“Was My Life Worth Living?” is the wonderful title of an essay by the American anarchist Emma Goldman. I’ve always loved her blunt phrasing of the ultimate question behind the writing of personal narrative. Recently I’ve been faced with my own version of her conundrum, as I’ve been immersed in the text of my memoir Apples and Oranges…
Tag: books and reading
And have you read…Fire Sale? (an excerpt)
Goddard MFA alumna Brianna Johnson’s thesis, Fire Sale, was recently published as a digital chapbook with Essay Press. Here’s how it begins: “I come from whiteness, which is not innocent. If I speak of things which cause intense pain, it is because I have felt pain because of them. Not feeling would cause greater pain to the memory of those brutalized. I don’t condone evil, but I acknowledge it. I am here to acknowledge it.”
And have you read… Guardians?
Guardians, the final installation in the young adult trilogy written by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan, is coming out in paperback from HarperTeen later this month. TW: What was the inspiration for the story? Laurence and I watch a lot of old movies and had originally conceived of this as a kind of post-apocalyptic Western:… Continue reading And have you read… Guardians?
And have you read… Winner Take None?
Goddard MFAW alum Greg Comer’s Master’s Thesis Winner Take None as been published! The Writer caught up with Greg after he got done with the chores, in this case, feeding horses. TW: What was the impetus for this book? Serial failure. I could never figure out how to end a short story, or sustain a novel.… Continue reading And have you read… Winner Take None?
And have you read… Lay Down Your Weary Tune?
W.B (Bill) Belcher’s (Goddard MFAW ’07) debut novel, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, which he began at Goddard, was released on January 26th from Other Press.
And have you read… The Walking?
The Walking, Goddard MFAW faculty member Laleh Khadivi’s historical novel, began as a meditation on migration, all kinds of migration, bird, whale, antelope, fish and human… The Writer asked her how she got started.
And have you read…Once You Go Back?
Goddard College faculty member Douglas Martin’s sixth book! The Writer interviewed him below: 1. What was the impetus for this book? I wanted to do something similar to what Anna Kavan had done in her book, Sleep Has His House. I also wanted to revisit the terrain of my first novel, pretending that one of… Continue reading And have you read…Once You Go Back?
And more on… Fox Tooth Heart
MFAW-VT faculty member John McManus’s new collection of short stories Fox Tooth Heart has garnered amazing reviews since we posted about it two weeks ago. Join us in celebrating John’s success, and read all about it below! From LitHub Magazine: “The first sentence of McManus’s short story “Bugaboo” establishes mood, setting, and character all at… Continue reading And more on… Fox Tooth Heart
And have you read… Green?
By Theresa Senato Edwards, MFAW 2007 The Writer caught up with Theresa right before her book Green goes on sale! What was the impetus for the writing of this book? Green began years ago as the result of an exercise in an MFA creative writing workshop at Goddard College led by Dr. Jane Wohl. For… Continue reading And have you read… Green?
And have you read… Fox, Tooth, Heart?
John McManus’ new story collection, Fox Tooth Heart, was published by Sarabande Books earlier in November. This holiday week, The Writer decided to feature our interview with John and celebrate his latest book. Hooray x infinity! 1) What was the impetus for this book? Right now I’m about a month away from finishing a novel… Continue reading And have you read… Fox, Tooth, Heart?
And have you read… Flash House?
1) What was the impetus for writing this book? The first inspiration for this novel was my own family. I lived in India as a child for two years, during which my father worked for the UN and my mother for the Indian Government. My father flew all over Asia for work, including Afghanistan. I… Continue reading And have you read… Flash House?
Second Time Around: A Self-Interview
So, how does it feel to know that your 1999 memoir, Apples and Oranges: My Journey Through Sexual Identity, originally published by Houghton Mifflin, will be reissued by Seven Stories Press? Do you think this is a good moment for that to happen? It definitely feels good, but a little weird. Apples and Oranges is… Continue reading Second Time Around: A Self-Interview
Futurists, Debate!
The Writer found this blog piece in Amor Mundi, a publication of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College. What do those of you who write futuristic stories think of this? “With the 500th birthday of Thomas More’s Utopia in sight, Terry Eagleton considers what it means to dream of a perfect world: “To portray… Continue reading Futurists, Debate!
I Believe in Books
My granddaughter, who is in year six, at the primary school in her English village, participates in a Philosophy class in which the students, ten and eleven year-olds, engage in complex and difficult discussions. Recently her class was invited to hold their discussion on the stage in an auditorium filled with attendees at a Religious… Continue reading I Believe in Books
And have you read…Leaf is All?
Drew Dillhunt is an alum of the Goddard College MFAW Program in Port Townsend, Washington. His poetry collection, Leaf is All, was selected as the winner of the 2014 Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, and will be published by Bear Star Press. Leaf is All is the further revised and polished version of his Goddard thesis. The Writer… Continue reading And have you read…Leaf is All?
Love Story
By Richard Panek Two years ago I wrote an essay for another website, lastwordonnothing.com, that I called “Love Story,” and for the opening I paraphrased the opening of the novel of the same name: “What can you say about a fifty-seven-year-old book that has outlived its usefulness? That it was beautiful. And brilliant. And taking up valuable space… Continue reading Love Story
And have you read… Headwaters?
Have you ever wondered who began the low-residency MFAW Program at Goddard College, the first of its kind anywhere? Who spearheaded our progressive and oft-imitated curriculum? It was Ellen Bryant Voigt, who just last week won a MacArthur Fellowship Grant. Ellen grew up on her family’s farm in rural Virginia. She earned her BA from… Continue reading And have you read… Headwaters?
Another World in Translation
Translation is impossible, poet and translator Alastair Reid told us in a small poetry workshop at Antioch College in 1970. He said you needed to know this, and then do it anyway. He describes the risk of failure in his poem, Speaking a Foreign Language: “Easy to understand,/through the tangle of language, the heart behind/groping… Continue reading Another World in Translation
And have you read… The Cryptogram?
When The Writer was a student in the RUP Program at Goddard College, she got a part in Paul Zindel’s play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds. It was her favorite play: she’d seen Eve Arden in it in Chicago at the old Ivanho Theatre, on a day when her mother “forgot” to… Continue reading And have you read… The Cryptogram?
And have you read… Rhapsody of the Naked Immigrants?
On Elena Georgiou’s rapturous rhapsody… Q: What was the impetus for this book? The impetus of the book was to try to document working-class immigrant voices. I am the daughter of immigrants who then also immigrated. In my experience, working-class immigrants, on the whole, don’t have much time for putting their lives on paper, and… Continue reading And have you read… Rhapsody of the Naked Immigrants?