now and the holidays. I am really trying to get in touch with my fiction writing again.

It's been a great year, but I am pretty tired. Why it is so hard to admit when you're exhausted? Have a great holiday everyone. I'll be back soon.

Posted at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Office Hour Links

As I am waiting on my darling undergraduates to turn in their finals, here are some things worth checking out.

My favorite librarian has posted a terrific list of gifts for writers. Who knew you could buy a ten-visit punch card to a really cook writer's space?

Ladylee points out that I would make a terrible table dancer.

"No, she wouldn't be a good table dancer. Look how close the heel of that boot is to the table. **Lee pointing at monitor with an ink pen**"One more inch and she's on the floor. She don't need to be dancing in nobody's club."

New Letters has a recording of Grace Paley reading a holiday story. Click and scroll down a little. And, there is a catch.. the recording will only be up until Decemeber 26.

Posted at 01:37 PM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Blog Holiday Customs

As this blog is only a couple years old, and I have serious holiday anxiety, we just haven't established too many holiday traditions here. But there are a few. Three to be exact. And here they are.

My Holiday Story, "Have You Known Me Lately". What happens when a 14 year old girl comes home from secretly meeting her boyfriend, only to find her older sister making out with her soror? And happens when all this happens on Christmas Eve? (I told you I have holiday anxiety. I set out to write a happy story. I promise!)

Red Velvet Cake recipe. This is an authentic southern recipe. They have RVCs here in the New York area, but they tend to be rather lame. The reason is, I think, that the Northern RVCs tend to be bought in bakeries and a true, genuine, southern red velvet cake is extra-rich and doesn't have the stiff texture that lets a cake stand in a bakery window for a day, get shoved into a cardboard box, endure a subway ride, be lugged up to a 5th floor walk-up, and still look good.

Elf Yourself. Or someone you love. Or someone you don't. The techonology has come a long way since last year. The voice you hear .. that's me. Yes. You heard me. Forget the elf thing. I made the elf, recorded a cheerful greeting, but the website keeps erasing it! What a lump of cyber coal! This is not helping my holidays blues!

Posted at 03:20 PM | Comments (2)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Guest Blogger: Sarah Schulman

Sarah Schulman is mentioned quite often on this blog because everytime I go out with her, she tells me something I just have to share. Last night, Rigoberto and I were at her home for dinner, and it happened again.

"Did I tell you that Grace Paley was my teacher?" No, she hadn't told me this. She also hadn't told me that she was enrolled in graduate school for exactly one day. And then she told her how Grace Paley saved her life as a writer. "Please," I said. "Will you write it up for my blog community?"

She did, and the story is below. Grace Paley passed away this year at the age of 84.

Posted at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Guest Bloggers

Thank you, Grace

A Remembrance by
Sarah Schulman

For ten years I worked as a waitress, and during that time I started publishing books. I really didn't know what an MFA was. But as a waitress at Leroy's, which was the first coffee shop in Tribeca, a lot of our customers were artists just moving into that neighborhood. A friend- got me the job. We were collaborating on plays with titles like "Art Failures", which we performed at The University of The Streets, then on the cheap, and deserted Avenue A. My friend was also a painter and the painters I knew, knew about MFAs. But I was not aware that writers could also get them.

This was probably 1984, when the gentrification of the city was already underway- and a cultural shift was accompanying it. As part of yuppification, the arts were "professionalizing", this meant that work was coming less and less from community and more and more from institutions. There was a kind a Apparatus being put into place that - like most structures of American life right after Reagan's election- was replacing sixtiesque values of access and expression, expansion of representation. This professionalization favored more mainstream and dominant cultural voices and styles and made it harder for civilians to gain access.

After talking to a number of customers I realized that MFAs were increasingly giving people professional advantages, and increasingly excluding those without, so I decided to pursue one of those degrees. Since my work had lesbian protagonists, and was political, I already had enough problems, and I hoped that "getting inside" would help me along. I applied to the graduate program in writing at City College because it was in Manhattan and the cheapest, and I was accepted. In my naivete I didn't fully realize that the City College program was actually an MA. But since it was a graduate writing program, in my mind, it was an MFA.

The first day I went to class, and the teacher was Grace Paley. Grace was the "people's choice" emblematic New York writer. She was Jewish, she was on the left and an active participant citizen. I had participated in many political actions that she was involved in over the years, most memorably the 1979 Women's Pentagon Action. She wrote stories about people's need for justice that were true, complex and funny. And she was both extraordinary and regular. Her three beloved short story collections were : Enormous Changes At The Last Minute, Little Disturbances Of Man, and Later The Same Day. What I now realize is that, despite how well known and beloved she was, she had to work for a living for most of her life. I believe that at that time she was teaching at City College and at Sarah Lawrence.

During the first class session, we sat around a table, and each student read a sample of their own work. Mine, was a lesbian story written in the first person, and my classmates thought that the protagonist was a man. I started to worry about spending the next two years in that environment. Was getting an MFA going to be a endless process of self-justification?

After class, Grace said "Come to my office."

I went to her office and she sat me down. All the warm and fuzzy stuff went out of her demeanor, and she spoke very directly and with a real sense of gravitas.

"Look," she said. "You're really a writer. You're really doing it. You don't need this class."

I felt really relieved. So, I went home and never came back. That's how I had only one day of graduate school. She saved me two years of explaining myself. She knew better than I did what the process would have done to me. It could have destroyed me. That was one of the most important moments in my life as a writer. When someone with authority actually understood the value of what I was doing, understood what the machinery was about, and stepped up to honestly protect me with respect and care.

Now that I have taught writing for 15 years, I can see that many of these programs still don't really know what to do with writers of color, lesbian students, sometimes with gay male students. You hear a lot of "survival" stories, and realize that many current writing programs in 2007, cannot offer minority students the same quality of experience as they offer to majority students.

This story has two happy endings: 1) Now I am a Full Professor of English in the City University of New York, College of Staten Island. 2) I later read with Grace and Sonia Sanchez at a reading at Saint Mark's Church at a benefit organized by the late Laurel Shreck for The Committee In Solidarity of The People Of El Salvador. It was one of the most exciting, proud moments of my life.

For the next twenty years, Grace Paley encouraged me every time we met. She nominated me for PEN, she got me a teaching gig at The Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. Whenever we saw each other, she would say "I keep an eye on you. You're doing so well. I'm so proud of you." This made the difference every time.

Posted at 04:11 PM | Comments (6)
Category: Guest Bloggers

and speaking of gifts...

a certain member of our blog comminity crochetted me an afghan. It arrived in so much bubble wrap and other protection (certified mail, signature, etc) that I thought it was a flat screen TV! This, of course, would have been a problem since I don't even have cable, let alone HD! Anyway, I opened up the carton and received a box full of love.

Just call me Linus as I drag it from room to room!

Posted at 12:00 PM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Holday Dos and Don'ts

It's that time of year again. It's time to go shopping for the writers in your life. As we all know, there is a fine line between a good gift and one that sort of sucks. Here's a little help to get your good intentions on track.



DON'T give a book on How to Get Published. The last thing a writer needs is outside pressure to produce results. It's like giving your single sister and book called "You, Too, Can Find A Man!" It's just not nice.

DO give a book about writing. For beginners try Bird by Bird by Anne Lammot. I also recommend On Moral Fiction for people who are father along. This gift shows that you take their writing seriously, that you respect thier intellectual activities.



DON'T give a book that is very similar in plot to a project that he or she is working on. I know you just want the writer to know are thinking of her, but it is such a buzz-kill to find out just how many people have already explored your idea. For example, when I was working on Leaving Atlanta, the last thing I needed was a copy of Toni Cade Bambara's book on the same subject. Of course I understand that there room enough for more than one book on the same topic, but Those Bones Are Not My Child, would have been a disaster as a holiday gift.

DO give a book that is thematicaly related. If your friend is writing a story about mother-daughter relationships, she couple probably enjoy a book on the same theme set in a completely different era or setting.



DON'T give a pen just because you like what it looks like.

DO give a gift certificate to a pen shop. Many writers like a nice pen, but choosing a pen is like choosing a pair of jeans or a handbag. You really need to handle it and try it out first.



DON'T get too specific. The writer in your life will appreciate writing-related gifts, but dictionaries, thesauri, pens, and journals may be just a little on-task sometimes.

DO give her something just shows that you appreciate her and know that she works hard. You can make any gift a meaningful gift for a writer if you affix a card. A sinple gift like a bath set can become a vote of confidence for the writer in your life if you put a little note saying "I know you have been working hard on your novel. Here's a little something to help you relax."

Posted at 10:31 AM | Comments (2)
Category: The Writing Life

Meme-Of-The-Month Club!

Ed Champion has tagged me for a very unsual meme. The blogger has to post the first line of the first post of each month of 2007. Okie dokie. Here goes--

January- Over the New Year's holiday, my cat, Johnny Baby, was banished to the animal hotel.

February- On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of visiting Mills College, in Oakland at the invitation of Cornelia Nixon, a terrific novelist and cool individual.

March- Yesterday, Lee Smith and I were on the program at The Margaret Mitchell House.

April- I am thrilled to tell you that Aletha Spann of 30Nineteen Productions has renewed her option on the film rights for Leaving Atlanta.

May- My friend, Jaci, called me on the phone about a month ago. "I'm in love," she sighed.

June- As you all know, I sometimes find myself in conversations with writers, and I will cut them off in mid-sentence and say "Please write about this for the blog community!"

July- So, on my way back to DC, I had to change planes in a major airport.

August- In 2004, I applied and was accepted to Cave Canem’s (CC) New York regional poetry workshop with Patricia Smith and, as my mother would say, “[began] to smell myself” soon after.

September- I am so sorry for the silence here on the blog.

October- Up and at 'em, folks. Here's a little reading while I figure out how to operate my espresso machine.

November- I am just getting back from Washington, DC where I gave a reading and workshop at American University.

December- Birthfest is over.


Okay, Carleen, Ladylee, Reggie H , and Janice, let's see what you have been up to this year!

Posted at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Welcome Aboard, Rigoberto

It's offical! Rigoberto Gonzalez has signed on to join the full-time faculty at Rutgers-Newark. I know I said it before, but I'll say it again. If you're interested in MFA programs, check us out.

Rigoberto's website will give you the highlights of his career. Also, check out his guest posts at the Poetry Foundation Blog. He is brilliant, yes? Don't you wish he was your professor?

Posted at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Real Lives, Real Stories

End Of Semster!

Today is the last day of classes for this semester. As you can see from the photo, I am so happy and looking forward to the break. Starting up a new MFA program is a lot of work, but in a very good way.

I have to tell you that last year, when Jayne Anne Phillips called me up and asked me to join her at Rutgers, I was a little bit scared. I had a comfy position at the University of Illinois. Things were quiet and safe out in the cornfields. The program there was already up and running and I was pretty much a shoo-in for tenure. But Jayne Anne had a vision of a program with the motto "Real Lives, Real Stories."

If you are a "real" person with a real story and are looking for an MFA program, check us out!

Posted at 01:01 PM | Comments (3)
Category:

Great Things Are Happening...

to people who read this blog!

Remember last summer when we all did research on state arts grants and posted our findings? Well, Cheryl Miner paid attention and WON ONE!

Mat Johnson has won a USA Fellowship.

Felicia Elam is going to the Whidbey Island Writers Residency. (It's part of thier MFA, but Felicia has won a spot as a non-credit student. I hope she'll write us a report on this opportunity. *hint hint*)

James V. Jordan wrote a short story called "Stalemate" in 2004, has been working on it ever since and it will be published in August in Limstone.

Got good news? Send it here. We love good news.

Posted at 08:43 AM | Comments (1)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Mac and Cheese

The great Maud Newton is running a holiday series in which writers submit thier favorite holiday recipes. (She's so clever!) I figured the world has seen my red velvet cake recipe way too many times. (Also, that cake has 300 Weight Watchers points! I did the math! That's about two weeks worth of calories!) Anyway, so I sent her my mac and cheese recipe.

The question was: what to call it? I always think of it as a African-American style Mac and Cheese-- the qualities that make it "black" are that it is baked and there are NO bread crumbs. Then, I started thinking: who made ME and my mac and cheese the authority to decide what food is black and what isn't (But I can't help thinking that my mac and cheese is truly colored.)

Then, this got me to thinking about literature (what doesn't?) and Obama (tis the season), and I decided to call my dish a SOUTHERN Mac and Cheese. For some reason, there doesn't seem to be much hullabaloo about what's southern and what's not and all soul food is southern food.

So, with no further ado, hike on over to Maud's house and see my recipe!

Posted at 04:05 PM | Comments (3)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Love You Some Luther?

Check out the Luther Vandross Estate Sale.

(I know, I know.. I am not being very literary these days. It's the end of semester and I am sort of slammed. I'll be brainy and high-minded again, soon. I promise.)

Posted at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Girls! Girls! Girls!

Adorable!

Not so much.

Posted at 06:54 PM | Comments (1)
Category:

Sweet as a Georgia Peach!

I must say that I love Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings. I know this video seems retro, but this is a new video. Sharon Jones is from Augusta, Georgia-- home of James Brown and Jessye Norman. (Must be something in the water.) You can hear a great interview on Fresh Air.

Thanks, Katie Bear, for the link!

Posted at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)
Category: Travels & Rambles

Back To Work Links

Birthfest is over. And now it's time to get back to work. Here are a few links while I get my consitution together.

Congratulations to Rigoberto Gonzalez who is in Oakland this weekend to accept a American Book Award for his memoir, Butterfly Boy!

This is a little complicated, so pay attention. Edgar Award winner Charles Ardai has a new book out but it won't even be considered for the Edgar. Why? Because Ardai is now publishing with Hard Case Crimes, which he owns. This means his new book is technically self-published and very few award committes will even consider a self-published book. Got that?

Poet, Elizabeth Bishop, once said she could never write in her writing room. "..it’s always in someone else’s house, or in a bar, or standing up in the kitchen in the middle of the night. . .”

In the mood for love? Well, then, maybe this poem is not for you. [via la lauren]

And the last word on the subject: thanks for all the birthday love. As you know, I am living in a new city-- still making friends, and finding my way around-- and I was worried that I wouldn't have much of a birthday this year, but folks really came through and I really appreciate everything. xo, t

Posted at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)
Category:

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