Mother-Daughter

I was raised by a literary mother. We rarely went to movies; we didn't have cable TV.  The walls of our house were lined with bookcases, and we spent our weekends at the library, the local bookstore, used bookstores in Cleveland and Amish country with wooden floors that creaked beneath our feet, adding to our collection. She read to me; we read together; she gave me the time and space to read on my own. My heroines were Anne Shirley, Jo March, Laura Ingalls Wilder. I said I wanted to be a writer before I knew how to make letters on a page. No other profession seemed as honorable, or as magical. My mother never once suggested I be anything else.

I am so grateful.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

Criticism

From Debra Spark's excellent Beyond The Margins piece, Think Hard, Give It Some Time: On Processing Criticism:

Probably best to listen carefully to what people have to say, give its due, and then remember editors and critics are no more gods than you. Lorrie Moore titled her anthology of writing about children I Know Some Things. It’s a perfect title for stories from a group that feels unempowered. A writer who feels at the mercy of others knows some things, too. What those things are may be difficult to discern at times...Think hard, give it some time, and understand that reading your own impulses is difficult, no matter where you are in your writing career.

Spring 2012 Online Barrelhouse

The new online issue of Barrelhouse, guest edited by Tom Williams, is up! Take a look. Contributors include Molly Gaudry, Ben Tanzer, Jesus Angel Garcia, Kate Axelrod, Tim Seibles, and Micah Ling. 

Links for a Dreary Day

Eric and I just got back from a lovely brunch with friends, but now we're soaked. The rain is coming down, the heat is on for the first time in I don't know how long, and it's looking like a good afternoon for tea and reading. So here are some links:

The Activity That Dare Not Speak Its Name: My Mother's Secret Literary Life - I loved this essay from The Millions. The literary connection between mother and son is sweet but also sad. There are many "secret writers" out there, along with secret artists, singers, musicians, dreamers, the list could go on and on.

Blurb Your Enthusiasm - So funny.

Teach the Books, Touch the Heart - In this Times opinion piece, a public middle school English teacher discusses how testing and teaching to the test rob students of the chance to experience and be transformed by books.

Humans of New York - "One man’s effort to construct a photographic census of the city of New York."

 Now time for me to get back to work. I have a galley to finish proofing!

Pictures!

Recently I had a photo shoot with Lauren Slusher (who will also be taking our wedding pictures). The point was to get new author photos, which was accomplished. But we also had a ton of fun playing around on her roof and in the surrounding neighborhood and ended up with a lot of "artistic" and "atmospheric" shots. Like this one:

Probably not book jacket appropriate, but I love that red door!

And this one:

I scare myself a little there.

Meet our lighting guy:

Yeah, I kind of liked him.

Wednesday Night Music

I recently discovered this artist. Love her deep, soulful voice and the dark atmosphere of her songs.

PEN Talk: Writing Inside, Writing Outside

My College of Staten Island students recently finished reading Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. The below video is of a PEN panel with the author, a man whose life is chronicled in the book, and a woman who wrote about her experiences while incarcerated for thirteen months on a drug charge. Whether or not you've read Random Family (although you should; it's a brilliant book), the video is worth watching. You can find more information, as well as an audio only version of the talk, here.