Remember when your Rumpus Sunday Editor Gina published fiction? She published Tom Kealy’s Nobody and Allison Amend’s The Stench. Stephen Elliott explained, “We don’t publish fiction on The Rumpus. But on Sunday Gina takes over and she can do whatever she wants. I mean, Gina’s a wild card.” Today I didn’t publish fiction but did publish two original poems by Gary Young, one of my favorite writers and teachers.
When I was a student at UC Santa Cruz, I discovered Braver Deeds and fell in love with the writing. Up until that book, I didn’t know you could write like that. Then something magical happened and he started teaching at UC Santa Cruz and I signed up for his class and we got along well. I designed an independent study with him, submitted it to the English Department and they approved this advanced creative writing class that I had essentially made up just to work with him. We’d meet up twice a week, he’d recommend books and then we’d go over my manuscript line by line.
Years ago, The Rumpus published my interview with him. At the end of the interview, I basically asked him why he writes. He said, “We write because we can’t not write. We want to make music out of our breath; we want to be under the power of an art that toys with us and could destroy us, but which allows us to get a glimpse of what’s real.”
In a recent interview, Stephen Elliott answered the question why he makes movies. He said, “So in order to say why I’m making movies I would have to answer why I write books and maybe, more importantly, why I would ever want to publish a book that I had written. At that point you’re getting into some pretty dark places. And I’m pretty sure any answer would probably fall short of the truth.”
Orange Is the New Black is getting a lot of attention and I usually don’t link to writing about shows but I’m going to do it. 1. Elissa Bassist’s Prison Bitch Is the New Black. 2. Lauren Morelli’s My First Writing Job 3. Elissa Strauss’ Orange Is the New Black: Just an Edgier Version of The Help.
This is probably the first time in my life that I’m tapped into “pop culture.” I’m up to date with Breaking Bad, Orange Is the New Black, and House of Cards. Now when people talk about shows I don’t wear this strange blank stare. I actually enjoy talking about shows more than I enjoy watching them. Hanne Blank’s essay accurately describes what it’s like being on the outside of pop culture. I was trying to tell my friend that I wanted to understand why I was outside of it for so many years. Hanne Blank seemed to have a reason, her music. My friend offered a simple reason: That I just wasn’t interested in it. But, I think my reason has less to do with interest and more to do with isolation.
