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1. Figure out as much as you can in advance; make all information available in folder/handbook form. 2. Hello! We’re not quite ready for you. 3. Hello! Here is your folder/handbook. 4. Let me repeat for you all of the information to be found in your folder/handbook. 5. Find cool, dark space in which to … Continue reading
(Sell, sell, sell! Part 2) To continue re: the myriad people who bring books to market – the holy fools, the true believers, the hard working folks that every writer should know about and be grateful for – here are a few more things to think about vis-à-vis book promotion. The chain is a chain … Continue reading
I went to a very interesting and a helpful panel yesterday re: book promotion, that started with Dark Coast Press co-founder Jarret Middleton talking about how distribution works for indie books. As usual at AWP, I’m reminded of all of the people involved in getting books to market, and all the dear, brave folks who … Continue reading
Twice a year, I help to run a 10-day MFA in writing residency. At Orientation, I joke with students about my alter ego, a strident, bossy, no nonsense person with little time and less patience: Event Lady. It is a warning, really—before our time is through, they will meet her. She is the byproduct of … Continue reading
I recently read Nicholas Carr’s book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Published in 2010, the book sounds the alarm about how our increasingly wired state is literally rewiring our heads, and making concentration —and the kind of sustained, deep thought required for any meaningful piece of writing —difficult. I picked … Continue reading
If I believed in hell, I would surely be paving a path to the fiery pit with my good intentions. Although it did cross my mind during the 2012 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Chicago that hell might be a windowless basement full of other writers. Happily, the 2013 AWP Conference will … Continue reading
Much has been said about writers and their cats: some helpful authors go so far as to recommend that you have at least one if you hope to do any serious work. The presence of a furry companion who is happy to endure all manner of inane chatter, plot summarizing, rhetorical questions, etc., without comment, … Continue reading
Sacred & Profane installation, October 3, 2009 This weekend, my partner —Galen Richmond— curated his fourth Sacred & Profane, an annual performance and installation event held in a former U.S. military fortification on Peaks Island, Maine. I’ll be honest: this event has always made me uneasy. The first time I attended, in 2001, coincided with … Continue reading
So, I’m at the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) in Chicago. I’m here for work – my low-res MFA program has a table, we’re hosting a dinner, etc. Each day I try to attend one session for my own creative inspiration, one for the MFA program, and one that addresses the business of … Continue reading
I recently read two articles that gave me pause, highlighting as they did my chronic dual-mindedness: First, a piece in the September 19, 2011 New Yorker — Louis Menand (I heart you, Louis Menand) writing about the critic Dwight Macdonald: “The liberal highbrow…was a wonderful mid-twentieth-century type. I met a lot of people like that … Continue reading
My Lovely Sentences 