This week concluded the excellent Story Week Festival, held by Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction Writing Department, where I’ve taught for something like 13 years. If you ever come to Chicago at all, you should plan to come next March and check this out. Everything is free, and the caliber of writers/editors/agents they bring in is kinda surreal.
Roxane Gay contributes brilliantly to the ongoing discussions of the Trayvon Martin tragedy.
Jeanette Winterson is eternally provocative and compelling. Here she discusses the literary gender lines between “experimentation” and “experience” (though for the record, I worry the emphasis on “experience” has veered over the top in the publishing industry today in general, regardless of the writer’s gender). I also found her comments on adoption/reinvention pretty fascinating.
In the New York Times, Steve Almond (son of two psychoanalysts) discusses the decline of talk therapy’s relationship to the rise of creative writing workshops.
At The Nervous Breakdown, Laura Bogart explores the relationship between The Hunger Games and the everyday heroism of kids who live in the shadow of abuse.
If you’re perusing Judy Collins links, don’t miss this one of “Suzanne” with Leonard Cohen.
I loved Jason Diamond’s exploration of another highly literary singer/songwriter, Tori Amos, wherein her music helps him to think beyond Punk. Incidentally, I finished my debut novel to Tori Amos’ Live from the Choirgirl Hotel. Also while living in Amsterdam, wearing leather pants and smoking a lot of hash. Probably all of these things show.
Pam Houston is one of the most articulate writers I know when it comes to talking process. Here she talks with herself about her new novel, Contents May Have Shifted.
If you like Aimee Parkison’s “Theater of Cruelty” today, check out her forthcoming collection, The Innocent Party.
