Every year, writers and publishers put out all manner of guides to AWP: panel guides, readings guides, bookfair guides, etiquette guides, bar guides, survival guides . . . . I’m not going to chime in much, because there are plenty of other guides for you to choose from. But I will share a few things on myContinue reading “AWP 2016: a guide (of sorts)”
Category Archives: writing
AWP 2016: Where to find me and my books
So, it’s that time of year again: the annual orgy of drinking and books that is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference and bookfair, where writers emerge from our writing spaces and squint in the light as we greet each other with, “Oh, I know you on Facebook!” This year is going to be a bit different forContinue reading “AWP 2016: Where to find me and my books”
The last of the Box Cutters
You read that title right, gang: my first book, the flash-fiction chapbook Box Cutters, has nearly sold out of its print run. I received ten of them in the mail today, and sunnyoutside press has a handful more on their end, but that’s it. Enough people fell in love with that book that it’s almost goneContinue reading “The last of the Box Cutters”
Women writers for International Women’s Day
I often share lists of books or lists of writers here on my blog, for a whole range of reasons — books I’ve bought in the past year, friends with work coming out, reading challenges. At least three times now, I’ve shared lists of women writers, but that list keeps growing, and it’s become something ofContinue reading “Women writers for International Women’s Day”
The Portland lit community and Monica Drake’s The Folly of Loving Life
The other night (on Leap Day!) I headed to Powell’s City of Books here in Portland for the release of Monica Drake’s already-lauded new book — her first story collection — The Folly of Loving Life. I love Monica’s work, her two novels and the wonderful essays she publishes, and she also happens to be aContinue reading “The Portland lit community and Monica Drake’s The Folly of Loving Life”
The Girl in the Bayou
The other day, I heard a short snippet of a story on NPR about books with “Girl” in the title — books like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train. “I have talked to other crime writers that have been urged by various professional people in their life to put theContinue reading “The Girl in the Bayou”
Booklist 2015, and the power of my students’ writing
This is long delayed, but finally, I’m sharing my annual reading list. Not that it’s anything spectacular; continuing a trend, 2015 was an even lighter reading year than 2014 was — even when I count collected runs of comics issues as “books,” I’m down from 60 books to 42. This was partly because I set aside all reading in November to focus on draftingContinue reading “Booklist 2015, and the power of my students’ writing”
Rattling language; wanting to write: Gay Degani on fiction collections and the writing life
It’s funny how writers find each other. Sometimes we meet at readings or conferences. Sometimes we’re fans of each other’s works. Sometimes we have mutual acquaintances and become friends online. With author Gay Degani, it’s been all three: I met Gay in a Facebook group for writers at almost the same time that I discoveredContinue reading “Rattling language; wanting to write: Gay Degani on fiction collections and the writing life”
The art of punctuation
Scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed this morning, I spotted an interesting piece at Medium.com about punctuation in novels — and only the punctuation. In the piece, Adam J. Calhoun talks about writing a computer code (available online for free) that reduces text to its punctuation — and nothing else. The image at the lead of his piece is aContinue reading “The art of punctuation”
Quite So: David S. Atkinson talks writing, reading, and his new story collection
Last year at AWP, I bunked up with David S. Atkinson. We guzzled coffee by the gallon and talked books for three days. Of course, I was already a fan: I loved David’s first book, Bones Buried in Dirt, and he and I were both guests on an online reading series at the (now sadlyContinue reading “Quite So: David S. Atkinson talks writing, reading, and his new story collection”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 