Tayari's Blog: Bookshelf
August 18, 2010
Natasha Trethewey on Fresh Air Today
Tune in to NPR today to hear Natasha Trethewey interviewed on Fresh Air. Her new book is a non-fiction work called BEYOND KATRINA. I am really excited about this book. I am Natasha's biggest fan and I love all her work, but there is something really urgent about this new project. I really urge you to listen to what she has to say about the way that Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and also the way that the criminal justice system can devastate a family. The audio of the show won't go up until this evening, but there are some really interesting excerpts already posted. Go check it out.
July 14, 2010
If You Love Poetry Like I Love Poetry
You know what they say.. if you say you love poetry, yet don't buy poetry, then you're part of the problem. And with that, I will end the guilt-strategy. The rest of this post is about the awesomeness of The Rumpus Poetry Book Club. This is how it works. For $20 a month, you get a copy of a poetry book, chosen by the very discerning poetry board of advisers. Then you can participate in an on-line discussion.(My favorite detail is that you get the book before publication so you can be the star of every cocktail party, talking about how you read an advanced copy of the most fabulous new book....)
Check out the site for more info. Meanwhile, the inaugural selection is Ceiling of Sticks by Shane Book. This debut which won the 2010 Prairie Schooner Prize was chosen by Camille Dungy. She is explains her choice here, but the summary is that she really really loved it and thinks you will love it too.
June 06, 2010
Adichie (and me) at Tenement Museum
I just finished THE THING AROUND YOUR NECK, a short-story collection by the amazing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. What can I say besides I loved it? I guess I can also say that she is a brilliant. Her characters are so real that I felt guilty that I was drinking coffee without offering them any. You may know that I attended ninth grade in Nigeria. Adichie's descriptions at times made me feel warm and nostalgic and at other times I felt sad at what has happened to that world I once knew.
On Thursday, June 17, 6:30 pm, I will have the honor of interviewing Ms. Adichie at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. She will give a reading and then we will have a little Q&A. I am very excited about it.
The event is free. More details here.
April 12, 2010
I Don't Want To Be An Honorary White Writer
This Toni Morrison interview is fantastic. She takes on the issue of being called a "black writer." Why do you call yourself a black writer, a woman writer? Because it's true. Then she gets down to the nitty gritty.
March 21, 2010
Woman To Man
by Ai
(1947-2010)
Woman to Man
Lightning hits the roof,
shoves the knife, darkness,
deep in the walls.
They bleed light all over us
and your face, the fan, folds up,
so I won’t see how afraid
to be with me you are.
We don’t mix, even in bed,
where we keep ending up.
There’s no need to hide it:
you’re snow, I’m coal,
I’ve got the scars to prove it.
But open your mouth,
I’ll give you a taste of black
you won’t forget.
For a while, I’ll let it make you strong,
make your heart lion,
then I’ll take it back.
March 17, 2010
Read This!
Y'all, this is a delicious book! If you like mystery/suspense/crimefiction, this is a novel for you. I am listening to Black Water Rising, by Attica Locke on audiobook and it is interrupting my sleep. Last night, I was lying in bed thinking, maybe I could get up and listen for one more hour. Granted, it is pretty risky, me endorsing a book a I haven't even finished yet, but it's so engaging, that for now, it is all I can think about. And I will confess, that the narrator of the audio book, Dion Graham, has a lovely voice. (And you know with that name- Dion - he is a true son of the south.) It feels like a southern gentleman is hiding in my iPod telling me a bedtime story. I should bake him a red velvet cake.
(Voice off screen interrupts: Don't nobody care about the silky-smooth chocolate-dipped narrator, Tayari. Can you at least tell us what the doggone book is about?)
Sorry.
It's set in Houston. (Did y'all know I used to live there?) It's the story of Jay, a lawyer whose practice has devolved into ambulance chasing. He used to do loftier things, like represent people whose civil rights had been violated, but doing the right thing don't pay the bills. Also, his wife is pregnant. Well, they sorta semi-witness a crime. The black union workers are going on strike-- could shut the whole city down! Somebody is following him and he don't know why. And what about the white lady that fished out the bayou, more dead than alive? And don't forget Jay's activist past, and the fact that when she was in college, the mayor was a radical.. shhh.. And her and Jay used have a little somethin going on!
I can't tell you any more, because this is as far as I have gotten. But oooh, it's good! And go read this dynamite essay where the Attica Locke tells you where she got the idea for this novel.
P.S. I get my audio books from audible.com. (I have a basic membership) But I believe this title is widely available at public libraries.
March 07, 2010
T-n-T at Greenlight Books
Monday night, I will have the pleasure of introducing Tiphanie Yanique at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn. Tiphanie will read from her OMG-It's-So-Good collection on stories, How To Escape From A Leper Colony. Afterwards, she and I will sit down for a Q&A session. We're going to get down to the writerly nitty gritty.
Tiphanie is an amazing writer; she's got talent to spare. You may remember when I first discovered her a couple of years ago when I stumbled upon her essay, "My Super Hero Secret." I blogged about it and when I met her in person at Bread Loaf, we became instant friends.
I I hope you'll come to Greenlight Books and hear Tiphanie. She's the real thing.
Here's what I said about her on the back of her book and I meant every word of it:
Tiphanie Yanique is a writer to watch. Although How to Escape from a Leper Colony is her debut, she writes with the wisdom and confidence of an old soul. The title story alone is worth the price of admission, but each of the stories contained in this gorgeous collection is clear-eyed, honest while still zinging with emotion. Tiphanie Yanique is blessed with an electric imagination, an expansive heart, and an unflinching gaze. I can't wait to see what she does next. -Tayari Jones
February 24, 2010
Kendra, Take Me Away!
I have been control-freaking my life lately in order to meet all my goals. I have been scheduling myself from when I wake up, until when I go to bed. I have been very disciplined, but sometimes things happen that you can't plan for. Case in point: I was on my way to work-- arms full of books and papers, trying to balance my umbrella-- when I saw 
that someone had busted the windows out of my raggedy car and snatched my pathetic little radio. I just took my unhappy self back into the apartment and called the police and the Gecko.
On a cold miserable day like this, I need me some Kendra.
Kendra Clayton is the protagonist of the mystery series by Angela Henry. I love reading the adventures of a GED teacher who finds herself at the center of all the action in her Ohio hometown.
When I find myself stressing out and want to escape, this is exactly 
the type of book I like to curl up with. Angela's books are sort of like the Sue Grafton alphabet series, but with a sister-girl touch. The other characters are delightful, too and there is just enough romance to keep it interesting.
Angela sent me the latest in the series, "Schooled in Lies." I 
noticed that the cover was different than the others. From her blog I learned that her publisher had opted not to renew the series. Angela Henry is a determined and resilient as her characters. She published the latest book herself.
I have to go to work in a little while, but while I wait for the cops to show up, I am taking a little Kendra-break.
February 14, 2010
Here Rests, by Lucille Clifton
This is one of my favorties. An elegy for her sister
here rests
my sister Josephine
born in '29
and dead these 15 years
who carried a book on every stroll.
when daddy was dying
she left the streets
and moved him back home
to tend him.
her pimp came too
her Diamond Dick
and they would take turns
reading
a bible aloud through the house.
when you poem this
and you will, she would say
remember the Book of Job.
happy birthday and hope
to you Jospehine
one of the easts
most wanted.
may heaven be filled
with literate men
may they bed you
with respect.
February 12, 2010
Friday Pick Me Up
The poet Lucille Clifton says one should wish to celebrate, more than one should wish to be celebrated. So here she is, reading her poem, "Won't You Celebrate With Me."
January 18, 2010
Poets on Place
I've just been made aware of the book, Poets on Place, by W.T. Pfefferle. To get these photos, WT drove over 20,000 miles in a motorhome to visit sixty-two writers in their homes. (Now that's dedication.) The cover doesn't do justice to the gorgeous photographs, so click to see a few of the photos here. If I had known about the scrumptious book before Christmas, you can bet I would have mentioned it to Mr. Claus. Well, there's always Valentine's Day-- and you know who you are.
January 09, 2010
Upstate Girls
In Verse is a project that blends poetry with documentary photography. I wanted to bring your attention to "The Women of Troy" by Susan Sommers-Willet. Susan readers her poetry which is inspired by photographs of working-class women in Troy, New York. I have watched this video three times over the last three or four months. Each time I intended to blog about about it, but I wasn't sure what to say.
The images are intense. I am labeling the video as NSFW, but not because they are sexually graphic, though there is a lot of skin. The photgraphs sort of give me the feeling that I am looking into people's private lives and I am not sure if it's okay for me to watch. Maybe this is why I have delayed posting. Susan is a wonderful poet, I dare you to listen and not be moved. My real question is about the images. Are they too much? Does it into "poverty porn"? Or does it matter who's looking? It seems that this is the precious question of 2010.
The photos are part of a project called "Upstate Girls". The artist's statement is insightful and respectful. And when you look at the photos, you can tell that the people depicted must have a lot of trust in the people making the documentary. I'm on the line about these images. Still, I have to say that I can't get them out of my head.
January 06, 2010
NAACP Image Award Nominations Announced
There are so many good books nominated this year. Friends of the blog like Dwayne Betts, Camille Dungy, and Mitchell Douglass are up for awards. Other nominees include Atica Locke, Walter Mosely, Marlon James, and a whole bunch of other folks. (I have to say that it cracks me up that Steve Harvey's how-to-catch-a-man book is nominated for "outstanding instructional literary work." Ha!)
Here's the whole list below:
January 05, 2010
Wench, by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Today I received my copy of Wench, the new novel by 
Dolen Perkins-Valdez. I really loved this book. (And what a gorgeous cover!)The novel is set at Tawawa House-- an actual Ohio resort where white plantation owners vacationed with their enslaved mistresses.
I know that there are some readers who are very tired of the American fixation with slave mistresses. I know know where you are coming from. However, this novel is different. For one thing, Wench is the story of four women who are in the same situation. This is a wonderfully modern twist on the historical novel. The four-friend structure, a sly wink at Terry Mac, allows us to see how different women respond to the conundrum of sexual slavery. Never in all my reading have I ever seen enslaved mistresses talk to each other. (Their conversations will give you a lot to think about.)
One of my favorite scenes is when one of the women is saying how much she liked Tawawa House because "we can spend time with our men." Another woman says, "You know he's not your man, don't you?" A Tawawa House, some women play house with their "master" while others plan escape.
This is a hard book to describe. After reading it, I feel weird using the word "mistress." I feel like we need a whole new vocabulary. What do you call a woman who is in a sexual relationship with a man who can sell her kids if he feels like it? Are you a "mistress" if you travel to a resort vacation literally in chains? This book is not romantic, nor is it preachy. Dolen wrestles with the truth and doesn't blink.
The most impressive aspect of this story is Dolen's way of making you unsure of who is right, and who has the best idea. I read this novel is one greedy gulp. The intellectual in me was intrigued by the historical matter. The philosopher in me was roped in with questions about the nature of freedom and progress.
Finally, the part of me that curls up in a slanket, well she stayed up late at night reading because I just had to know what was going to happen next.
December 13, 2009
Radha Says: Last Poems
Today, Leslie McGrath handed me a copy of Radha Says, the final 
volume of poems written by Reetika Vazarani. Leslie and I spoke yesterday about the volume and she offered a copy, so receiving the book wasn't a surprise. What did surprise me was the chill that crept over my body as handled it. Toward the end of the book are poems written in the poet's own hand, dated just days before she took her own life and that of her child.
The editors of this collection toiled for countless hours over these poems which were discovered in a sealed envelope addressed to Copper Canyon Press-- who declined to publish them. I cannot imagine the emotional weight of sifting through half-finished and marked-on drafts written by a woman in the throes of a psychic break. Ravi Shankar and Leslie McGrath traced Vazarani's imaginative footsteps, knowing the brutality to come, but unable to change history. I cannot imagine that they would put themselves through this if they did not believe that Vazarani's voice is a vital part of the American literary tradition.
I have held the book here in my hand for over an hour now, but I have not begun to read the poems inside. Partly is because I feel revulsion for her final acts and because there are people who matter to me that were terribly wounded by these acts. But, if I am to be honest, I must also confess that I am fighting an almost supersitious dread of what her verses might contain.
October 20, 2009
Being Billie: A New Documentary
On Sunday, I went to Ramscale Gallery for a fundraiser for Being 
Billie, a new documentary about Billie Holliday. I was mostly motivated to attend the event because I jump at any opportunity to visit RamScale and secondly because lovely Karma Mayet Johnson would be singing. I am so glad I braved the elements and traveled to Manhattan.
Being Billie offers a fascinating and empowering look at the life of Billie Holliday. Women artists and thinkers such as Angela Davis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Laylah Hathaway, Joni Mitchell, and Nikki Giovanni weigh in on the life and legacy of Lady Day.
All of them pointed out that women artists are so often reduced to the details of thier personal lives. (For contrast think of Miles Davis. His life was a disaster, but it has not tarnished his reputation as a genius.) Billie Holiday is remembered as a tragic figure-- drug addict, bad relationships, etc. But what about her genius? And I am not using the word lightly. When you see this film you will ask yourself this question.
(One of the highlights of the film was Nikki Giovanni irreverently chronicalling the drug use of other stars of the same era. Why, she asks, haven't these artists been smeared for all enternity. As she put it, "They act like Billie Holiday was the first singer to ever be a drug addict.")
Film-maker Phyllis M. Croom was at the event, along with Producer, Rochelle "Rocky" Scott. I was very impressed with the dedication and just hard work they have put into reclaiming Billie Holiday from the "Lady Sings The Blues" melodrama. Of course, passion and dedication don't pay the bills. You can imagine the expenses they have incurred trying to get the rights to music and film clips. They need to raise an additional $75,000 just to finish the project. Everyone one at the event was so moved that we all made donations, but more help is needed.
Visit the Being Billie website for more information. The website is a little tricky to navigate, but if you keep clicking, you'll get to the donation page, so keep clicking.
October 19, 2009
THIS BOOK IS FREE
Yesterday, my friend Cheryl gave me a novel called PUSH COMES TO SHOVE. I flipped to the back to read the description and This is what I read: THIS NOVEL IS FREE. Then, there was the fine print.
By taking this novel, you agree to give money away to a local charity, someone who needs it, or a stranger of the street. Where the money goes and how much you-- that's your call. When you're done, pass this novel on to someone else (for free, of course) so they can give. It all adds up.
This whole project is an experiment by Concord Free Press. The next book on the docket to be published in THE NEXT QUEEN OF HEAVEN by Gregory Maguire, author of WICKED. It looks like they have raised a lot of money for a lot of different charities so far.
PUSH COMES TO SHOVE is the only Concord book I have seen, and I have to admit that I haven't read it. (The Washington Post seemed to like it well enough.) But I can say that it is a handsome looking book-- paperback original with french flaps. It doesn't look "free" if you know I mean.
The catch is that writers do not get paid for their work. So you really would have who doesn't need money, or who has tried to get money for a manuscript, but haven't been able to get a deal. This is not to say that the books by Concord are second rate-- I think we all know someone with a beautiful brilliant manuscript that can't get a deal for it. Concord provides as opportunity to get the work out and to help the world.
It's a good idea. I like it.
September 02, 2009
Shall We Go To The Theatre?
This is a great theatre season in NYC. Sarah Schulman has steered me to a bumper crop of new plays written by writers of color. If you are in NYC, please go out to support at least one of these events. (Full disclosure: I am only just now taking my trifling self to see Ruined, so I'm not judging. I'm merely urging.)
Here's what's coming up.
By Tarell Alvin McCraney. Public Theatre 10/21-12/13
August 31, 2009
Katrina: The Blood Dazzler
Four years ago, this week, Hurricaine Katrina devastated New Orleans and this entire nation. In this video Patricia Smith reads from her award winning poetry collection, Blood Dazzler.
August 13, 2009
Progress?
Well, I suppose this is a happy ending. Remember the drama 
surrounding the whitewash of the cover of the YA novel, LIAR? If not, here is a recap in 140 characters or less: Main character is a black girl, but Bloomsbury put a white girl on the cover. After being questioned by readers, the author spoke out, the blogosphere and twitterverse joined in. Bloomsbury insists the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. (Since the character is a liar, who's to say that she's not just pretending to be black? Hence the image. #fail.) Now there is a new cover! (Yay, right?)
Micah, the main character of Liar, is dark and wears a short natural haircut. But the new cover girl for LIAR looks like Corrine Bailey Rae!
This is where things get tricky. Twenty-five years ago, many African American parents, librarians, and readers would be concerned that dark-skinned black girls feel marginalized by the prevalence of images of light-skinned girls. (And let us not forget that Alice Walker writes so lovingly of Their Eyes Were Watching God because Janie was the first dark-skinned heroine she had ever read about. And then, Alice Walker gave us Celie, Nettie, and Shug. This representation issue is real. It's not just talk.) But now, since Bloomsbury took the cover situation to the next level by putting an actual white model on the cover, the new cover (which triggers my inner Pecola Breedlove) is considered to be a victory.
But seriously, this who situation has been very distressing to me. As a brown-skinned kinky-haired black woman who reads and writes about the same, I feel very disrespected as a reader, a writer, and a human being.
August 10, 2009
Dwayne Betts in DC Tonight
I know that I am a bit immoderate about my affection for R. Dwayne 
Betts. That said, I want to encourage everyone in DC to come to his reading and signing at Busboys and Poets tonight at 6:30.
I went to the post office today to pick up all the mail that accumulated while I was in Virginia. Amid the catalogs, bills, etc. was my copy of Dwayne's book. I tore open the envelope. As soon as I pulled it out, A Question of Freedom became the star of the whoe post office. You would have thought it was a newborn baby! Everyone wanted to hold the book, thumb through the pages, and write down the title. I know everyone is so gloom and doom about the future of reading, but that post office was full of regular folks and they were all digging Dwayne's book. And even I was so hypnotized by the writing on the first couple of pages that I didn't even notice my tax refund check! (That's serious.)
If you go to the event at Busboys tonight, send me a cameraphone pic!
May 28, 2009
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 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.
April 30, 2009
American Violet
I plan to go see American Violet this weekend. The trailer was so riveting that the hair stood up on my arms. There is first class talent in this film. And the issue of the prison industrial complex is one of the most serious ones facing this country.
January 06, 2009
When Good Things Happen To Good People
The NYT, more specifically MICHIKO KAKUTANI, is doing back flips over Jayne Anne Phillips' new novel, Lark and Termite. I have to admit 
that I did a few back flips myself when I read the review. Here's a peek at the acrobatics:
Ms. Phillips knows her characters so intimately and tackles their stories with such ferocity that the novel does not devolve into soap opera but instead ascends into the higher, more rarified altitudes of fable.
Jayne Anne has always been a hero of mine. I found a journal from 1999 in which I layed out all my writerly pipe dreams. One of them was "Meet Jayne Anne Phillips." In the margin I'd written "possible?!?!" after that was a discouraged littel frowny-face. Imagine how it felt in 2005 when she called me on the phone, inviting me to join her at the new MFA program at Rutgers-Newark University. She told me that she wanted to start a program that would make a difference to all of us as American writers.
I was so impressed that I quit my other job, sold my house over the phone, and came out New Jersey to help her.
And now, she has a new book out-- her first novel in almost ten years and it is a knockout.
Congratulations, Jayne Anne. You deserve all this and more. And I am sure that "more" is right around the corner!
January 04, 2009
TROPICAL FISH by Doreen Baingana
I'd read Tropical Fish before, but I had forgotten just how brilliant Doreen is! I am forcing myself to choose only two stories for my packet, but I can't begin to choose. I love me some coming of age stories and her young narrators are aces. I know I'll end up using one of the epistolary stories because writing a letter that seems like a letter, but still tells a story is a complicated maneuver-- which Doreen pulls off not once, but twice in the collection.
So, here are the stories I am thinking of using and a little bit of summary.
I know I said I can only use two, but there are just so many tempting stories. I wish, I wish, I could afford to buy books for all thirty women in the class!
October 21, 2008
Computers All Up in My Kool-Aid
I understand the concept behind targeted advertising,but it still sort 
of creeps me out. I am talking about the computer-assisted variety. For example, I was emailing with a respected senior African American poet and I noticed that based on a scan of my message, gmail saw fit to advertise tshirts that read "DANGEROUS NEGRO!" I also get weirded out when facebook suggests people that it thinks that I might be friendly with. I almost choked on my Luna bar when it suggested a psycho ex-boyfriend, with whom I am NOT friendly. I need these computers to stay out of my Kool-Aid.
Anyway, today, I received an email from amazon. I will cut and paste below.
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Leaving Atlanta: A Novel by Tayari Jones have also purchased Mama I'm in Love(...with a gangsta) by Joy. For this reason, you might like to know that Mama I'm in Love(...with a gangsta) will be released on November 4, 2008. You can pre-order yours by following the link below.
I am not even sure what to do with this information. I mean, what does it mean? maybe I should forward it to those "Henny Penny" critics who believe that urban lit is stealing readers from more serious writers because this message from amazon suggests that readers like to read all sorts of different things. It also has implications for the bookstore debate. So many black authors whine that they don't want their Very Important Novels shelved next to "Riding Dirty, part 8" Well, there are no shelves amazon, but still you never know what you'll be paired with.
I'm still mulling this over, but I have to say that I am more amused than alarmed. I'd like to hear from you all out there. What sort of email, if any, do you get from amazon?
October 14, 2008
Sister Alice
I am teaching Meridian in my African-American Literature class this term. What a beautiful, searing, and revelevant work of fiction. I love it when the perfect book shows up, right on time. Anyway, to thank Alice Walker for such a meaning novel, I'm posting this georgeous photo.
October 04, 2008
A Psalm of Life
Lisa over at Eudaemonia asks "Which poem is like an old friend to you?" When I was a kid in Atlanta, children were required to memorize a lot of poetry. If you wake me up at 3 in the morning, I could still recite all of Langston Hughes' greatest hits on demand. I can still remember Mrs. Whatley reminding us that the poems that were popularly known as "No Crystal Stair" and "A Dream Deferred" were actually titled "Mother to Son" and "Harlem".
Anyway, of all the poetry I memorized in grade school, the one that I carry around with me in my heart is "A Psalm of Life." As you can see from the picture on the right, I was not a particularly good looking kid, nor a fashionable one. I was good at reading and writing, but not so good at socializing. I had skipped a grade and when you add that to a late birthday, I was about two years younger than my peers-- and in fifth grade, that's DOG years.
When I was given "The Psalm of Life" to memorize it was like a promise from the universe that things would get better
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
(I typed the above stanzas from memory.)
My teacher explained that the poem was talking about the afterlife, but I took it to mean life after elementary school.
And the part that really stoked my engine was this:
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
(Again, from my memory. Oh, how I loved those exclamation points!)
Before I give a reading, when I am in the elevator on the way to a job interview, I say these stanzas out loud-- any time that I need to draw on my inner resources. Even when I have needed courage to get far far away from a dangerous man, I have said these lines aloud while cruising down the freeway with the pedal to the metal.
Be not like dumb driven cattle. Be a hero in the strife!
Even though I was just ten years old, when I read those lines of a purple ditto sheet, I somehow knew it was an idea I could get behind.
(The poem in it's entirely is below.)
September 09, 2008
Sin City Law
I don't often blog about TV shows. For one thing, I don't have a 
television and the second is that this is supposed be a literary blog. I am making an exception for "Sin City Law", a documentary program that airs on the Sundance Channel. (The TV-less can get it on iTunes.)
"Sin City Law" is different than other crime shows-- both scripted and unscripted. Have you noticed that most crime shows these day focus on the cops and the prosecution. They act like the constitution is am impediment to keeping citizens safe and a boon to criminals. They kick doors in without a warrant, and are never wrong when they do. They slam the accused against the hoods are cars, but it's okay, because the people are "dirtbags". As much as I love "The Closer", it drives me nuts when Brenda Leigh says "Hurry up! We need to question him before his lawyer gets here." I am not a conspiracy nut, but you can't help wondering is so much exposure to this worldview is just softening us up for the police state that's right around the corner.
Enter "Sin City Law" which takes a look at the justice system in Las Vegas, a city devastated by methamphetamine. The cases are tragic all around. In the first season, Alzora Jackson, public defender, takes on cases she can't hope to win-- and in many cases she shouldn't win. For her, the clients often deserve jail, but the question is what punishment is fair. Sometimes the fight comes down to whether the client will get life with or without parole. Very 
little is accomplished via dramatic in-court monologues. Save that for Law & Order. The real drama comes when a public defender has to explain to a seventeen year old that the best option is to accept a plea that makes her eligible for parole when she's 65.
Don't be put off by the name "Sin City Law" or the equally sensational episode titles. This, I think is a wrong-headed attempt to draw in viewers who like the more titillating fare. This is a nuanced look at crime, poverty, and justice.
Related:
August 24, 2008
Troubled Enough?
On Friday I went to see the new documentary about Hurricaine Katrina, Trouble The Water. When I arrived at IFC theatre in the West Village, the line was 
wrapped around the block; the theatre was sold out. (But as you know, my name means “she is prepared” in Swahili, so I already had my tickets.) Before the show, Danny Glover and the directors stood on stage to remind us that the fate of indie films is word of mouth. We all promised to tell someone.
A friend of mine was worried that the film would be too sad for her to endure. “After seeing the Spike Lee film on Katrina, I just don’t know if I can take anymore.” She needn’t have worried. Trouble The Water is an uplifting hopeful film. "Inspiring" seems to be the word that the critics can't get enough of. This the film’s strength as well as its vulnerability.
Trouble The Water is a documentary within a documentary. 26-year old Kimberly Rivers happened to buy a off-the-truck camcorder a week before the storm hit. When she is unable to afford transportation to leave New Orleans, she starts videotaping her neighbors as they prepare. It’s clear that everyone thinks the storm is going to be bad, but no one knows that the neighborhood will be destroyed. Her footage is spliced with the professional documentary work of Carl Deal and Tia Lessin.
Kimberly Rivers is the most compelling character—man or woman, black, white or other—that I have seen on the large screen in recent memory. She is smart, talented, humorous and compassionate. You can’t help but wonder what she could have become were she not hobbled by the triple obstacles of race, class, and gender. (Although this was not emphasized in the film, I could not help think of how America squanders so many of its talented young people.) Witnessing her and her husband take care of the neighbors, save the elderly, negotiate with FEMA, escape New Orleans and return again really does buoy your faith in people. They are a much needed antidote to the Bill Cosby castigation of the working-class black folk.
August 21, 2008
This needs to be worldwide..
This needs to be worldwide. Ain't nobody got what I got. This is how Kim Rivers Roberts approached two documentary film makers 
who had come to New Orleans to make a documentary film about Hurricane Katrina. The film makers, who are white, were turned away by the National Guard. Kim Rivers Roberts, who is black, was unable to get out.
There is a really interesting article on the movie they made together, "Trouble The Water," over at Salon. I would like to see the film and judge it for myself. The article is such an odd review. On the one hand, it certainly piqued my interest. I love the idea of a woman who bought a stolen camcorder recording the devastation in her community. I like that she was not commissioned by the filmmakers, but she felt the need to document. I am uneasy with the marketing angle (I think that's what it is?) that she's a self-described "street hustler." (I am just so street-hustlered out!) And I am weirded out by the description of the screening at Sundance as a "cathartic, almost explosive ritual".
Oh, just read the article and see what you think. The more I think about it, the more uneasy I feel. But at the same time, I don't think it's fair to Ms. Rivers Roberts for me to bristle at her work because of the way some privileged person in Salon said it made him feel.
(Trailer for the film is in the post below.)
On another note. (And this was the initial point of this post, but I got distracted.) The film is being screened in Denver and Minneapolis, adjacent to the Democratic and Republican conventions. I was wondering what books and/or movies do you think the nominees should be forced to watch if they want to be president?
UPDATE: I just visited the official website for the film. I was pretty impressed.
June 01, 2008
Karen Salyer McElmurray Gets Real
Due to a completely out-of-character bout of insomnia, I am up at 
1:30am surfing the web. I ran across this really interesting interview with Karen Sayler McElmurray. I have read her excellent memoir, Surrendered Child, and I know Karen personally. I was really struck by the honesty of this interview. She doesn't have her game face on. No publicist is over her shoulder reminding her to stick with the script. Karen looks at each of the question and pulls the answers from her gut. She talks about everything from her process to her juggling teaching and writing to the monsters at Kirkus who accused her of "womb gazing" to how it felt when the child she gave up for adoption found her via google. This interview captures what I like best about Karen's work. She is not afraid to open a vein on the page. Or maybe she is afraid, but she does it anyway.
Here is an excerpt:
Q: Edmund Wilson, in The Wound and the Bow, uses the image of "a wound that won't heal" as the reason for why writers write. Do you agree with his assessment?A: I do believe that certain images, certain concerns, appear in an artist’s work—again and again, perhaps until they are understood. Once, at another writing retreat, I met a painter who, in every painting, depicted a man in a black trench coat who she said was her father. The image was small or large or sometimes concealed in other images, but always present. In my own work, I’ve again and again written about what I’ll called “the missing,” or loss. In my novel, Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven, part of the story is about a woman who, during the Great Depression, runs away to be a dance instructor for a traveling road show sponsored by the WPA. She leaves her daughter behind and thus begins the consequences of several generations affected by loss. That mother who relinquishes a child was the real story of my own life, told “slant” in fiction. My memoir takes on this subject directly by telling firsthand the story of a birthmother. And I’ve now written another novel, tentatively called Black Dog, which is in part about the loss of a son to a Marine Helicopter accident during the time of the 1987 Harmonic Convergence.
Will such images persist in my work? I cannot predict this. But I do know that exploring the unhealed wound, the relinquished child, has meant a great deal of healing for me. When the memoir was first “ready” to enter the public eye, my birth son found me on a website that discussed the book. He contacted me. We talk. We visit. Does this mean healing in the word, or does that wound remain, part of what made me, and thus made the work?
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?
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
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."
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 01, 2008
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.
April 24, 2008
That Crazy Lady is Me
There are moments as we get older that we realize that we have become 
an archetype. I have more than one friend who has realised that is a crazy cat lady. Way too many of us have turned into our mothers. Today, in my undergraduate class, I was shocked to discover that I was that overly-passionate English teacher.
We were reading "Never Marry A Mexican" by Sandra Cisneros. (It's anthologized everywhere, but can be found in Woman Hollering Creek.) What a fantastic story. I had forgotten how brilliant it is. It's easy to sleep on Cisneros. House On Mango Street was so over-exposed and more than one slacker student has tried to use it as an excuse not to learn how to write a fully fleshed out story. But "Never Marry A Mexican." Pure literary gold. Just mind blowing.
It was supposed to be a group discussion, with me gently leading the way, but I couldn't help reading whole pages aloud. I got so worked up, I had to take off my school-marm cardigan. "Can you feel her phrasing? Listen to those verbs! Do you get the double meaning there! Gorgeous. Just gorgeous." I knew I had crossed a line when I closed the book and clutched it to my sweaty little chest and shut my eyes in bliss. When I opened them, students looked at me, and then at each other with little smirks and then just looked a little embarrassed.
I felt old. I also felt alive and jazzed about writing, about life, about the book I am working on. About teaching. About everything.
April 20, 2008
What is A Southern Voice?
Listen to me, Silas House and Lee Smith at the Key West Literary Seminars as we wrestle with the topic!
March 27, 2008
Fountain of Youth?
I read over on Fred's blog that he was reading Pearl Cleage's new 
book, See It All And Done The Rest. Pearl is my favorite springtime author, so I headed over to amazon to pick it up. She and I had talked about this book while she was working on it. The protagonist is the grandmother of Zora, one of the minor characters from her noirish Baby Brother's Blues.
Chek out the cover. The model, pretty as she can be, is no granny! Are young women considered more marketable? I know that mature women are seldom used to sell beer, but what about books? Even when the market is women?
March 16, 2008
I Can't Believe I Read The Whole Thing
I can't believe that I gobbled down The Sky Isn't Visible From Here in a single afternoon. The idea was to read a few pages and then finish the laundry. I could not put it down.
I am sorry that the current memoir crisis had me looking at the author photo thinking, "Is this real? Is this the face of a former drug addict?" It's such a shame because there was nothing within the pages that struck me as false.
I did notice some eerie parallels between Felicia Sullivan's excellent memoir and the disgraced Love and Consequences. Both are stories of white (or at least white-looking) girls growing up in a urban jungle, around some really scary people of color. However, Sullivan's story doesn't have that smack of exploitation. There is no crazy "ghetto talk" and despite the sensational subject matter, she keeps the drama to a minimum. (Much of the memoir is about her own struggle to fit into the upper-class, all-white environment she found after college.)
I hate that I couldn't stop thinking about all the liars and cheaters when I was reading this book, pulling me out of the story even as I was enjoying it immensely. Even as I write this, I am hoping that the author doesn't make a fool of me. It's wrong and stupid for me to even worry about this. It's like I am letting the bad guys win. But I just can't help it.
Sigh.
February 27, 2008
The Mouthier, The Better
A couple of years ago when I was a visiting writing at George Washington University, I taught a class on Reading and Writing Memoir. My students had lots of different opinions about the ten books on the syllabus, but there was one book they all seemed to dig: The Truth Book by Joy Castro.
One of my favorite scenes in The Truth Book occurs midway through when Joy, an abused child, finds an ally in a irreverent classmate, she nicknames "The Mouthy Girl." When I talked to Joy after the book was published, she mentioned that she and The Mouthy Girl reunited after all these years.
Joy is a blogger these days and she has written the story up on her site. Here's a quote:
In the acknowledgments at the end of the book, I wrote, as the very last line, "And to Beth Loughney, mouthy girl, wherever you are." I hadn't seen her since I was fourteen, a runaway in rural West Virginia, and I didn't expect to. I just wanted to thank her from the bottom of my heart, however I could.But soon after the book was published, I was contacted by a reader in Arkansas, a TV journalist who was himself an ex-Jehovah's Witness and who, because of his job, had access to vast databases.
"Do you want me to find Mouthy Girl for you?" he offered.
Read the whole story on Joy's new blog. And leave her a comment so she can know you're out there.
February 24, 2008
This Is Why People BURN Manuscripts
Today's NYT has a review of a newly published novel by Richard Wright, A Father's Law. The novel was unfinished at the time of Wright's death in 1960. Apparently his daughter, Julia, authorized literary experts to piece it together from his notes, just in time for the 100th anniversary of Wright's death.
According to the review, it is a hot mess. (If the quotes given are any indication, I am ready, for once, to agree with the NYTBR!)
I can't imagine someone going through my junk, piecing together half-finished projects. You could use this activity as a good test of whether I am actually dead or not-- if there is any life left in me, I will jump up and stop the madness.
Publishing unfinished, unpolished, unedited, and just un-ready work by an author such as Wright does as injustice to his legacy. It's not as though he left such a scant body of work that extra volumes are needed to round things out.
Let the literary dead rest in piece.
February 07, 2008
Alas, Poor David
David Payne has a pretty interesting article in Oxford American about the bias against southern writers. As a southern writer, I am trying really hard to feel his pain, but I just can't. (Maud, who is a finer woman than I am, is able and makes some really compelling observations.)
I think my resistance comes from this quote:
While fine writers go neglected in other regions, too, it’s singular to find an entire generational cohort working off the radar. The sole exceptions I can think of are among African-American writers. Yet if Alice Walker and Edward P. Jones have escaped the regional box, Margaret Walker Alexander and Randall Kenan haven’t; and even Ernest Gaines, despite the heavy help of Oprah, remains less well-known than he deserves.
I agree with his point that African American southern writers are not usually thought to be "just" southern. I think it's because we are not thought to be southern at all! (And honestly, I have never heard of Randall Kenan descrined as "southern". How single-minded of Payne to think that the low-profile of Kenan's career is due to his zip code rather than the double-whammy of race and sexuality. If you want to add region, we can make it a triple, but you get the idea.)
Payne's complaint that southern writers all all thought to be racists just sort of ignores that idea that some of us are on the receiving end of that racism. It's as though, despite his nod to Kenan et al, he has forgotten we exist!
And this quote: "What the “Nigger” represents to African Americans, the Redneck is to white Southerners.." I don't even know what to say about that. Well, I know what to say, but as a southerner, I am too polite to say it.
November 29, 2007
This Time, FICTION is Stranger Than Truth
Ladylee is hosting a week long birthday party for me on her blog. (How did she know that as a little girl,I always wanted a surprise party?!) Today, she has posted a short story inspired by my love of the Brand New Heavies and the fact that I ain't too proud to take the Greyhound to get to thier concerts. Oh, and she points out the other fact that I happen to own a pink fur coat and coordinating Tims!
November 27, 2007
What's New?
Since it is the end of the year, all the bloggers and newspapers are in 'Best Of' (and sometimes 'Worst Of The Best Of') mode. I am sorry to say that I didn't read many new books this year. I think this is one of real down-sides of the way the literary goodies are handed out. If a book doesn't "hit" within the year it was published... no awards, no citations for you! Of course we could get into what good is an award anyway-- Not to be negative but I heard from a very reliable source that at least once in the history of the National Book Awards, a finalist knocked out a tooth while dancing in his medal. He was truly cutting up the rug, attempted a ultra-funky spin, the medal flipped up and *POW*. And to add insult to (a literal) injury, the cash prize for a finalist was barely enough to cover dental costs.
This is not to say that I didn't do much reading this year. While at The MacDowell Colony, I had a ball with their library of all the writers who have ever visited. Also, after a hispter couple got into a brawl in my neighborhood, she got her revenge by dumping a box of his books on the corner of Newark and Jersey Avenue and I will admit to picking up a few choice items.
But as for books that were really "right now", I didn't read many. Did you?
September 30, 2007
By The Book
Carleen, the Empress of Pajamaland, tagged me on a book meme. So here is my attempt at being a good citizen of the internet.
Total Number of Books I Own: Don't know. I have six shelves here at the apartment. One big shelf at work. I don't know if we can count all the remaindered copies of my own novels that are stacked up in my mama's basement.
Five Meaningful Books:
I think of this as one of the pivotal moments in my development as a woman, a writer, and a thinker. I learned how a writer by emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain details can shape the way a reader understands the events in the text. That reading of Native Son also taught me about reading against the text, how to be a resistant reader.
Gwendolyn Brooks. I hardly ever re-read this novel, but from it, I learned that a book can be quiet. More specifically, I learned that a book by a black author can be quiet. Brooks said that she wrote Maud Martha in response to Native Son. She was worried that for a book to be considered "black" it had to be about racism in an overt way, that the characters needed to struggle with some huge and dramatic crisis. She believed that writing about Maud Martha's life was a revolutionary act, that committing ordinary people's lives to the page was a kind of resistance. (On a related note: Asali Solomon, has just won my heart with this appreciation of Maud Martha.)
Last Book Read: Beloved. Again.
Last Book Bought: Throw Like A Girl by Jean Thompson.
I'm not passing this meme on. I feel like I have tapped out all my sources. But if you want to do it on your own, by all means, do and just let me know so I can link.
September 06, 2007
Washingtonians, Listen Up!
Angela Threatt, a member of our blog community, has been included in New Stories From The South, edited this year by Edward P. Jones. Politics & Prose bookstore is hosting a reading to celebrate the publication. If you are in the area on Monday, September 10th at 7pm, stop in and support her!
July 17, 2007
NH Snapshot: When You Can't Write...
READ! I couldn't resist posting this picture. It gets cold here at night so I made a fire. Okay, it wasn't really cold enough for a fire, but I just wanted to try it. I am curled up here with Diva's Last Curtain Call, one of the Kendra Clayton Mysteries. (Angela Henry was so sweet to send it to me.) I am happy as can be up here at MacDowell, but it was lovely to "visit" with Kendra Clayton, the sister-sleuth. She provided me with a kind of company I don't really get up here in the wilds of New Hampshire!
(thanks, Rosy, for the photo)
July 03, 2007
Miscreants by James Hoch
If you are in Santa Cruz on July 10 at 7:30, you are in luck because James Hoch will be reading from his new book of poetry, Miscreants. I had the good fortune to read with James at the Rutgers-Camden Writers Conference a couple of weeks ago.
A little about James, which I swiped from his homepage:
Prior to teaching, James Hoch was a dishwasher, cook, dockworker, social worker and shepherd.
You can't help but want to know more.
Miscreants takes a look at Camden, James Hoch's hometown, and in particular the murder of a young boy that shocked the blue-collar suburb of Philadelphia. That poem had particular resonance with me as my first novel, Leaving Atlanta, is about the murder of children and the way that it devastates an entire generation.
At the reading at Camden, I was just James's opening act. It was my job to warm up the crowd for what they had been waiting for, the 
local boy made good. His mother was there as well as his sister (who bought the bar that she used to drink in.) Other folks were in the audience clutching the notice of the reading that was printed in the local paper.
A couple of years ago, a student told me that his work took place in "Anytown, USA", that he didn't think that it mattered where his story was set. I disagreed with him and only wished that he could have been there to hear James Hoch read. When you hear a poet at the height of his skills read about a town that matters to him, it becomes clear that place done right is the red beating heart of every story that matters.
James Hoch's poem, The Car, is over at Verse Daily.
June 18, 2007
"Lot 63, Grave C" a film by Sam Green
Part of the MacDowell experience is that the artists can give presentations of their work. These exhibitions are completely optional, but most people opt to participate. Last night, Sam Green screened his feature length documentary, “The Weather Underground" and several of his short films. (A side note. Looking on amazon, I see that "The Weather Underground" was nominated for an Oscar. We have been hanging out with Sam for ten days and he never even mentioned it. That guy is a class act.)
When Sam planned this event, he didn’t know that his short film, “Lot 63, Grave C” would win the Sterling Short Award at SILVERDOCS, a film festival going on RIGHT NOW in DC. (If you’re around you should go.)
The prize-winning film, has a tie-in with one of my favorite books, The Last of Her Kind. If you have read that book you may remember that Solange goes to California for a Mick Jagger concert, which was said to be the West Coast’s Woodstock, but things go terribly wrong. The Hell’s Angels killed a man right near the bandstand, an event that many thought to be the end of the idealism of the Summer of Love.
Sam Green’s film seeks to find out more about Meridith Hunter, the murdered man. He wonders why there were no photos of him, no quote from his bereaved mother. The title of the film refers to the site of Hunter’s unmarked grave.
Meridith Hunter’s death was caught on film and we see him, a young black man in a sea of white people. 1970’s-fabulous in a bright green suit, 18 years old, baby-faced. I couldn’t help wonder how he came to be at the concert, was he was all by himself. Why he was the one who got killed? We never find out who his people are, what they thought of his death. Could they not afford a headstone? Had the burial wiped out their savings? We never find out. There is not enough information on how Meridith Hunter lived. All we know for sure is how he died. It’s not enough, but it’s all we have.
June 08, 2007
Tangled Roots and Life Matters
On Ed's site, I saw a reference 
to an African-American Women's Book Club in Seattle. Like many black women authors, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to book clubs, so I went over the the Seattle Times to see what was up. I was delighted by the story for two reasons. One, was that the women were reading Tangled Roots, by Angela Henry, a mystery writer and a member of our blog community! And also, because the women had taken thier love of books one step further and created "Life Matters", a collection of their own writing. Check out the article.
And, um.. excuse me for getting personal on the blog.. but, Angela.. wasn't there some talk about sending me a copy of the book? You can send it to me c/o The MacDowell Colony.
May 31, 2007
Overlooked Brilliance
In New York magazine, sixy three critics list their favorite "underrated" books. The title is "The Best Books You've Never Read."
I love the idea of it. Isn't frustrating when you read a really marvelous book and discover that it only sold about twelve copies? So, I propose that we make a list of our underrated favorites. Here are ten of mine, not in order of favoriteness or underration.
Bombingham, by Anthony Grooms.
Sweetwater, by Roxana Robertson
Luminous Mysteries, by John Holman
Dying Young, by Marti Leimbach (please ignore the cover!)
Rattlebone, by Maxine Clair
Crackpots, by Sara Pritchard
Motherkind, by Jayne Anne Phillips
City Boy, by Jean Thompson
Rima in the Weeds, by Deidre MacNamer
Meridian, by Alice Walker
(thx ed for the original link.)
May 22, 2007
Enda O'Brien Remembers Larry Brown
When Edna O'Brien lost her brother, John, to suicide, she didn't know where to seek comfort. She tried rereading his novel, Leaving Las Vegas, but she couldn't make herself connect with the words between the covers. What she did absorb was one of the names of the authors who blurbed her brother's book: Larry Brown. She contacted Mr. Brown and began a letter excahnge that would continue until Brown's death in 2004.
Here is an excerpt from her essay, "Meeting Larry Brown".
“I did know John, and he did know my work,” Brown wrote. “Just keep faith in yourself and keep on writing. That’s what John had to do, too.”Thus began a six-year correspondence. I was the neophyte; Brown was my mentor. When the harsh reality of writing would crush me, I’d write him.
“Much as I’ve written, I’m still scared of it in some way until I sit down and start doing it again and then all the fear goes out the window and I feel safe,” he wrote once.
In all, Brown wrote me five letters, and I wrote him 10. Our unique relationship included one face-to-face meeting. In September 2003, driven by an undeniable urgency, I took a frenetic 700-mile road trip to hear him read at a bookstore in Louisville, KY.
You can read the rest here.
May 07, 2007
"They Needed To Talk"
My fixation with The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez continutes. 
I thought I had gotten that monkey off my back. (My students would beg to differ, I think.) But at least I had stopped thinking about the novel quite so much. But now, my Spelman Sister Jennifer, sent me a link to an article explaining the origins of the lovely photo on the book's cover.
I just had to share. The photograph titled, "They Needed to Talk", was taken by William Eggleston, who is said to have reinvented color photography.
Where are the girls in the photo toady?:
Karen and Lesa are both 51 now and divorced. Karen uses her middle name, Lucretia, and her married name, Hampton; she has a son and works as a nurse in Memphis. Lesa has two sons and a daughter and teaches high-school English in Nashville. From this photograph, it's hard to believe that a few years later the women sang in a Memphis punk band called Gangrene and the Scurvy Girls. (They were the Scurvy Girls.) The band didn't last. However, Eggleston's delicate image of their youth did. And for that, both women say, they're grateful.
April 26, 2007
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 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.
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.
March 31, 2007
"I don't Worry About Fiction or Non-Fiction..."
Richard McCann visited George Washington University last week and read from his excellent prose debut, Mother Of Sorrows. My students were in attendance, as we have used his work in our Advanced Fiction Class. The reading was wonderful-- with material like that, how could Richard go wrong?
(Journalistic note: on the photo to the right, I begged him to strike that Mark Twain pose.)
One of the many interesting things that Richard said was, "I don't worry about fiction or Non-fiction. I just think of it all as prose." He said this in response to a question about the autobiographical aspects of Mother Of Sorrows.
The chapter of he read dealt with the brothers-- both gay, one closeted-- on a visit with thier disapproving mother. There is a passage in which Richard describes the characters physical features and it is as though he is staring into a mirror describing what he sees.
This is not to say that Mother of Sorrows is memoir. Richard mentioned the most significant diversion from the "truth" is thatthere is a third McCann brother, but in the novel, there are only two. He said what he feared most was that this brother wouldn't approve of the book-- not just because the third brother is very religious and might not like the gay themes, but also because the third brother was sort of erased from the history created by the novel.
I tend get really irritated when readers spend way too much time trying to decode the autobiography in my work. It makes me feel like they are looking under my clothes. When the first student asked the question, I cringed for Richard, but he seemed to be energized by the discussion.
If you haven't read Mother of Sorrows, you should. It will break your heart, in a very good way.
March 25, 2007
Jonesing For A Good Book
Friends and neighbors, I need something to read. I've got novels on my shelf, but I can't quite remember why I bought them. Chances are, I heard some buzz out there in the industry. Right now, I need something to read that is recommended by just a regular person. I don't want to read something because it's been published as the lead title from XYZ press, or its author won a major humungous prize. I don't want to read something just because I met the author in an elevator and she was really cool. Right now, I need a strong personal endorsement of something. What have you read lately that knocked your socks off?
I don't know if it's the books I have been reading lately, or maybe it's just a problem with my socks. Whatever the case, I am not getting the zing I used to get from reading. This is so not cool.
I've been feeling a little bit on the blue side. A friend said, "Is it because you're not writing enough?" And the real answer it that is isn't because I'm not READING enough.
Help!
March 21, 2007
Here Rests, by Lucille Clifton
I often bring poetry into my fiction classes. I often use this one by Lucille Clifton. (How an she tell a full story in so few--very beautiful--words?)
here rests
my sister Josephine
born in '29
and dead these 15 years
who carried a book on every stroll.
when daddy was dying
she left the streets
and moved him back home
to tend him.
her pimp came too
her Diamond Dick
and they would take turns
reading
a bible aloud through the house.
when you poem this
and you will, she would say
remember the Book of Job.
happy birthday and hope
to you Jospehine
one of the easts
most wanted.
may heaven be filled
with literate men
may they bed you
with respect.
March 13, 2007
A Healing, A Welcome Home
Last month, while hanging out with Remica Bingham, I noticed that she shared the same last name as the artist who designed the cover of her book.
"Are you related?" I asked.
She smiled and said, "It's my father."
"Really," I said. "How did that happen?"
She answered me in writing.
A Healing
by Remica Bingham
It’s a strange thing to find your father where you never thought he would be. So when I found my father pouring through the rows of poetry on my bookshelves I was a bit taken aback. He wasn’t reading any poems, just looking at spines and covers, examining each book, its texture, style. This was July 2006, after I found out I’d won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award and that my book, Conversion, would be published, in a matter of months, by Lotus Press.
When Lotus Press asked me if I had any input as to what I’d like to see on the cover of the book, I knew this was the right press at the right time. I told them my father was an artist and that I’d like him to do the cover art. Not only were they agreeable, but they seemed fond of the idea as well, without even knowing our story. I suppose they had read the book, though, since they’d chosen it for their book prize, and did get to glimpse into our past. My father takes a bit of a thrashing (as do many others—myself included) in the book. I tell so much about the dark times in his life, in our lives. My father and mother divorced when I was twelve and remarried when I was twenty. After many years of turmoil and distance, they found their way back to each other, older, wiser and more open to the possibility of happiness, of trust.
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Category:
Bookshelf
, Guest Bloggers
February 24, 2007
Nikki Giovanni in LA Tomorrow!
Nikki Giovanni has a new 
book out, Acolytes. When she was in town this week, she was quite excited about an upcoming reading at Eso Wan bookstore in L.A. Why? Well, for one, Eso Wan is a terrific bookstore-- totally commited to African American Literature. But the real reason is that she is going to be reading with her old friend, Frankie Lennon. And when I say old friend, I mean they go way back. Their mothers were in the hospital giving birth to the two of them at the same time-- you can't go back much further than that! So go to Eso Wan tommorrow afternoon at 5pm for a Geminii double-header.
February 22, 2007
Fruit of the Lemon
I am always sort of uneasy with the task of reviewing. On the one 
hand, I feel like doing a review causes me to me lay down my opinion as somehow more valuable than other folks views on a book. I know how important reviews can be-- not only for the "success" of a book, but for the author's emotional health. (I can quote my crappy reviews chapter and verse.) There is a part of me that would prefer not to be part of the whole messy ordeal of putting my opinions in print.
On the other hand, I really think it is important that more folks of color be allowed to weigh in about literature and we should be make ourselves heard in high profile venues. If these reviews are important, then we should be among the tastemakers.
I don't want to get in the habit of thinking of myself as any sort of gatekeeper, so I don't take on too many review assignments. But when I do, I try to give an honest and fair critique of the work that respects the readers as consumers of literature while giving the author the respect that she deserves as the creator of the same.
I reviewed Andrea Levy's Fruit of the Lemon for The Washington Post. You can read it here.
February 21, 2007
"Spirit of No Surrender"
Young South African writer/filmaker, Nokuthula Mazibuko, is the World Literature Fellow here at George Washington University. Last 
night, she screened her documentary film "Spirit of No Surrender."
The film is an examination into the lives of the students and teachers who were at the center of the 1976 Soweto uprising. (There is more information about this historical event here, but in short the black South African school children marched in protest of the inferior education they received and were mowed down by the police. This ignited resistance movements all over the country.)
The subject matter is very personal to Nokuthula (pronounced Nok-TU-la) because one of the brave teachers is her own father. There is much to be admired about "Spirit of No Surrender", and I am most intrigued by her use of subtitles. The subjects of the documentary speak both English and IsiZulu, slipping easily from one to the other. The film maker provides subcaptions in English when the people are speaking IsiZulu and vice versa. The result is arresting. I had to become a more active viewer--sometimes listening, sometimes reading. I really felt myself to be at the lingual-crossroads that was at the center of the conflict.
If you missed last night's showing, never fear. Nokuthula has several other presentations scheduled for her time here in DC. She'll be giving a reading a of her fiction here at GW on March 1. On this coming Monday at 1pm, she'll be at the Library of Congress .
The rest of her schedule is below:
January 21, 2007
Stagger Lee Shot Billy....
I'm really getting into graphic novels. Right now, I am reading Fun Home by Allison Bechdel, and loving it. Last year, I taught Chris 
Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, which is supposed to be a classic of the genre. (It was very interesting and there were moments when I was really engaged. But between you and me, I wanted to slap him every time he drew the black woman from behind.)
Large Hearted Boy posted a piece on the new graphic novel, Stagger Lee. I first because acquainted with the legend of Stagger Lee when reading Erasure by Percival Everett. (A really really good book.) In that novel, "Stagger Lee" is the pen-name of the literary writer who decides to write street-fiction to make a buck. I mentioned this an older friend who screamed with laughter. "What?" I said. "I don't get it." That friend, began to sing.
Stagger Lee is the archetype of the "gangsta". "The Ballad of Stagger Lee" (the ditty performed by my friend) was written about a real life shooting. (For more info, you can click here.) Anyway, I was sort of interested in the graphic novel, and then sort of not interested. I am at the gangsta saturation point.
One of my New Year's plans is to read books that I am sort of suspicious of. I guess I can start here.
January 03, 2007
The Last of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez
The short version is that I love this novel. It was so good, I wanted to eat it.
The Last of Her Kind, the fifth novel by Sigrid Nunez, is a breath-taking and utterly engaging story of Georgie and Ann who meet as roommates at Barnard in the 1960s. Ann is an rich white woman who says things like, "I wish I were black" and Georgie (who is also white) knows enough about being poor that she doesn't wish for any additional burdens.
Despite this roommate set up, this novel is much more than an extended pajama party. This is the 1960s and Barnard is changing, the world is changing, and the friends are changing. Ann, who is singularly focused on her brand of social justice, ends up in prison and Georgie narrates the story from the safety of her more conventional life.
Did I mention the writing? Searing, gorgeous and just brilliant. Whenever I feel stuck on the novel I am working on, I go buy another copy of The Last of Her Kind. (You may wonder why I can't keep re-reading the copy I already have. Well, every time I am reading, someone picks it up, reads a few pages and begs to borrow it. Sadly, this is the kind of book that people "borrow" forever.)
Read it. It's really really good. I was surprised that it didn't get more attention last year. It got off to a great start with a starred review from PW, a love letter in the New Yorker, ooh la la from The Village Voice, fever from Salon, but for some reason, it didn't catch fire the way that it should have.
The good news is that books have long lives-- no matter what the idiots in publishing believe. There's plenty of time to read this remarkable novel, which has just been released in paperback!
December 28, 2006
It's Like Netflix For Books!
Booklovers of the world, it's time for celebration. Check out Booksfree! It's a service just like Netfilx, only offering BOOKS-- in paperback and audio format. You pay a monthly fee-- it varies depending on how many books you want. (The most popular plan lets you have six books out at a time for $20 a month.) You tell them what books you want to read; they send them to you; you read it; send it back; they send you the next books on your list. And, the kicker is that they carry MY books! Sadly, there are no reviews yet. (hint, hint)
December 24, 2006
The Best Christmas Story Ever
If this wonderful tale by John Henry Faulk doesn't warm your heart, I'd suggest you see a cardiologist. This link includes the transcript, but for the full experience, click on the audio. I love this story and I hope you will too!
December 18, 2006
The Last Poetry Reading of The Year
Camille Dungy, author of What to Eat, What To Eat, and What to Leave for Poison, gave a reading on Saturday night at Karibu Books in Bowie 
Maryland. I know you are thinking: a poetry reading, on a Saturday night??? This close to the holidays???? I have blogged before about The Karibu Effect. They get folks into the store and those folks BUY BOOKS.
Camille was there at the invitation of Dwayne Betts, Karibu Books Poet in Residence and the most charming young man in the world.
Also there was poet, Brian Gilmore and his sweet little girls. Lots of Cave Canem in the house as well. And, course, Brother Yao, founder of Karibu was the first in line at the book signing table!
December 13, 2006
A Writer That's New (to me, at least)
I've just stumbled upon the work of Cora Daniels. Don't ask me how; it's really random. Anyway, I went to her website and found this really touching article about her parents' relationship. Cora Daniel's parents never formally married, thought they were together til-death-did-they-part. This essay explores the boundaries between convention, the law, and (of course) true love. Check it out. I was really moved by it.
November 29, 2006
Joe Miller, Guest Blogger
You may remember me blogging about "Joe Miller's Wake-Up Call" and his book, Cross X, 
which is about his experiences with a inner-city debate squad in Kansas City. Joe came on my radar a few months ago, when he sent me a book out of the blue. I get lots of books out of the blue. Some I read, some I don't. But after reading a few pages of Cross-X, I knew that this book was about something important.
Joe's book is doing really well-- getting hot reviews in the all the right places. But that's not enough for him. He wants to change the world. And he thinks it can be done through changing the world of high school debate. Read his guest post below.
November 22, 2006
The Best Reviewed Books of 2006
According to Metacitic, these are the books that have received the most positive reviews this year:
1. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky 95
2. The Road by Cormac McCarthy 91
3. The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos 90
4. The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis 88
5. The People's Act Of Love by James Meek 88
6. The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright 88
7. After This by Alice McDermott 86
8. Heat by Bill Buford 86
9. The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud 85
10.Twilight Of The Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg 85
Sometimes I feel like I am living in a whole different universe....
November 01, 2006
Joe Miller's Wake-Up Call
Joe Miller, a (white) journalist in Kansas City, got more than he bargained for when he went to Central High School where most of the kids and black and poor. Central High is also home to the one of the nation's most successful debate teams. It is the subject of the book, Cross-X: A Turbulent and Triumphant Season With An Inner-City Debate Club.
Fear not, this is no "Dangerous Minds." The kids at Central were already winning debates before Joe Miller ever laid eyes on them. Miller is here as reporter, as the assistant coach to the debate team, but not as savior.
Here is an excerpt from a Denver Post article about Miller and Cross X:
One sleepless night in a Red Roof Inn in Kentucky, after a heated battle with a debate judge he considered racist, a switch in his brain flipped."I'd seen the world from both sides, as a white who, like the judge, knows few blacks, and then as one who has lived and traveled with African-Americans and now sees the shadows of racism at every turn," he writes.
"It hadn't fully dawned on me yet as I was lying there, stewing in resentment, but I had changed immensely over the weekend. My consciousness had shifted. For the first time in my life I was aware of my race with the same intensity that many black people are."
Stay tuned. Joe Miller is going to write us a guest-post one day soon!
October 31, 2006
The Power of Amazon?
I blogged a few weeks ago about The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue after discovering it on The Writers Block. I was so impressed that I recommended it to you and I have also assigned it to my students here at George Washington University. Today, as I was preparing for class, I was rooting about for some secondary sources for the discussion and I found out that the major reviewers pretty much ignored this novel when it was released, but amazon.com sent it directly to it's top reviewers and, as a result, The Stolen Child has rocketed to the top of the charts.
I am always heartened to hear of such back-door ways of publicizing a novel. At Tomales Bay last week, I met Donohue's agent who told me that The Stolen Child has sold 50,000 copies in hardcover.
My question to you is how much do you rely on amazon reviews when deciding to buy a book? Do you even check to see what the amazon best sellers are? Do you write amazon reviews on a regular basis?
I only write amazon reviews if I really like a book. If I want to give it three or fewer stars, I keep my opinions to myself. Of course I am entitled to my assessment of any book, but I don't feel obligated to publish them. Part of this may be due to the fact that I am liable to meet these authors in a social setting and I really don't want to chat about THAT over Chardonnay! But really, I don't know what is gained for me to pan someone else's book-- or even give it a lukewarm review. For a person in my position, that seems a little gratuitous. (Word to the wise: don't give an author three stars and then ask her for a favor three years later. She'll remember.)
As for reading Amazon reviews, I do check to see what other readers are saying. One thing I often do when I see a particularly bad review is check to see what other books that reader has reviewed. That list is often the shaker containing all of the grains of salt you'll need to understand the bad review!
October 21, 2006
Jackie Mitchard Wants To Make It Right
Jacqueline Mitchard, who you may know as the author of the first Oprah-Book, The Deep End of the Ocean, is also the author of Cage of Stars, the story of a Morman girl's search to make sense of her life after her sisters' murders. Apparently, she made some errors in the novel. Readers complained on amazon.com that she misrepresented Mormon beliefs and others noticed inconsistencies within the plot. (I must also say that many many readers loved it as-is.) But here is the interesting part: Jackie has announced on her amazon blog that readers can to email her with their concerns and she will make the necessary changes to the novel before it comes out in paperback. Amazing.
NEW MUSING ADDED: Have you ever wanted to whip out your red pen while reading a book? When I was on tour with Leaving Atlanta, this dude walked up to me and said he had something to say. I thought he was going to say I was a genius or something. Anyway, he had driven way the heck out to Buckhead to accuse me of not being an authentic Atlantan. Why? Because in the book I said that Tasha was going to attend Southwest Middle School the next year. Well, guess what? Southwest was still a highschool in 1979. It wasn't a middle school for a full 18 months later.
"Oops," I said. And he seemed satisfied.
October 19, 2006
Natasha Trethewey to Read in DC
Natasha Trethewey, one of the brightest poets of her generation, will be reading this Monday at American University. 
She read last semester at GW and gave a gorgeous performance.
Photo by: WT Pfefferle
Her new book of poems, Native Guard, has gotten a lot of attention for her reclaimation of the history of the African-American Civil War regiment, but this book sticks with me for the lovely and heartbreaking poems in remembrance of her mother. Natasha has given me permission to post one of her poems here.
What is Evidence
Not the fleeting bruises she'd cover
with makeup, a dark patch as if imprint
of a scope she'd pressed her eye too close to,
looking for a way out, nor the quiver
in the voice she'd steady, leaning
into a pot of bones on the stove. Not
the teeth she wore in place of her own, or
the official document-- its seal
and smeared signature-- fading already,
the edges wearing. Not the tiny marker
with its dates, her name, abstract as history.
Only the landscape of her body-- splintered
clavicle, pierced temporal-- her thin bones
settling a bit each day, the way all things do.
October 12, 2006
"The Writer's Block" On Line
KQED, a San Francisco NPR station, features author readings on its excellent website. I find most of the readings to be very engaging, though about as diverse as a carton of eggs. I also like the program because it let's me find out where the buzz is. It's sort of funny. I'll hear an author over there and think, "What a good story! I want to know more!" and then I go to Amazon and find out that the book is in the top 100!
Anyway, my favorites are The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, although it is not the sort of story I usually like. Listen to it and the next thing you know, you'll be buying the book. I also really dug Crawlspace by Edie Meidav. Mary by Janis Cooke Newman is also terrific and I am a person who does not get into "historical fiction." So, my advice is to explore the site. It's a good opportunity to explore new writers, new genres, new ideas, all for free!
September 27, 2006
Is This For Girls???
Lakshmi Chaudhry wrestles with this issue:
why do men make up only 20 percent of fiction readers in the United States, Canada, and Britain? Biological differences could play a small role, she says, but the gap is probably best explained as a consequence of cultural factors.
The issue is an interesting one, particularly to those of us who write fiction. Very often my friends ask me if I meet "any interesting guys on (my) book tours." I have to laugh. Guys, as in MEN, at a book event? (There are lovely exceptions, of course.)
For a while I wondered if the absence of men at book events just meant they didn't like so much to come out to signings. Different strokes, or whatever. But when I started indentifying myself as a writer to random men seated next to me on airplanes, on the Greyhound, etc. I frequently was told, "I don't read fiction." Or "I don't like to read books by women." Or even, "Maybe I'll look for it. It's not for girls is it?" Just flat out like that.
I this it is strange how comfortable people are insulting women and thier cultural work. The very same person who would say, "I don't read books by women," won't exactly mean me any harm. He might turn around and ask me out for a cocktail. I have these experiences fairly frequently and they always leave me feeling a little shaken.
(more on this topic later. Thx Joya for bringing this to my attention.)
August 23, 2006
Toni Morrison reads June Jordan
Look at this. Morrison reads a poem by her friend, the late June Jordan. There are some other gems on this site: Have you ever heard the voice of Langston Hughes? I am subscribing to the podcast!
Some Thoughts on Children's Books
I went recently to buy some books for my five-year-old niece, Zaria. (She is the smartest thing you ever saw!) Anyway, I went to my local progressive independent bookstore to look in the children's section. There were many books by authors of diverse backgrounds. This is all very good. I think that people of color are always looking for ways to reinforce our kids sense of self. (Remember the video, "A Girl Like Me," that we watched a few weeks back? What a wake-up call.)
Anyway, I looked at at least ten books and I didn't like any of them. It seems to me that many of the progressive authors are so focused on being progressive that they forget about plot. Or maybe the books are really being pitched to the parents who may better appreciate straight forward ideological statements. As I was thumbing through the books, my inner child was so bored that she almost slipped into a coma.
August 13, 2006
Shot Up, Locked Up, or Somethin by Eisa Ulen
I sat on the steps of a Washington DC row-house one day back in the murder capital crack years of the 1980s, and I heard a young woman walking with her friend up the street past me say: “I’m just gonna go on and have his baby before he gets locked up or shot up or somethin.” I never lost that resignation – and eerie, twisted strength, the kind of strength that endures physical assault and survives, sort-of – in her voice. I never lost her. I wrote about this moment more explicitly in my “Letter to Angela Davis,” which has been anthologized and favorably reviewed. However, I needed to give that voice an entire world to occupy.
That’s why I wrote Crystelle Mourning. It’s not a story about that particular girl, it’s a story about all the nameless, countless, girls and women who watched, powerless, as the boys and men they loved most “got shot up or locked up or somethin.” How were their bodies responding to this destruction of Black male flesh? How were their souls?
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Category:
Bookshelf
, Guest Bloggers
July 18, 2006
Amaud Jamaul Johnson Wins the Dorsett Prize
Amaud Johnson, coolest brother ever, has won the Dorsett Prize in poetry for his new collection, Red Summer. He is the first winner of this prize, which comes with a $10,000 prize. I am telling you here that he is my friend-- not in the interest of "disclosure," but because I am just so incredibly proud of him.
Red Summer is a collection of poetry exploring the race riots of 1919. It's got the magic poetry mojo to meld pain and beauty. Read this gorgeous and searing offering:
"Burlesque"
Watch the fire undress him,
how flame fingers each button,
rolls back his collar, unzips him
without sweet talk or mystery.
See how the skin begins to gather
at his ankles, how it slips into
the embers, how it shimmers
beneath him, unshapen, iridescent,
as candlelight on a dark negligee.
Come, look at him, at all his goods,
how his whole body becomes song,
an aria of light, a psalm's kaleidoscope.
Listen as he lets loose an opus,
night's national anthem, the tune
you can't name, but can't stop humming.
There, he burns brilliant as a blue note.
--Amaud Johnson
(I am sure many of you are familiar with the DC Anthem "Read a Book." Here's my update: "BUY a book. This one.")
ah, love!
This summer, I am chasing the Brand New Heavies all over the country and also reading love stories. I should warn you-- the only love stories I enjoy are love-gone-wrong stories. Love-gone-right is just fine and dandy for the participants, but for the reader, love is only interesting when it is in danger. Think about it: if Romeo and Juliette's parents had been okay with thier relationship, what would be the point? So, on that note I want to tell you about a short story collection, Instant Love, by Jami Attenberg.
Full disclosure: Lauren is representing this book. This is how I got it actually. She promised to send me something "yummy." Expecting chocolate, I was a little disappointed to get a book. The cover was a little off-putting-- a oddly-suggestive melting popsickle? I just wasn't feeling it. But since I heart Lauren, I picked it up anyway. And I am so glad I did.
The short version is that these are eleven stories about problematic love. My favorite was "Sarah Lee Meets A Millionaire." Short synopsis: an unlucky girl meets a dot com millionaire at a party. In the instant after she discovers he is a millionaire, she thinks of all the ways that it could change her life. ("Mom, I married a millionaire!") What I love so much about it is that it is the antidote to the stupid "gold digger" lore. It's not about the money. It's about the idea of the millionaire, the myth of the rich man,the grand luck of it, and the the vindication.
Okay. So I just really dug this whole entire book.
Now I want your suggestions. What should I read next?
July 02, 2006
Calling All Shutterbugs!
The Untelling has arrived at Target! It's a "breakout" book. If you find yourself in your local Target, and you see The Untelling, PLEASE take a quick snap of the display with your camera phone. It's even better if you can get a snap of YOURSELF and the display. Send them to me and I'll post. Best picture wins a PRIZE.
June 18, 2006
Monique Truong Remembers Her Father
My friend, Monique Truong, author of The Book of Salt, has written a lovely remembrance of her father in today's NYT. (The title of the essay, imposed by the editors, is a little off-putting. Such headline-grabbing silliness seems to try and make a political cliche of a daughter's moving-- and complicated-- elegy for her father.) Here's an excerpt:
He could speak Vietnamese, but he could not write it. Not a business letter. Not a love letter.
My father was instead fluent in French and English, the languages that raised him. Along with his flat nose and his hot temper, I as an adult would share with him the frustration of having to reach for Vietnamese words, like an itch at the middle of our backs.
June 08, 2006
A Girl Like Me, by Kiri Davis
Go right now to the Media that Matters Film Festival and watch "A Girl Like Me," a short film by a Kiri Davis. (It's about 10 minutes to watch). There are lot of terrific short films on this site by teenaged film makers, but make sure you check out "A Girl Like Me." I don't want to tell you too much about it because I hope that we can all talk about it here. I just want you to watch it with no expectations. But here is a short description: a young sister filmaker does a documentary with other teens about the way they see themselves, in terms of skin color and blackness. Then, she recreates the famous Kenneth Clark tests when the little kids are asked which doll the prefer, the black one or the white one... watch it and let's all meet back here to talk about it.
June 04, 2006
Candy Licker
I haven't read Candy Licker by the mysterious "NOIRE", but I do see the ads everytime I get on the D.C. Metro. It's selling like wildfire, apparently. And Brandon Keorner thinks he knows who the real author is.
Tangental Thoughts:
May 24, 2006
Joy Castro, author of THE TRUTH BOOK
I get a lot of email from people who feel they have a life story worth telling, so I thought it would be cool to devote some blog space to someone who has written a memoir. I asked Joy Castro a few questions about the process of writing and publishing, The Truth Book, her memoir about growing up in and escaping an abusive childhood among Jehovah's Witnesses. This description doesn't do justice to this beautiful and moving book.
Posted at 05:32 PM | Comments (3)
Category:
Bookshelf
, Guest Bloggers
May 11, 2006
Nikki Turner Presents...
Random House has just announced an new publishing imprint to be run by "urban lit" author Nikki Turner. Turner's new book, Riding Dirty on I-95, will be published this month and she has a new book coming out on rapper, 50 Cent's publishing imprint (G-Unit Books) as well.
May 10, 2006
Me, Myself, & My Other Self
I just got this via email.. am I the last one to know that Bernice McFadden (author of Sugar and five other novels) is also Geneva Holiday author of such spicy beach reads as "Fever." Question: what's up with whole pseudonym situation? Isn't the whole point that it's suppossed to conceal your identity? Well, here is a link inviting you to hear Bernice McFannden/Geneva Holiday read at Hue Man in Harlem. Be forewarned the invite says this is grown people's business and leave the kids at home.
But anyway, if I were to write something a little bit steamier than my usual fare, I'd need a good alter ego. Any idea of a name. I am pretty tolerant, but I would prefer not to use the words Chocolate, Carmel, or any other food-related racialized descriptors. The person with the best suggestion wins a prize!
**UPDATE: I did a googlefight between Bernice McFadden and Geneva Hollliday.
May 08, 2006
Pearl on Politics, Writing and More
So sorry that the site was down on Saturday. I don't know what happened, but the good news is that it is fixed now. Nichelle Tramble has a terrific Q&A series going on at her blog. Today's featured writer is our beloved Pearl Cleage. Here's a quote:
I think the challenge for a politically active novelist is always to find a story that allows you to communicate your ideas without beating readers over the head with your position on the issues of the day.
Now truck on over there and see what else Miz Pearl has to say!
May 02, 2006
The Voice of Zora
My buddy, Eric Beaumont, sent me this link to a recording of Zora Neale Hurston's voice. (Be warned that you have to go about halfway down the page to get to the audio.) Eric doesn't have sound on his computer so he asks that those of you that listen, comment to let him know what Zora sounded like.
April 21, 2006
bow wow wow yipppie-o yippe-ay
Snoop Dog has written a novel called Love Don't Live Here No More. The idea is that a book will help him better connect with women. I don't even know what to say.
(thx ed)
April 19, 2006
At Last! "We Speak Your Names"
I was originally planning this post to remind you all that Pearl Cleage and I will be speaking at the North Carolina Book Festival on Sunday, April 30th at 1:30 pm. But while I was getting the post together, I saw Pearl on instant message and she told me that the poem she wrote for Oprah's Legends Party, WE SPEAK YOUR NAMES, will be published next month! You can preorder here. And here's the real treat: Pearl has recorded the audio in her own lovely voice!
April 17, 2006
Listenable Literature
Yesterday, I was in a really funky mood. I did everything I could to shake it. I went for a long walk, I checked out the gorgeous DC foliage, I performed a little chocolate therapy, did my hair, my nails... you get the idea. But nothing was working. Finally, I tried listening to some authors reading thier work on line. And it worked. I want to tell you about the three readings I enjoyed most. They are all on the KQED Writers Block page. On the left you will see a list of stories. Just click and listen.
My stand out favorite (so far) is "Girl Reporter". In this piece Lois Lane tells her side of the story.
"Baby Be of Use," is a pretty funny monologue of a woman trying to get her newborn to do something useful around the house. "If you can shake a rattle, why not a martini?"
"Animals Here Below," features a child narrator (one of my favorite points of view). The kids are trying to get their mom to come back home. Simple plot, but movingly done.
"Devil in the Details," is a memoir about a teenager with a mental illness being taken to Paris by her parents. I liked it a lot better than I thought I would.
"Fusion City", by Kate Braverman.. well, it's Kate Braverman.
and, you know I have to say this... the list is not exactly teeming with diversity, but I did enjoy listening.
April 14, 2006
Got Poetry?
Yesterday, poet Natasha Trethewey visited George Washington University and read from her gorgeous new book, Native Guard. Natasha is my home girl (in a way. She claims Mississipi, but she went to Venetian Hills and Redan... sounds like an ATLien to me.) Anyway, she is a magnificent poet. I loved her first two books: Domestic Work and Belloq's Ophelia.
Domestic Work is made up of poems from the point of view of the (black) folks who make thier lives through serving others: cooks, welders, maids, drivers, etc. Belloq's Ophelia takes us into the lives of the mixed-race prostitutes in New Orleans' infamous Storyville district.
In her new work, Native Guard, Natasha tackles more person subject matter. She told me that she started this book to write poems about the black soilders who fought in the civil war and indeed, the collection does cover this subject matter. However, she said she found herself writing beautiful and heartbreaking elegies for her mother who passed away at age forty, Natasha's current age. She also writes about her parent's interracial marraige. The poem that the critics often mention is called "Incident", which borrows its title from Countee Cullen. This poem tells of the time the family woke to a cross-burning on their front yard. It begins and ends with, "We tell the story every year."
I love this book. Read it. Buy it. Make someone else read it too.
April 09, 2006
NYT vs George Saunders
George Saunders has a new book of short stories, In Persuasion Nation. I have to admit that I haven't exactly camped out in front of B&N to get a copy. But after reading how he handled a really funky interviewer from the NYT, I think I'll buy it, much in the same way that I decided to support the Dixie Chicks after the right wing tried to ruin thier careers. Here is my favorite zinger from the article. (For Champ's fave, click here.)
These days you're teaching at Syracuse University and you've published two other short-story collections, "Pastoralia" and "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline." Might you try writing a novel in the future?I just did. It's very innovative. It is only 25 pages long.
April 03, 2006
Reading List
I usually do a number of blog entries on books I've recently read. However, I only write about a book if I am crazy about it and I haven't really been charmed by any of the books I have read this year. Can somebody recommend a book for me? I got my hands on a couple of sexy-looking poetry books this weekend. Maybe verse will rejuvinate me.
March 20, 2006
TODAY'S THE DAY
March 19, 2006
Sam Lipsyte Hearts Chris Abani in the NYT
I love seeing a good writer get his due. Chris Abani read from Becoming Abagail here at George Washington University a couple of weeks ago. He read so movingly that even the students who showed up search of extra credit groaned when they found out the books were not yet available for purchase. Read the love-letter of a review in the NYT.
March 18, 2006
Found A Good Book Lately?
Poet Camille Dungy swung by my apartment yesterday. She's on tour with her new book of poetry, What To Eat, What To Drink, And What To Leave For Poison. She's a woman who is up on everything, including bookcrossing.com To join bookcrossing, you just leave a book (any book!) in a public place with a sticker inviting folks to come read it and them to website and say what they thought of it. If you are lucky enough to find a bookcrossings book, read it, and then pass it on!
And... I left copies of The Untelling on U Street and so did Camille. Visit the Mocha Hut on U Street and look around. (I am trying to think of a cool place to put Leaving Atalnta.)
March 13, 2006
My Girl, Andrea Lawlor
Did you know I used to live in Iowa? Iowa City, to be exact. And no, I wasn't in the Writers Workshop. I had never HEARD of the Iowa Writers Workshop, or any "writers workshop" for the matter when I headed off to Iowa City to work toward a Ph.D. in Literature at The University of Iowa. (There is something really funny about being around people who are convinced of their importance/superiority when you have NO IDEA what it is that has them all so pumped up.) To say that the three years I spent there were uniformly miserable would be something of an overstatement, since I was there when I met my good friend, Andrea Lawlor, the creator of Pocket Myths.
February 07, 2006
Essence Starts a Book Club!
According the The Backlist, Pearl Cleage's new novel, BABY BROTHER'S BLUES, is the first pick of the new Essence Magazine book club. (thx, nichelle)
my review
January 27, 2006
So Oprah Gets Tough
Well, I have to admit that I tuned in to watch Miss Oprah give James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, a good thrashing. (video here, thanks ed) And I will also admit that I wasn't going to tune in until I heard the report from Chicago that she wasn't going to pardon the lying scoundrel. Because, really, it sort of upset me when she called into Larry King defending him. I am not an Oprah devotee, I don't subscribe to the magazine and you all already know that I don't have a TV. But sometimes I like the idea of her, especially her commitment to truth. So, that said, I was sort of bummed when she called into Larry King and said the truth doesn't matter.
January 23, 2006
Children's Book Awards Announced
Although it seems that the mainstream publishing awards are bound by the one-Negro-at-a-time rule when choosing honorees, the American Library Association has honored many African American writers and illustrators in today's Caldecott and Newberry Awards cermony.
Congratulations to Nikki Giovanni and illustrator Byran Collier for Rosa, which is a Caldecott Honor Book and to Jacqueline Woodson and illistrator Hudson Talbott for Show Way, which was designated as a Newberry Honor Book.
The Alex Awards honor adult books that have appeal for teenage readers. Brava to Kalisha Buckhanon for Upstate and Nancy Rawles for My Jim.
January 22, 2006
Mothers & Daughters
Deborah Tannen has an important new book,You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation, and it's about the ways that mothers and daughters communicate. If you have ever read my work, you know that mother-daughter friction is always on my mind. Read Ms. Tannen's essay "Oh Mom, Oh Honey," in the Washington Post. It's so good! Here's an excerpt:
Because a mother's opinion matters so much, she has enormous power. Her smallest comment -- or no comment at all, just a look -- can fill a daughter with hurt and consequently anger. But this I learned: Mothers, who have spent decades watching out for their children, often persist in commenting because they can't get their adult children to do what is (they believe) obviously right. Where the daughter sees power, the mother feels powerless. Daughters and mothers, I found, both overestimate the other's power -- and underestimate their own.
I am going to buy this book RIGHT AWAY. Because, as every woman knows: No one loves you more, or makes you feel worse than your very own mother. Let the healing begin.
January 21, 2006
ATTENTION ALL *CLEAGIACS*!
Yes, I've made a new word: Cleagiacs. These are the ultra-devoted fans of Pearl Cleage. (Some writers have readers; Pearl has FANS.) Anyway, all the people who have been writing me about the poem "We Speak Your Name", the poem which Oprah comissioned for her Legends ball- listen up. Miz Pearl will be performing this poem as part of her one-woman show at my alma mater, Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
January 20, 2006
And the Winner is....
PAULETTE is the winner of Pearl Cleage's new novel, BABY BROTHER'S BLUES. Paulette, please email me with your address and I will get it in the mail, pronto! Also, I will forward all of your comments to Miz Pearl herself!
January 15, 2006
Win My Copy of Pearl Cleage's New Book!
I have, here in my hands, an early copy of Pearl’s new book, Baby Brother’s Blues. I am going to give it away to one lucky winner who answers this question in the “comments” section: Which is your favorite character from a Pearl Cleage novel and why? This book is not yet available in stores!! The winner will be announced on Thursday! You have to play to win!
Baby Brother's Blues, by Pearl Cleage
I just finished Baby Brother’s Blues, Pearl Cleage’s new novel, which will be released at the end of next month. The copy I have is an early copy from the publisher—no images on the cover, not a hint of what to expect. The blurb on the back said that it was a continuation of the story of Regina and Blue, the lovers from Some Things I Never Thought I’d Do. However, this is not a sequel. While Pearl’s earlier novels can be loosely classified as "contemporary romances"—though I call them “Trojan Horse Romances”, owing to the political messages she slips in— Baby Brother’s Blues is more of a noir thriller. Maybe she has made a new genre, “Trojan Horse Thriller.”
December 08, 2005
The New Yorker is On DVD
Did you hear that the every single issue of The New Yorker is now available on DVD? Yes, it's true. For about seventy-five bucks you can own every single article, cartoon, review that ever appeared on those pages. For kicks you can try find the first black person they ever published. (I may be wrong, but I think it's happened around that same time that the Mormons conceded that under certain special circumstances, black folks can be admitted into heaven. It was a trend.)
While this NYer thing is well and good, I want to see the entire archive of Jet Magazine on DVD. I want to own all the wedding annoucements, the beauties of the week, the celebrity puff pieces, the weeks best photos, the obituaries, everything. And if it were to be released, I promise I would buy it retail-- and from a black bookstore no less.
I promise with my hand on my heart that I wouldn't wait for the bootleg.
December 06, 2005
She Wants to Lead The Glamorous Life
Since it is the end of the year, I thought that I would take a minute to talk about some of the highlights of this year on the blog. Hands down, the most popular entries have been my posts about Karrine Stephans, author of Confessions of A Video Vixen. Readers post comments almost every day. The comments range from hard-core misogyny: She's a slut and she should be taken out and beaten. To the more progressive: What does it means that so many women's lives have been reduced to such degradation? To the concerned: What about young girls who read this book and want to be video vixens too? This last point peaked my interest.
Jervey Tervalon on LA
I don't know if you are hip to Jervey Tervalon, but you should be. He's a brother-author who is rethinking the way that we think about black men and the way they think about themselves. In addition he is heart-felt, outspoken, and execedingly real. (Some folks may remember his from-the-hip essay, Literary Sharecropper, about his nightmare with Simon and Schuster.) Now, on the eve of the execution of Stan "Tookie" Wiliams, the founder of the Crips gang in L.A., Jervey Trevalon writes about his boyhood in the shadow of the violence. Here's a quote. Click here to read the rest.
I ALWAYS THOUGHT Stanley Tookie Williams wanted to kill me. I thought he wanted to kill all of us pootbutts who didn't gangbang, and that fear informed how I lived my life as a boy.Thirty years later, I don't believe in the death penalty, and I don't want the state to execute Tookie. But I do want the people who grew up in better neighborhoods and now want to lionize the gangster to understand just how hellish he made many people's lives.
November 14, 2005
The Books You Read as A Kid
Liam is guesting over at theoldhag, God bless him. Anyway, he's linked to an article about what writers read to their children. Well, being as I have no children to read to, I thought I would write an article about the books I read and loved as a young person.
October 01, 2005
Book suggestions?
If you look at my appearances pages, you'll see I have been traveling like a crazy woman. And all that travel means lots of time on airplanes, which means that I have read a lot of books. This is good as books are good, but it also means that my "to be read" shelf is running low. If you've read something good lately, let me know what it is. Meanwhile, I'll let you know what I've been looking at:
September 19, 2005
Lolita is Fifty!
I happen to know this because I turned on NPR yesterday and heard everyone oohing and ahing over the Nabokov classic. The editor of The New Yorker cooed that it was a "perfect book." Donna Tart recounted how embarrassed she was to buy such a book from a bookstore. And I just couldn't get excited.
August 28, 2005
The Women of Brewster Place
You know, we all spend a lot of time reading new books, but sometimes it's good to revisit the classics. I assigned this book to my graduate class, "The Craft Of Fiction." I had forgotten how very good this book is.
August 23, 2005
72-Hour Hold by Bebe Moore Campbell
While I was stranded on the runway at O'Hare I read Bebe Moore Campbell's new novel, 72-Hour Hold. My overall impression is that this is certainly a book worth reading.
August 15, 2005
JOY CASTRO
My good friend, Joy Castro, has written a terrific memoir called THE TRUTH BOOK about her experiences being raised as a Jehovah's witness. (And before you can ask, YES, she explains that door-to-door thing.) Here's a description that I've lifted from her site:
An unflinching and indelible personal account of a young girl who endured abuse and the disturbing effects of religious hypocrisy within one of the most enigmatic sects of Christian fundamentalism.Adopted at birth by a family of Jehovah's Witnesses, Joy Castro ran away at fourteen. Now a professor of literature, she has written a literary memoir that explores the fragile intersections of gender, identity, sexuality, religion, violence, ethnicity, and the body.
Please visit her new web site. And then email her and tell her how lovely it is and how we can't wait for her to start blogging. She's new to this published author thing. All encouragement is welcome. And don't forget to tell her I sent you!
July 28, 2005
Confessions Of A Video Vixen, More Thoughts
I wrote last week about how I read Confessions of a Video Vixen. Since then, I have been reading several tribute to the late Feminist Andrea Dworkin whose groundbreaking works focused on breaking the slence about rape, domestic battery, ponography and other violence against women. After reading several moving tributes to Dworkin and considering her work, I felt the need to post again about Karrine Steffans and her memoir.
July 27, 2005
It's SUMMER! I'm reading MYSTERIES
I just finished up Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky. I have to tell you, I just love mysteries, especially ones with female sleuths. I know that I seem to be the brooding type-- all about heavy seroius novels, preferably those in translation, but it's summer. And I gotta have my mysteries.
July 25, 2005
Confessions of a Video Vixen
I just finished Confessions of a Video Vixen and I must say that I found myself very disturbed by this memoir by Karrine Steffans. To me, it read like a slave narrative.
July 20, 2005
BOOKS ABOUT OTHER BOOKS
I am finally reading THE WIND DONE GONE by Alice Randall. You probably remember the drama a couple of years ago. (Check out the 209 reviews on Amazon!)This is the novel written from the point of view of the illigitmate BLACK sister of Scarlett O'Hara, who happens the be the concubine of one Mr. Rhett Butler.... The novel is intriguing, but I have a philosophical issue bugging me as I read it.
July 19, 2005
I want to read "The Sixteenth Minute"
I just heard the author of "The Sixteenth Minute" on the radio. It's a work of non fiction profiling people who used to be famous. Of course, I was most interested in Irene Cara, from Fame. Her fifteen minutes of fame were cut down to about ten because she seued her record company after they paid her only TWENTY BUCKS in royalties for her big hit, "Flashdance/What a Feeling."
July 01, 2005
Summer Reading: The Wife by Meg Wolitzer
I just got finished reading The Wife, by Meg Wolitzer. It was very, very good. I can say that it really shook me. Just thinking about it puts me in a fragile emotional space. I have to say that I don't know how interesting it will be for the general population.. but maybe I am underestimating folks? But it was really gripping to read as a writer, as it is a novel about the writer's life.
June 26, 2005
What I'm Reading
It's summer and summer is for reading. This summer, so far, I have gone memoir crazy. Last summer I read Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett. And this summer I just finished Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy.
June 14, 2005
Not about the MiJac Verdict
Since this is a literary blog, I can't very well take this opportunity to say what I think are the implications of the Michael Jackson verdict. (and besides, I don't know that there ARE any.) I keep seeing the clips of MJ walking around with his kids-- they are wearing those crazy Victorian looking clothes and gauze veils over their faces. And I couldn't help thinking, I bet one of those kids is going to write a hell of a memoir.
May 08, 2005
Namesakes
Tayari Jones is a pretty unusual name, but not quite unique. Since the publication of my first novel, I have discovered that I have to namesakes. One is a paralegal living in Jackson, MS. And the other is this person. And that got me to thinking about other writers who share names with civilians.
April 20, 2005
MORE POETRY! MORE! MORE!
Linda Beirds came to Champaign-Urbana today to share her lovely poetry, First Hand. It's a book of verse about science. Contrary to popular opinion, poetry and science are not mutually exclusive. Beirds gives us the poetry in science and of course, the science of poetry.
March 24, 2005
City Boy By Jean Thompson
Last night I finished City Boy by Jean Thompson. It's my favorite kind of love story-- the kind that leaves the reader, exhausted, vicariously broken-hearted and thoroughly WRECKED.
March 12, 2005
Congratulations to Chris Abani
GraceLand, the gorgeous first novel by Chris Abani has won the 2005 PEN/Hemmingway Award.
Before GraceLand was published,I first met Chris Abani over the telephone. I was interviewing him for The Believer magazine. This was before Walter Mosely chose GraceLand for the Today show, before the novel was short listed for every important prize there is. And even then, I knew that good things were just ahead for Chris and his beautiful book.
March 07, 2005
A Changed Man by Francine Prose
I'll admit it, I am crazy about Francine Prose. Her new novel, A Changed Man, has just been published and it is so very good.
March 03, 2005
Suji Kwock Kim
Today, we here at The Univeristy of Illinois had the pleasure of hosting Korean-American poet, Suji Kwock Kim. She's a breath-taking writer. If you get a chance to hear her read in your town (and you will-- she's everywhere, all the time) you should.
February 20, 2005
Crackpots, by Sara Pritchard
I was lucky enough to meet Sara Pritchard at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference a couple of years ago. She was easy to pick out of the crowd with her sparkly cat-eye glasses and thrift-chic wardrobe.
February 11, 2005
A Novel That I Love Is Out of Print
There is a novel I love called Dying Young. It's a gorgeous read. Brilliant on so many levels-- an alomst palpable sense of place, delicious writing, and an unflinching examination of class/gender/love/death. It's pretty obvious that I am a devoted fan-- not a reader, but a FAN-- of the author, Mari Liembach who surprised me last week with an email. I’m not too fabulous to admit that I was thrilled to pieces to hear from her. She told me, among other things, that Dying Young is out of print. I can’t believe it.