Tayari's Blog: May 2009
May 31, 2009
Gingerbread Links
May 29, 2009
Just Checking In
Hi Everyone, it's just me checking in at the half-way point of my getaway. Overall, I will say that it's been good for my writing, better even than a writing residency like Yaddo or MacDowell. I love those places, but being here has actually been more instructive to me. Here's why. At writing residencies, there are lots of luxuries like lunch prepared and delivered to your door! They often have a helpful and friendly staff to help! Cell phones don't work so well, and there is only one landline for everyone to share. In short, the set up of a residency helps you do your work by letting you become a child again.
For the last two weeks I have been living alone in an apartment on a beautiful island where I don't really know anyone. I shop for and prepare my own meals. I keep the place tidy. What I am learning here is how I can organize my life in such a way that I can be productive. Although being far away has, of course, made things more peaceful, I am figuring out strategies for making my real life more peaceful. Being here, is about being a grown-up and taking grow-up charge of my life.
So, that said, here are my grown-up stats from the half way point of my visit.
clocking in at 85,558 words.
I now have
369 pages,
clocking in at 94,759 words.
So, to break it down
I have written 36 pages
or 9,201 words
Frankly, that's more than I wrote in the last 11 months.
May 28, 2009
Inky Links
Agate Publishing, Thank You So Much!
Doug Seibold, founder of Agate Publishing and member of our blog community, sent me a sweet care package! I will admit to hinting around that while sunning myself on Martha's Vineyard's famous Inkwell beach, it would be nice to have a little something to read... And just like that he sent me three really juicy looking titles:
Agate is publishing some really interesting titles, including Where The Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward.
Thanks again, Doug, for being so generous.
May 27, 2009
New Chapter, New Struggle
When I teach, I come of with strange associations like this all the time. My poor students are subjected to my connections several times a week. Well, today, I came up with this one, but I have no students with whom to torment with my "wisdom." So, here it is:
Starting a chapter is a lot like trying to get a roll of packing tape going. You spend a fair amount of time running your hands over the roll, trying to find the seam. Once you find the seam, you pick at it with your fingernails until you pull loose enough tape to get a grip. It may take several tries to get it going. Think of those false starts when you have a little piece of tape and you pull it only to have it turn into a useless sticky little ribbon. And then you start again.
This is what I've been up to today. I was really pleased with my progress last week. I wrote a meaty 25-page chapter. I felt so proud of myself and satisfied with my progress. I partied away the Memorial Day weekend without a second of guilt.
But now that the work week is back in swing, I feel like I am struggling with a roll of tape. Feeling frustrated, I found this photo of that you see here. Click on it and look below the photo to read the story of why someone felt the need to photograph this particular roll of tape. It gave me a little chuckle I needed to get back to work.
Little Starfish Girl Links
This weekend, my friend, Jarita, and I saw a zillion stranded starfish, just like in the story.
May 26, 2009
CONGRATULATIONS TO MY MAMA!
The University of Mississippi has just published Women and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965, a ground-breaking anthology of speeches given by women civil rights leaders. The contents include addresses given by Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Mamie Till, Lorraine Hansbury and Daisy Bates. In addition, the anthology recovers speeches given by less-known women who bravely stood up for civil rights. Among these women is my mother, Barbara Posey Jones who addressed the NAACP National Convention in Minneapolis on June 2, 1960, when she was just a teenager.
It is my opinion that she should write a memoir.
ToMo's Biggest Truest Fan
You know I think of myself as Toni Morrison's biggest fan. And yes, I 
did coin the term of endearment, ToMo. However, there is a member of our blog community who is more Hard Core than even me.
John Charles Palazzo is an expat living in Rome. He came across this blog while looking for information on all things Morrison. He comments pretty often when ToMo is the topic. Well, yesterday, he emailed me in what I can only call a frenzy. ToMo would be speaking in Milan. What should he call her? Dr. Morrison? He could never call her Toni. Perhaps her given name, Chloe? We decided on Ms. Morrison, and of course, Ma'am.
What happened next? Below is his report and a absolutely fantasic video.
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Guest Bloggers
Toni Morrison in Milano
Special to John Charles Palazzo, our roving correspondent.
Posted at 06:02 AM | Comments (1)
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John Charles Palazzo's Brush With Greatness
hi Tayari
so here is my story of my brush with greatness!
first, Ms. Morrison was in a really great mood, she seemed rested and really full of energy and enthusiasm. My intuition, seeing her up so close is that she's a person who gets energy from personal relationships, and there did seem to be a feeling between her and Umberto Eco.
so... after about 40 minutes of Q&A between Umberto Eco
mostly I was just flat out impressed with just how brilliant she is. I've watched every interview, read every interview, read all the books, so I obviously realised long ago she's a genius but I really cannot put into words what I felt like to observe her in person. She is just so fluid and fast intellectually, strong yet poetic in her breathless way of speaking, so many things come together in her that I could not see on a screen or a piece of paper. a brilliant academic analytical mind, a person capable of handling complex emotions, yet a person who seemed very open, honest but also brutally severe when necessary in her ability to size a wide range of issues up. She really is amazing to watch over the course of two hours.
So.... she was very professional the entire time. After about an hour Eco opens up to questions from visitors and I sat silently and didn't say a word. Then one person's question leads to another give and take between Eco and Morrison that goes on for about 20 minutes and I start thinking that I lost my chance to ask her my question (that I have wanted to ask her for years) but I still wasn't convinced to find the courage. Then I thought, here I was, 10 meters from one of the greatest authors in the history of the world, someone from my own hometown, and I was risking to lose the chance that for some short time, Toni Morrison would look at me and listen to me. Then I realised I didn't want to miss this chance, as I would regret it forever. so.... I start hoping they will open the floor for more questions and indeed they did.
Posted at 06:01 AM | Comments (2)
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Guest Bloggers
May 22, 2009
Jack and Jill Links
Here is a pretty meaty list of links. I hope it will keep you busy until the holiday weekend is over. Picture on the right is me strolling on the harbor. You can see it, but I am carrying a galley of Ru Freeman's novel, A Disobedient Girl. I forgot how luxurious it is to read without a pen in my hand. My cell phone doesn't really work up here, so I haven't been handling my business from afar. I've just been enjoying life, making art.
But, um... As it is Memorial Day. Does anyone know where the party is
Okay, enough about me. Here's the linky-dink.
May 21, 2009
Real Lives, Real Stories
Congratulations, Rutgers-Newark MFA graduates! These are members of our first graduating class. They are an oustanding group of writers. Their accomplishments are amazing, but their work, even more so. We are going to miss them so much.
(click on the mosaic for more!)
Posted at 06:22 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Real Lives, Real Stories
May 20, 2009
Oooh, Pretty! MV Writers Residency
Remember a few weeks ago when I told you all about the Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency? Well, I decided today to go scout out the location. Wowza. It's beautiful. The photos on the website do NOT do it justice. I checked out the rooms. So pretty. Many have fireplaces. The common areas so also very lovely. The gardens are filled with flowering plants and sculpted trees. I didn't take snapshots because I didn't want to be rude, but trust me. Very very nice digs in a very swanky area. Apply. Apply. The residency is for October. (You can stay as little as a weekend, or you can apply for the whole month.) Deadline is at the end of the month.
Posted at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)
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So, What's Your Book About?
How do you go about talking about a novel in a way that A) does justice to the project and B) makes it sound interesting. This is coming up for me a lot since many friendly people here on MV say, "So what are you up to while you're here." I say that I am working on a book and they say "tell me about it." I have this sort of short hand for The Silver Girl. I say: It's about bigamy. The lying cheating kind, not the religious kind.
That usually does the trick, but I am not sure it is a fair description of the novel. It's really about the daughters of a bigamist, one of whom infiltrates the life of the other under false pretenses. But that's sort of a lot to say, and it makes the whole thing sound trashy, when I am going to for a thoughtful meditation on the nature of family and the stubbornness of self-delusion. But see, that sounds boring.
I have run across two young writers who describe their books in terms of TV shows and movies. I don't want to use their specific examples, but they would say something like "My book is a cross between LoveJones and The Shining." I don't know if it is a good idea to talk about your book as the illegitimate offspring of other people's work. Every story is unique. If you can talk about it truthfully in terms of other books or movies, you probably need to rethink things.
At the end of the day, I am not sure you can really describe a novel in ten or so words in a way that really tells the truth. The indescribable part is the art, the magic of it. Think about Beloved. Can you imagine Toni Morrison at Yaddo, trying to describe her masterpiece-in-process: It's about a ex-slave woman who kills her baby. Then the baby comes back and tries to take her man. It's kind of like Roots meets "Fatal Attraction".
Posted at 09:18 AM | Comments (3)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 19, 2009
You Don't Know What You Think You Know
Memory is a strange thing. I just knew that remembered former
President Jimmy Carter crying on television, repenting for the sin of having "committed adultery in [his] heart". I can even remember where I was when I saw him, I remember being confused by his confession and I remember my dad making fun of him. Or at least I thought that's what I remembered.In my new novel, a characters makes a sort of off the cuff remark about Jimmy Carter crying over hypothetical adultery. I pretty much pulled the scene from my own memory. Then, while eating my lunch, I decided to search YouTube for this famous speech. I was hoping for some details to really make the paragraph pop.
Well, guess what? Jimmy Carter didn't cry on TV. That was Jim Baker. Carter merely gave this really odd (for a president, at least) quite in an interview with Playboy. I had to go and restructure the whole chapter.
The moral of this story, look up everything, even if you think you know it already.
May 18, 2009
Finally Got My Wi-Fi Links
The nice man from Verizon came by the apartment and hooked up my wifi! It was all I could do to keep from jumping into his arms. So here are some interesting links I found as soon as I booted up.
May 17, 2009
Writers Block! (The Radio Program)
Hi Everyone! I am just dashing off a quick entry to let you know that I made it to Martha's Vineyard. On the way here, I did an overnighter with my friend, Jarita, in Woods Hole, where we enjoyed a $5.99 (!) lobster special. I also swung by Staples and bought two reams of paper-- one to print out the 350 pages I've already written, and the second is to print everything out when I'm done.
I'll be doing my regular blogging just as soon as the wi-fi situation get squared away in the place where I am staying. The Verizon guy is coming on Tuesday, and to tell you the truth, I am looking forward to the company!
The writing is going well. It's funny to read sometihng I wrote three years ago. I recognize my voice, but I can't remember writing some of it. It's almost like I am reading a book written by someone else, but I am happy to say that I like it and am glad to claim it.
But enough about me. On the ride up, I listened to a number of 
writers read from thier work on The Writers Block. (You can download them to your iPod!) The website has a huge archive, but these were the ones I liked best.
Check those out. I'll be back in the saddle soon.
xoxo,
T
Posted at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
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May 14, 2009
Something I Have To Do For Me
I am posting this just as I am taking off for a month in Martha’s Vineyard. I’m taking the time to be alone and to write. I’m excited and nervous at the same time, as I have never done anything quite like this before, and I have never been to the Vineyard. Yes, I have gone to writers residencies, but I have never embarked on real solitude. It’s a commitment, I won’t lie. Although a family friend gave me a good deal, I am still shelling out a few bucks on the rental. I’ll have to get there, which means I had to get my car (affectionately known as “The Bucket”) serviced, and there is just also the realness of preparing to leave home for a month.
Why all the drama? Why not just set up a DIY writing clinic in my apartment. I do have a dedicated room just for writing. I’m getting away because I feel that I have been distracted from myself by my life. I have been way too busy being too many things to too many people and I have really gotten out of touch with my work. I know that this happens to everyone, but I feel particularly frustrated because I spend so much time telling other writers to put themselves first. But here I am, in the same trap as everyone else.
I am trying not to set goals in terms of word count. Although, I want to challenge myself, I don’t want to crack the whip. I want to be motivated by the story, not by people telling me how long it has been since my last book, not by the ticking of my tenure clock. The only thing I am committing to is to sitting down for five days a week and spending at least two hours working. I know two hours seems like a modest commitment when I have all day, but I figure two hours is enough time to get the fire burning if it wants to burn.
I’ll still be blogging, but probably not as much. I imagine there will be more post about the nuts and bolts of writing a novel, as less about the business of being a novelist, which is probably a good thing.
Preparing for this trip feels so different than other times that I have gone away. Maybe because there is nothing in it for me but peace and quiet. There is no resume line to be gained. I am not nurturing a fantasy about meeting people or making contacts. I feel like I am preparing to meet up with an old friend, and that old friend is me.
Posted at 07:37 AM | Comments (8)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 13, 2009
Tails, You Lose
A couple of weeks ago, I saw this article about how Yellow Tail wine has done fine for itself, but has managed to tank the Australian wine industry. The upshot of the article is that Australian wine were once the hottest thing across all price points. People were loving them—the wines were diverse, interesting, and just cool. Well, enter Yellow Tail. As we all it’s a really popular brand, a really cheap one. ($7!) The problem is that people now think all Australian wine is sort of Yellow-Taily and the brands that are not cheap and sweet and being overlooked by people who like a more serious wine.
I bookmarked this because it reminded of the huge debate in African-American literature about the rift between so-called “street-lit” and so-called “literary fiction.” It also pulled up for me the debate about bookstore shelving and the implications for African-American writers. There have been some pretty well-documented meltdowns over whether or not street-lit is making all black writers look “bad.” (I think a more accurate question is whether is makes all of us look “genre”, but that’s another issue.) And let us not forget when a bookstore put all the African-American books behind the counter because of theft. (I got all sarcastic, but wasn't really pressed.) When my students express dismay (in advance) that their books (when they write them) will be shelved in the African-American (or gay, or Latino) section they say, “When I look in that section, all I see books with naked people on the cover!” I have poo-pooed them, even laughing when Amazon grouped my novel, Leaving Atlanta, with Mama, I’m in Love… With a Gangsta.
Nevertheless, this Yellow Tail thing has got me just a wee bit worried. Not a big bit worried, but it’s got my attention. I had always attributed this concern that some black writers could demean the cache of others as paranoia. Sure, I understand that idea of the shared burden of representation. (I, personally, am always ultra tidy and nice when I attend writers colonies, for example, because I don’t want to ruin it for the next sister to come through. And note that in Nick Chile's famous anti-street lit op-ed, he says in the first couple sentences that he was embarrassed by the genre.) Still, I had never really thought it was quite as serious as people make it out to be.
I still believe that it’s not Yellow Tail’s fault that all Australian wines are thought to be the same. I mean, the makers of Yellow Tail (who are not even Australian) have every right to make their $7 wine. (And lord knows your roommate has every right to drink it.) But at the same time, I can see how more serious wine-makers would be angry, and they have a right to be furious. But at whom?
Posted at 08:27 AM | Comments (9)
Category:
The Writing Life
May 12, 2009
Teeny-Weeny-Afro Links
May 10, 2009
Tiphanie Yanique: #2 of the Amazing 8
I first became aware of Tiphanie Yanique about a year ago when I read her brilliant essay "My Superhero Secret." I posted it about it and a lot of you were moved by her words. I then read her chapbook, The Saving Work, and I knew that I was reading an important new voice. I knew it was only a matter of time before she published her first book, but in the essay below, she writes about not being so sure.
But before you read the essay, here is a quick bio of the fabulous Ms. Yanique:
Tiphanie Yanique is an assistant professor of creative writing at Drew University. A former Fulbright Scholar, she has received the Mary Grant Charles Award for fiction, the Academy of American Poets Prize and the Tufts University Africana Prize for Creativity. She is the recipient of a 2008 Pushcart Prize, the 2006 Boston Review Fiction Prize, and was the Parks Fellow/Writer-in-Residence at Rice University. Her short story "The Saving Work" was chosen by Margot Livesey for the 2007 Kore Press Short Fiction Award. And here is the new bio line: Her first book, How to Escape from a Leper Colony is forthcoming from Graywolf Press.
So now read the essay below. It's good.
Posted at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)
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Guest Bloggers
I Just Wanted to be Writing
by Tiphanie Yanique
When I left graduate school I just knew I was going to have a book immediately. I had an agent, I had a novel that had just been picked up, I had all this drive, and wasn’t I talented, too? Well, maybe all of that was true, or maybe not. Either way my agent had a baby and then retired from agenting; my novel was taken by a press, and then that press closed its Caribbean line without publishing my book; I moved to New York and being a full time tenure track professor had sucked out all my drive…and maybe I wasn’t that talented. I appealed to friends. More than one said, “It took me ten years!” At a writer’s retreat a very successful author held up the rejections from her first book that went on to be a best seller and corner stone of American literature. There were more than thirty rejections.
Again and again, when they weren’t commiserating with me, my friends said, “Just keep writing.” This was hard. I felt betrayed by fiction and the whole system of publishing. I felt betrayed by readers who bought used books, or who didn’t buy books by writers of color at all. I was watching really talented friends tank and less talented ones soar. I liked to believe I was amongst the talented tankers, but who knew? And what did it matter, if you couldn’t get published?
I’d always been a poet even before I decided to take an MFA in fiction, and now poetry became a kind of salvation for me. It kept me writing when I didn’t trust prose. And since I teach fiction, I could read poetry and feel I was doing it just for myself, for the pure pleasure of it. I kept writing poems and then, every now and then, when I could stand it, I edited stories in a collection of which I had a draft. I wasn’t writing with a mind towards publication—I knew the novel was the ticket to publication, not poetry or stories. I was writing because I just wanted to be writing
Almost a year later, Fiona McCrae of Graywolf called me. I knew she had already felt my novel wasn’t right for Graywolf. We had sent it to her when I’d made the mistake of giving it to the other press that then canceled its line. Still, I was hoping, maybe, she’d help me take it to another level before I started sending it out again. When we met her at her office she said that she had read my short stories. My short stories. Not the novel. The only problem was that there weren’t enough stories to make a collection.
I peered over her shoulder. “But you only have about half of the collection. I’ve written more.”
“Well, that’s great news,” she said.
The collection, How to Escape from a Leper Colony, comes out with Graywolf Press on March 2, 2010.
Posted at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
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Guest Bloggers
May 08, 2009
Goodbye Craig, Goodbye
I've just received bad news about poet Craig Arnold who went missing in Japan about ten days ago. Craig was a vibrant person, a one-of-a-kinder. I saw him at AWP and took the photo you see here. I had no idea I'd never see him again. Below is the statement from the MFA at the University of Wyoming where he worked.
Dear Friends,
This morning we received dreadfully sad news. Searchers looking for Craig Arnold in Japan found evidence that Craig fell from a cliff. They conclude that he could not have survived this fall. Searchers are currently unable to retrieve Craig because of the steep and dangerous nature of the terrain.
So many in our community and across the country were fervently hoping for Craig’s safe return that this news today feels unbearable. We are especially thinking of Craig’s son Robin, his partner Rebecca, his mother and father Judy and Dan, and his brother Chris and his family.
Knowing Craig has enriched our lives. We will remember him always and we will have a time in the near future to celebrate his life and his beautiful work.
Peter Parolin, Department Head of English
Beth Loffreda, Director, MFA in Creative Writing
Posted at 04:16 PM | Comments (0)
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May 07, 2009
Sarah Schulman, 2009 Kessler Fellow!
I am little behind the curve on this one, but Sarah Schulman-- friend of the blog and friend of mine-- has just been awarded the 2009 David R. Kessler Fellowship, the most prestigious award honoring a GLBTQ scholar, artist, and/or activist.
It could not have happened to a more deserving person. For one thing-- with over 40 volumes of her books out there, and several more forthcoming, she is a scholar and an artist. And anyone who knows about her work with ACT-UP knows that she is an activist. But even if you don't know about her organized activism, if you know her at all, you'll know about her personal activism. Sarah is the go-to person if you've been treated unfairly on your job, if you've been snubbed by your publisher, if anything just isn't right. She can't always fix it for you, but she'll try and you can pretty much count on her to point you in the direction of something who can do something for you.
When I first met Sarah some years ago, at Yaddo, we were talking about networking. She didn't have much patience for all the conversation about strategic favor-granting. She said that being a responsible member of a community isn't about helping people because they may help you some day. You have to help people because they need help. The real measure of a person is how they treat people who can't do anything for them.
Sarah, congratulations to you. You deserve this and more.
Posted at 08:40 AM | Comments (1)
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May 05, 2009
Rainy Tuesday Links!
May 04, 2009
Welcome Home, Ms. Walker
I love this video. I love how you can hear her Georgia accent. More on the exhibit here.
Alice Walker: Game Changer
The video above is of Alice Walker touring the new exhibit of her papers and artifacts at Emory University. I love Alice Walker and consider her work to be among my formative influences. Her first three novels-- The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, and The Color Purple turned me out when I was a young writer. Alice Walker showed me I have something to write about.
I know that it's sort of out of style to say you love Alice Walker. Her later novels have not been as good, there is the public feud with her daughter, and The Color Purple in all it's many incarnations has taken of a life of its own. Alice Walker has sort of fallen into the same category as Maya Angelou-- writers that the new generation likes to publicly mock even though we cut our teeth on their work. It's our Electra complex showing. Maybe this is how we prove that we are grown, having our own voice and agenda. But we can't deny that Alice Walker was a game changer who opened the doors for me and many other writers. You can't take that away from her, and why would anyone want to?
Toni Morrison is, of course, a richer novelist and more academic essayist than Walker. Also, Toni Morrison changed the game herself-- not just as a writer, but with her change-the-system-from-within activism while she was at Random House. And all of you know how I feel about the great ToMo. (I suppose it's unfortunate that, in this post about Walker, I have to make sure I declare my never ending admiration for Morrison. I guess that just is what it is.)
Alice Walker, on the other hand, was the first black woman writer I had ever known who opened her life to readers. Her essay collection, In Search of Our Mother's Gardens was intensely personal. In some ways, her essays were sort of a how-to for the young Womanist, actually coining this new term. In other essays she is frank, letting us into her vulnerabilities, showing us the ways the writer puts herself on the line.
As a young writer, I felt that Alice Walker was my friend in some cosmic way, although we never met. I knew she wanted me to be brave and to tell the truth. When I was in college, I happened on her home address and I would send her letters on my good pink stationery. She never wrote me back, and for some reason, I never cared. I just wanted her to know how much she meant to me.
May 03, 2009
GWN Requests The Pleasure of Your Company
Posted at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)
Category:
Community Service