Tayari's Blog: May 2008
May 31, 2008
Boo Hoo!
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Category:
The Writing Life
Weekend Links
Posted at 07:56 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 30, 2008
Condensed Literature
Over at Salon, folks are summarizing the classics in six words or less. Pretty funny stuff. Not so funny is that all the "classic" authors are white, and nearly all male. But anyway, it's a kooky idea and I thought I would give it a shot.
Beloved
Dead baby comes back, gets revenge.
The Color Purple
God don't like ugly.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Three husbands, one woman, one bullet.
Anybody else want to try?
Good Things Are Happening
To people in our blog community!
Got good news? Let me know about it!
Posted at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Learn to Love It
When I am on the road, I'm asked quite a bit about my process. 
Lately, I've been saying "Your process is like doing your hair." Then, I sort of catch myself because I am a woman writer who wants to be taken seriously, so the impulse is not to say something so girly. I have tried and tried to find a more "neutral" or "universal" metaphor, but I can't find one and who cares? I have deciphered more than my share of sports analogies, so this is just a little karmic correction.
So, on to the issue of process. When you ask a writer about her process, it's kind of like asking her "How do you do your hair?" (It's actually another question I get quite frequently.) On the hair issue, I explain that I am usually wearing a twist out and I set it with Miss Jessie's. If I have the time I explain about the blow-dryer miracle. The person can then go home, try the products and maybe it will work for her. And maybe it won't. Or maybe she ends up incorporating the blow dryer, but the Curly Pudding makes her itch. And regardless, her hair will never look just like mine, but it can still be really cute on her. Or cuter. You get the idea. Everyone's hair is different. I can tell her what I do, but I can't guarantee the outcome when she tries it in her own bathroom.
Process is like that too. Sometimes, I'll explain my revision process. (It's pretty radical. I call it clear-paper revision. Basically, I rewrite the whole thing using the first draft as a reference book.) Someone listening will always say "Such-and-such famous writer doesn't do it that way!" My response is always a polite, "So what." It's going to be different for everyone.
So, on to the next girly metaphor.
You have to learn to accept your process, just as you have to learn to accept your body.
Any woman who has ever looked at a magazine has self-diagnosed everything that is wrong with her body. She knows she's an apple, a pear, or whatever. She has words at her disposal like muffin-top, saddle bags, all the destructive language. Some of us have a complex about our skin tone, our hair texture. You can spend your whole life worried that you don't look right and spend all your precious energy trying to fix it. Although it is easier said than done, you just have to learn to enjoy the body you have.
Here's how this relates to writing: My process goes something like this. I write a hundred pages. I feel great about them. I think I am on to something. I end up keeping about ten pages. Carlson used to tell me that I "write my way into a story." This means, I figure where the story is by writing. And this can take weeks. Once I find the story, I am good to go. I used to mourn for all those wasted pages and all that wasted time.
I am now at the point that I understand that this is just how I do it. I have learned some tricks along the way that help me get to the story a little faster, but I still write for a year on a novel before I find it's heart. If I am going to be happy as a writer, I have to embrace the process. All of it. It's just how I roll. It's just how I am.
May 29, 2008
Meet Guest Blogger: Dwayne Betts
I met Dwayne Betts a couple of years ago. He was a nice young man interested in poetry and all around good guy. In a very very short time, he has published his beautiful poems all over the place, scored a wait staff position at Bread Loaf, interned at The Atlantic, been written up in the Washington Post for his outstanding work with kids, enrolled at The University of Maryland, and made a beautiful family for himself.
About a year ago, I got a call from an editor who had read the WaPost story about Dwayne. She wanted him to write a memoir. I put him in touch with my agent. I would say the rest is history, but the rest is about writing the book, and learning what life has to teach us.
Read his story here.
Posted at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Guest Bloggers
To Grow, To Change, and To Love
by Reginald Dwayne Betts
Now that I have a baby boy, every day is the start of a story. It's something about a smile, a laugh, or the way Micah will try to summersault from my arms to the waiting floor. He's six months old 
and thinks everything he can grab a hold of is food. The remote control, my poems, socks, receipts, pacifiers and teething rings all fit the same category. My arm, shirt, face and car keys do too. He'll reach from the couch, stretching out his arms unaware of the damage that fall to the floor can do. He smiles when he reaches out. In seconds he goes from smiling beside me, to stretching toward the floor, body tilting. I’m good at intercepting him before he reaches the floor. My improved reflexes are one of parenthood’s true gifts.
Now, my eyes are always open, even when I’m working and I work a lot these days. In addition to being in school, I’m working hard on my memoir, A Question of Freedom. The book contract was a godsend, coming just about the same time Terese and I found out that Micah was on the way. The finished manuscript is due in just a few weeks, and although I’m starting to see daylight, I still have a ways to go.
Yesterday, I was working on the memoir, struggling through a difficult passage with my laptop on my lap, the flash drive sticking out. As engrossed as I was in my own memories, a shout from my fiancé pulled me from my written past to my living breathing present. I jumped, not caring that my laptop fell to the floor; I sprang with my arms out, ready to catch my little boy.
When I looked down, my son was looking up, smiling, a sock in his hand. Terese was holding him, smiling too. A beautiful false alarm. My laptop was beside me. I examined it and it seemed to be working. I breathed easy. How could I afford another computer right now? Then, I noticed the flash drive containing all my hard work. The silver piece of the flash drive that sticks into the USB port was still in the computer. The other part, the important part, with all the data is stuck between cushions of the couch.
Posted at 09:37 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Guest Bloggers
May 28, 2008
Take Some Advice from Soul II Soul
Remember that song? Keep on moving/Don't stop/like the hands of time. It's track 1 on my rejection recovery CD. I am posting a version of it today in honor of all the folks who have emailed to say that Bread Loaf has sent out its rejection letters. At least six friends didn't get in this year. I am giving the same message to everyone. IT DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING.
Rejections happen. Rejections hurt. And I am not saying that it wouldn't have been fabulous for you to have been accepted with a scholarship. It would have been a great experience, but not being admitted does not mean that your writing is not good, that your book is not important. (Just think about the way you evaluate other people's work. Would you say Gee, I thought this book was really good until I found out the author didn't get into Bread Loaf!)
I was rejected from Bread Loaf three times before I was admitted with a juicy fellowship. Just think about that. Three times, I wasn't good enough to get in, but then, *bam*, a fellowship? You have to know there is a certain randomness there. Another example: Three times I wasn't even chosen as a runner-up for the Hurston/Wright Award. I looked at their yearly rejection as the antidote to my New Year's optimism. Then, in 2000, *bam*, first prize. The year before when I sent excerpts from the same novel, *goose egg*.
So, to all of you that got the thin envelope from Bread Loaf yesterday, have yourself some ice cream. You can email me and I'll send you a cyber hug. Then, get back to your desk. You have important work to do.
Posted at 07:48 AM | Comments (5)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 26, 2008
Are You Truly Occupied?
I wasn't going to blog today, but I ran across this great quote from Roger Ebert talking about Studs Terkel, the writer/activist who is still going strong at age 95.
The lesson Studs has taught me is that your life is over when you stop living it. If you can truly ‘retire,’ you had a job, but not an occupation. ... I have seen those whose lifelong occupations absorb them, and who are not merely maintaining, but growing.
Posted at 10:50 AM | Comments (3)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 25, 2008
Back From Philly
I'm back from the 24th Annual Celebration of Black Writing in Philadelphia. I am sorry to report that neither Chuck D. nor Sapphire were on my panel. Tragic. I was planning on asking Chuck D. what he thinks about Flavor Flav. Now we will never know.
The young men on the photo are a African Drum Troupe who performed on the main stage. Adorable.
Posted at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 23, 2008
Philly Bound!
I am off to Philadelphia to attend the 24th Annual Celebration of Black Writing. I'll be on a panel with Sapphire, Nathan McCall, and Chuck D. I'm also givind a workshop called "Opportunities For Writers." If you're aorund, check it out.
Speaking of blogging, I am not taking my computer, but I will take my camera. Full report when I get home on Monday.
Enjoy your holiday weekend, everybody. Be safe.
Alice Smith @ The Highline
Last night Tara B., Aisha M., and I went to the Highline to see Alice Smith in concert. The 
first time I go to see a singer do her thing live, I am halfway going just to verify that she can actually sing. A lot of people can make a decent record, but can she blow? Alice can. Alice did. No doubt about that.
She is such a lovely singer that she deserved a better night than she had at the Highline. For one, the sound equipment was not together. Those speakers sounded like the ones in my car! (We are talking the factory speakers in a 1999 Altima. That's sad.) The second issue was the matter of her fans. Right at my left ear were two squealy girls who kept screaming "We love you Aliiiiiice!" Drove. Me. Crazy. And when they started to dance, they elbowed everyone within a three foot radius.
Miz Alice herself has a sort of girl-next-door quality. Her clothes are simple and modest, which was really endearing. She smiled a lot like she was really happy to be there. She doesn't perform with a lot of flash, but she's solid and holds things down.
I imagine that her stage presence will grow with time and experience. She's got the voice. She's really got it. That's the thing that matters.
Goofy snapshots here.
And a giveaway: At the concert promoters gave away a CD with three of Alice Smith's singles. If you are the first to email me with your mailing address, it's yours. We have a winner!
Posted at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Living For The City
May 22, 2008
Do All Georgia Girls Look Alike?
Okay, so I saw this picture of myself and thought it was Cynthia McKinney. Must be trick photography.
Posted at 05:30 PM | Comments (2)
Category:
Thursday Links!
students at Morehouse College. (Friend of the blog, Jafari, is quoted!) I am looking forward to seeing reactions to this piece.
Posted at 07:50 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 21, 2008
Making the News, Or Just Reporting It?
I recently read an interview with M. Gigi Durham about her new book The Lolita Effect, which is all about the media sexualization of young girls. Interesting stuff. I tootled over to amazon and I was unsure what to make of the cover. It seemed to be sort of, well, sexy-- and isn't that sort of going against the idea of the book? I looked at it a while, and then I read the reader reviews.
One reader was annoyed by the cover and said so:
The cover of this book engages in precisely what the book's title suggests it critiques.
Even though this is a topic I strongly feel needs urgent redress (that is how I found the book listing), I will not buy the book due to its exploitative and hypocritical cover.
Then the author responded:
I find this comment really interesting. I rejected far more sexual covers than this one, which is basically a photograph of a girl putting on lip gloss, which is not an overtly sexual act or image. Interestingly, a number of men have told me they find the cover "disturbing," while by and large women seem to like it. I think the reactions speak to the way in which girls and girls' sexuality is interpreted in our culture: there's almost no safe place in which to deal with it, unfortunately. I am sorry this reader was offended by the image, but it was challenging to find a visual way to convey the idea without actually objectifying a girl, and this was a good compromise. We can see her face, and her eyes; she's not a dismembered body; she's a girl negotiating her sexuality and desirability, and these are important and valid aspects of girlhood.
I am not sure I am on board with either of these responses. I don't feel comfortable dismissing the book over the cover, but I have to admit that it gave me pause. (And I must say that I am not wooed by the "chicks dig it" defense.) Where are you in this? Do you have any ideas for a cover that gets the point across, while lowering the skeeve-quotient?
May 19, 2008
The Meant-To-Be Factor
So this morning, I was oohing and ahing over Alice Smith. And, yes, it is summer. And you know summer is for concerts. Sadly, The Brand New Heavies are doing Europe this year. So, on a lark, I googled Miz Smith. And I'll be doggone. She is playing NYC.... THURSDAY. And to up the fate-factor, she'll be at the Highline Ballroom. You remember the last time I was there....
I feel a powerful obsession coming on!
Posted at 03:57 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Oo La Lauren: Gorgeous For The Cause
Remember when I told everyone to bid on the photo shoot by Rachel Eliza Griffiths that was part of the Dunbar Village auction? Well, Lauren Cerand-- the best publicist in the word-- was on the receiving end of all of Rachel's beautiful magic.
Major hotness.
Posted at 03:08 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Community Service
Music Crush: Alice Smith
I know I am late to this party, but I am totally sprung on Alice Smith 
. Her album "For Lovers, Dreamers & Me" is my new soundtrack. Right now, I have "Woodstock" on repeat, which is probably driving my neighbors crazy. Spent 10 Days in Woodstock taking it easy. The perfect post-retreat song.
I am back. Ready to blog. Ready to write. Ready to live. As Alice Smith says, "feeling mello like a cello."
My Mind Is Playing Tricks On Me
As I spent the last few days away, I have been gathering my thoughts and turning my attention to my manuscript. Well, I wrote a few lines and they sound a little bit familiar. One character says to another:
"Go home for the holidays. Your mama not for always, you know."
I think this line comes from somewhere in my memory. That expression "your mama not for always" is a sort of southern feeling thing. (Translation for those who are not familiar: your mother won't always be around.)
Although I am not worried that I am accidentally plagiarizing another writer, I worry that one of my characters in another book or story has already said that. Maybe it's someone in The Untelling, but I can't figure who would have occasion to make such a warning. (Hermione is just not sentimental like that.) It sort of sounds like Berenice, a character in my favorite short story, "Have You Known Me Lately", but I checked and it wasn't Berenice. (She's the girl from Opelika, Alabama who learned sex-ed from the Bookmobile Lady.)
Then the next thought is what does it mean that I am thinking of my characters like they are real people. I could be either brilliant or insane. Recent events suggest the latter....
May 16, 2008
Lobster Rolling Links
I'll be back to real blogging on Monday. But until then, here are some pretty nifty sites to keep you occupied!
and part of the deal is that she took down her blog posts explaining the whole darn thing. Ed Champion put up a few posts, like this one.The short version is that Ms. Black is black, but writes about white characters. Her publisher wanted her to change them to black characters. She wouldn't because she thought it would limit her sales. They canceled the contract. She sued. Or something like that.
between writer's block and procrastination. It's tricky since the results are the same- NO BOOK!Posted at 05:40 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 13, 2008
Leaving Town Links
I am on my way to Cape Cod for a few days, so I won't be blogging. 
Well, I think I won't be blogging. Maybe I'll break down, but the plan is to take a break. No blogging til Monday. But I can't bear to leave you with nothing to read, so here are some things you may find interesting to tide you over until I get back.
Posted at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
L.A. Dirty Water by Fred Smith
Fred Smith, has contributed a summer club-life cocktail. (And he should know. The photo on the 
left is of Fred and me at El Rey in LA. I'm the one in the false eyelashes.)
So, with no further ado--Here's his drink & pitch!
"Jeremy and Kenny, the main characters in my latest novel, Right Side of the Wrong Bed, are one of those couples.
You know them, they’re probably among your circle of friends, and most definitely among your circle of distant relatives. High drama. Lots of chemistry. Love hard. Fight hard. Love hard again. The type of couple that makes you wonder, “What do they see in each other? Why are they together? And how long before it finally ends?”
Of course it never ends when expected. Because when it seems to be over, one of them picks up the phone after a couple drinks – much like Lee Ann Womack sings in one of my favorite songs “I May Hate Myself In The Morning (But I’m Gonna Love You Tonight)” – and the ride begins again.
One thing that bonds Jeremy and Kenny, besides their obvious emotional and physical attraction for each other, is their love for a good cocktail. Early in their relationship, Kenny ends up caretaking for Jeremy, who enjoyed a night out on the town a little bit too much.
The following recipe is the kind of drink I imagined Jeremy drinking in that scene. It’s called a “Dirty Water,” though here in Los Angeles I’ve heard it called “L.A. River” or “Sewer Water.” I’m sure the name changes in every city. I’ve seen it as a full cocktail and also as a shot. Either way, it should be taken in slow and responsibly."
Dirty Water
Fill a highball glass to the rim with ice cubes. Pour absolut apeach, absolut citron, absolut mandrin, aged rum of cuban type, cola and cruzan coconut rum into a shaker. Fill the shaker with ice cubes and shake it until the shaker is very cold. Strain the drink into the highball glass.
"Funny, touching, and intoxicating. Smith has written yet another compulsive read." --Maurice Jamal
Posted at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Cocktails With Writers
May 12, 2008
The Mentoring Campsite Rules
I must confess that I love reading Dan Savage's advice column. I read it on line and I also listen the "Savage Lovecast." Great stuff. I never post about it here because, well, it's not that type of blog! However, here is an exception.
I was checking out the column today, and he referred to the "campsite rule." He meant it in reference to dating much younger people. The Campsite Rule is that you have to leave them in better shape than you found them. I nodded in agreement, as that seems like a pretty reasonable boundary.
Then, I thought that the same should be true for writing mentors and workshop leaders. I have seen people just broken down in workshop by a cruel workshop leader. I have seen people get critiques of thier work that leave them never wanting to write again. These mentors/leaders have broken The Campsite Rules.
My beloved RC always obeyed TCR. I couldn't quite understand it when I was a student. There was once this guy in our workshop who was TERRIBLE. He wasn't in the program; he was more of a gate-crasher. His work was some of the worst I have seen to date. You should have seen the eye-rollling from those of us In The Program. And even worse from those of us With Aid. But RC lead the dicussion and even silenced the student who was prepared to go through line by line pointing out cliches.
I went to RC's office after class, as I was prone to do. He was such a wonderful teacher that I wanted to get all the face time I could without crossing the line over into stalking territory. I asked him why he didn't tell that guy how terrible he was. RC shrugged and said, "Why?" He then explained that the goal of the creative writing class is to get everyone jazzed to revise. "I am not in the business of getting anyone to quit."
Posted at 07:59 AM | Comments (5)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 11, 2008
Sunday Stay-In-Bed Links
Posted at 01:18 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Franco, My Love!
I am so crazy about the artwork of Franco Mondini Ruiz. I had never 
heard of him until Rigoberto-- who knows everything-- took me to a gallery in Chelsea to see Franco's work. When I walked in, I saw the painting you see on the right. It's called "The Goya Gown" and I fell for it, hard. It was love at first sight. If I may risk over-sharing.. have you ever met someone and part of your attraction to the person is that you can see yourself in him? (Or maybe that means I am just a narcissistic freak.) Anyway, this is what happened with me and the painting. And then there's more.
I didn't just see myself, I saw Dana, the main character of my new novel, THE OUTSIDE CHILD. The painting (larger picture here) is of a white, debutante style dress against a black background. I summarized it as "anger with ribbons." I think many of us know the feeling of resenting a standard while still striving to it. I was going on and on about the painting to the man standing next to me. I told him about my books. I told him about myself, about my family and why I loved the painting so much.
He told me that Sandra Cisneros is one of the artist's major collectors. I said I was glad to see that MacArthur money to good use. I loved the painting, but I could never afford it. I was sure the gallery does not allow layaway! The man laughed. Then he introduced himself as Franco Mondini Ruiz, the artist. "We can work something out," he said.
Forgive the snobby tone of the NYT article, but you can see what a good person Franco is. He thinks art should be for everyone.
Well, to make a long story short: I now own the painting! Now here is the question. Does it go in my bedroom, or the writing room!
(I just found this fascinating oral history of Franco and his family.)
Posted at 11:53 AM | Comments (1)
Category:
Living For The City
May 09, 2008
LOOK WHO'S GOING TO YALE!
Posted at 12:54 PM | Comments (1)
Category:
May 08, 2008
I See, Said The Blind Man
Posted at 09:22 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
May 07, 2008
Way Back Wednesday
When I was in the eleventh grade, I wrote a short story called "The Pursuit of Michael Thomas." I wrote a lot of short stories back then, but I submitted this one for a contest at Pace Academy, an exclusive Atlanta private school. So exclusive, in fact, that I had never heard of it.
Short version of this story is that I won the contest. In my bio, I mark this as the start of my writing career. And perhaps it is.
I am posting here the story. It's short. Just about five pages, double spaced. It contains every mistake I warn my undergrads about. I am really fast and loose with the adverbs, for example. My characters have rather fancy names. (What is it about being a young writer that makes you want to name characters "Mignon" and "Angelique"?)
I remember my mother typing it for me. We argued about a line on the first page. The character in my original said, "Don't talk so loud!" and my mother made me change it to "loudly". (No one had told us about the adverb rule.)
I am sort of proud of this story, bad as it is. I wasn't a happy teenager. By the time I made it to tenth grade, I have been to four schools in as many years. I was sort of an invisible girl. Medium brown complexion, hair that wasn't tossable. Only one pair of designer jeans-- a gift from neighbors for whom I babysat. Picture me, writer in a school that stressed math and science. Every term I brought home my report card, 2As, 2Bs, 2Cs. Enough to get by.
I would not have had the confidence to enter the contest were in not for Mrs. Patricia Ramon, the English teacher who noticed that I was the only person to finish East of Eden, all 400-some pages. (I loved it.) She showed me the contest notice.
"Would you be interested in something like this?"
"Yes, ma'am."
So here it is. My little story. My precious beginning.
Posted at 11:40 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 06, 2008
I, Too, Have Had The Assistant's Blues
Like KJA over at The Root, I have also served as a writer's assistant. I won't say too much about my experiences, but I will say that it is a hard and personal job. Most people end up with the assistant's gig because they respect the writer whom they assist. I don't think anyone comes out the other side with that shame sheen. How could you? As the assistant, it's your job to keep the person's public self looking good. This, of course, means you see the private self which isn't always so cute.
I am not giving any clues as to which sister-writer I helped keep it together, but I will tell you that I did get my feelings hurt sometimes. But more importantly, I learned a lot about what was ahead of me as a black woman writer. When I read KJA's article in The Root, I cringed at the anecdote about the writer being afraid to praise a black student's writing for fear of seeming "biased."
I watched my own boss deal with such situations, and there is no good way out. I watched her navigate a lot of treacherous highway. I didn't always agree with how she handled it, but I was paying attention, and taking notes. I don't look back at my time as a writers assistant as the happiest time of my life, but I am glad I did it. Although the publishing world has on a few occaisions shown me nastiness that caught me by surprise, my assistant years gave me, at the very least, a glimpse of what was to come and I've done my best to be ready for it.
Posted at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
The Writing Life
Gossip Hounds, Lend Me Your Snouts
Keith Josef Adkis is dishing about his time as an assistant to a famous black woman writer, but he won't say her name. Galleycat says its an easy guess. The article is here. And here are the clues:
So, what do you think?
And I should also say that the article itself is sort of luke-warm for the dish factor. I mean, being an assistant is a rough job. I've done it. I pray I won't do it again. I pray that one day I'll have the means to hire an assistant and I hope that I will be a bit more sane than the woman I assisted, but then again, the reason you need an assistant is that your life is driving you insane. But the article is a little bit of drama taking up a loooot of column inches. And if he is writing about who I think he is writing about, he shouldn't mess with her over something this small. She. Will. Get. Him. Back.
Posted at 01:30 PM | Comments (8)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
Writers & Readers, DC
This is a photo I just received from an event I did in DC last year. I didn't post about it at the time because I was waiting for the photos, and then life happened. You know how that is.
I want to report on it anyway, because it was such a wonderful and enriching project. "Writers & Readers" is a book club/lecture series for GED students in the Washington, DC area. It's sponsored by the State Education Department. If you are a writer in the DC area, see if you can work with this organization. Get your books to people who need them.
Posted at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)
Category:
The Writing Life
24th Annual Celebration of Black Writing
Just a heads up for those of you in Philly. I'm going to be participating in the 24th Annual Celebration of Black Writing in Philadelphia. May 22-24.
I'm on a panel called "Violence In Our Communities" along with Sapphire, Nathan McCall, W. Marvin Dulaney, Solomon Jones, Chuck “D”. My child of the 80's heart is going pitter-pat. I am dying dying to ask Chuck D (would I call him "Mister D?") what he thinks about his former co-revolutionary, Flavor Flav. Do I dare? Will be able to keep from bellowing "Bass! How low can you go?" (That was my jam, freshman year.) And Sapphire! I was crazy about her when I was in college.
Oh, and also, I am giving a panel called "Opportunities For Writers." It's basically what we do here. I want to get the word out to writers about opportunities like artists colonies, workshops, grants, etc.
Posted at 11:34 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
The Writing Life
H-A-P-P-Y -- E-N-D-I-N-G
Posted at 10:30 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Current Events
May 05, 2008
Linko de Mayo!*
*I appropriated the cool headline from a really cool librarian.
Posted at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Travels & Rambles
May 04, 2008
One of the Best Writers You Never Read
One of the great things about the PEN World Voices Festival is that you get to hear from readers that you may have never heard of before. It drives me nuts to think of all the really interesting voices I will never know about because they haven't been published in the US.
One such writer that I discovered at the conference is P.F. Thomese. On Friday, I attended a panel about writing fiction and memoir. All of the panel talked about memoir and history and personal history in a very interesting, but sort of detatched manner. But then, Mr. Thomese, rather than was theoretical, read from a personal essay about the loss of his baby daughter. The room was pin silent when he finished. Any other conversation seemed irrelevant in the wake of such a moving and gorgeously written story.
I did some looking around and it turns out that the essay he read is on line. Here is an excerpt:
Isa, dearest, you swam like a little fish in your mother, you sprawled on your changing mat like the emperor of China. You demoted your parents to servants in a life over which they had formerly ruled. Just look at your father making a fool of himself, good thing no one can see him trying to close the snaps on your rompers with his fumbling fingers, while you, discerning as you are, scream at the top of your lungs.If my little girl had not died, I would probably never have written about her, about the snaps on her rompers. Then I had to, there was nothing else I could do. You come home from the hospital and the cradle is still standing there, as though nothing has happened. The things have no idea, they lie innocently in wait.
It goes without saying, does it not, that his memoir: Shadowchild is next on my to-read list.
(report on the entire panel, here.)
May 03, 2008
PEN Blog Posts
I am running out the door to today's PEN events:
Meanwhile, you can see my reports from yesterday over at PEN.
Posted at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
The Writing Life
FREEDOM TO WRITE COCKTAIL **updated!
I arrived to the screening of "Wristcutters" a little bit early and I 
stumbled into a fabulous cocktail party already in session. This sort of event, I think, shows you what you are made of. Do you pout that you weren't told about the party in advance? Do you hide in the corner because you are not properly dressed for such an occaision? Or do you say "yes please" to the handsome waiter cruising by with a tray of intriguing looking beverages? Well, I said yes.
Here is a recipe for the special drink of the night. It's called "FREEDOM TO WRITE" in honor of PEN's campaign to free jailed and repressed writers all over the world.
It is a fun, sweet, summertime drink.
Update! I received an email from Sarah D, who brought this lovely beverage to PEN:
hi tayari,
thanks for the shout out to my cocktail! i hope your summer is full of delicious drinks! in case you want the exact recipe, the quantities are: 1 1/2 parts la poire, 1 1/2 parts st-germain elderflower, 1/4 part lime juice. you have to shake it well over ice, then strain into a chilled martini glass. i enjoy flaming a lime twist on top, which adds a touch of danger... cheers,
sarah
"flaming lime twist"?? Now that's a party!
Posted at 06:54 AM | Comments (2)
Category:
Cocktails With Writers
May 02, 2008
PEN Festival Here I Come!
Today I am headed over to the PEN World Voices Festival. Many thanks to Dr. Alexandrova who got me on my feet again. I am going to hop on the subway loaded down like an old lady on the Greyhound. I'll have my cough drops, my aspirin, some trail mix (so I won't be taking drugs on an empty stomach), water bottle... but I will be there!
Here is the agenda for today:
3:30-5pm: Writing The Story of Life in Fact and Fiction.
Writers who have used the same material for fiction and for autobiography are going to talk about the choices and process. This summer I read A.M. Homes' novel "In A Country of Mothers" and her memoir "The Mistress' Daughter". I was sometimes quite disoriented because there were whole passages in common between the two books. I am eager to hear her talk about it on the panel.
5:30-6:30: Leaving Home
Debut novelists from five different countries talk about writing from a country other than home. As a person whose debut was called Leaving Atlanta, you can see how I would be into this.
8pm: "Wristcutters"
This is a screening of a film based on Etgar Keret's short story "Kneller's Happy Campers."
Posted at 08:56 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 01, 2008
In Honor of Cinco de Mayo
I know Cinco de Mayo isn't until Monday, but I have a feeling that some folks out there want to get the party started over the weekend. Rigoberto Gonzalez has offered up a recipe for Michelada Mexicana, his favorite drink for the holiday. (He is so over the margarita.) But before the recipe, here's a story about his family and the way they have made a language of their own.
by Rigoberto Gonzales:
Mexicans prefer the version that says “michelada” is an abbreviation 
of the phrase “mi chela helada” (my cold beer). One, because “chela” is Mexican slang for “beer” and two, because it celebrates a linguistic curiosity of Mexican Spanish—word coinage.
In this case, a double-coinage: “chela” comes from the proper word for beer, “cerveza,” which is then used to coin the second term, “michelada.”
In my memoir, Butterfly Boy, I tapped into how my own family invented words that developed from a series of associations. “Inflarse,” for example, means “to inflate onself,” but is used to describe a person who gets angry. How do members of the González family get angry: we inflate like toads. To say that someone got angry, you simply point with your chin and say, “Se infló.”
As if it needs to be said.
We are a family of big people, so the image really works on multiple levels.
Posted at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Cocktails With Writers
Michelada Mexicana by Rigoberto González
Variations of this thirst-quenching drink are available throughout Latin America, but the Mexican recipe has found its way into the U.S. 
market—slowly joining the margarita as the Cinco de Mayo beverage of choice. And like the margarita, there are dozens of stories floating around explaining the origin of its name and the origin of its creation, but people usually agree it’s a 1940s concoction because that’s when it started making appearances in film.
Mix all ingredients with plenty of ice. Add beer. Shake it up. ¡Salud!
"This stirring memoir of a first-generation Mexican American's coming-of-age and coming out is wrenching, angry, passionate, ironic, and always eloquent about conflicts of family, class, and sexuality." --Booklist, *starred review*.
Posted at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Cocktails With Writers
Glamour Girl
I could have not have been feeling less glamorous when I got the call. Imagine me at my desk, pumped full of day-quil, trying to mark student papers when the phone rings. On the other end is a very enthusiastic reporter from Glamour . Guess what? They are going to do a short report on the fundraiser we did for the Dunbar Village survivors! So check out the July issue, which will be available in June. Look in the news section, under the heading AWESOME WOMEN!
Do You Hear What I Hear?
National Poetry Month is over. To help you out with the transition back into normal life, I will recap a wonderful event that I attended last week at NYU. CC poets Alvin Aubert, Randall Horton, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Mendi Obadike and Gwen Samuels read to celebrate the anthology The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South.
As we have come to expect from Cave Canem, the reading was outstanding. I was particularly knocked out by my good friend, Kamilah Aisha Moon. Isn't funny how you know some one, know she is brilliant, and then she reveals a whole 'nother layer? Her poetry collection "She Has A Name" is about her family's journey with her younger sister's autism. When Kamilah read a poem in her father's voice, the fiction writer in me had to sit up and take notice. All I can say is that she really inhabited that character. Wow. "She Has A Name" has not yet found a publisher. But it will. Mark. My. Words.
Meanwhile, here are some photos I snapped at the event. As always, I thought they were cute, until I saw Rachel's...
Posted at 08:19 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Living For The City
Not-So-Rigorous Alternatives Sought
If I can just make it through this week, I am going to spend next Tuesday through Thursday curled up with a few books that aren't the sort of thing I read for my classes. Anybody got any suggestions? I have already read all of Angela Henry's "Kendra" mysteries. I've got a Harlan Carben here. (Becca Martin, auction winner, I have your manuscript right next to my pillow!) Send me the titles of your best chill-out faves.