And yet another prompt

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Hello everyone. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving.  Since today is Black Friday, I'm sure most of you are out shopping. Alas, I was not brave enough this year to wait in line for hours and to bump into someone every other step. So, I'll just experience the crushing crowd (and the impatience I would have had waiting in line) when you write about your experience today.Here's the prompt: Write about anything out of the ordinary that happened during your Black Friday shopping experience (I'm sure there's lots that occur). You can just be a bystander looking at all the mayhem, if you want. If nothing bizarre occurred then still write about your Black Friday experience. Try writing it as  a song, a sonnet, or anything else creative. Have fun with it.

Poetry Anthologies: Where to Start

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Hello everyone! Happy Almost Thanksgiving! As the long weekend rolls around, I'd like to offer some suggestions on how to structure your time. While the turkey is the in oven and you are slowly becoming more impatient as you become more ravenous (and you keep meekly calling "I'm HUNgry!" into the kitchen and your relatives yell back "You could come in and chop some string beans!" and you fold yourself back onto the couch to watch the Godfather with the rest of the non-helping folk), instead of reaching for the remote and saying the lines as Marlon Brando speaks them, cozy up with an anthology.I find there are two types of people in this world: Those Who Like Anthologies and Those Who Do Not Care For Them.Perhaps that's a wild generalization. But there is a mixed camp. And that might be because when you think of anthologies, you think of huge tomes that are impossible to carry around even though you must haul them over to Brit Lit I and II.I will admit that I secretly like getting those tomes for big survey classes, just because it gives me the excuse to buy such a ridiculous thing (ridiculously FANTASTIC!) and put it on a shelf to remind myself I am a Scholar. A Scholar! But it's still pretty impractical to enjoy reading something that huge. (With the exception of HP. HP. You know, right? OK. I had to reference it once. July can't come fast enough.)And yet: that's not the only kind of anthology out there!Here are a few to get you started:Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day . Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate and all around poetry-everyman, put out these to great basic anthologies. If you are just getting started reading poetry, this is the place for you. I read these in high school and it got me excited about poetry more than I had been. Looking back in them now, it's amazing the range of poets he covers. Although these poems probably won't change your view of the world, they are all fun and some quite beautiful. AND the best thing about these books is that if you find a poet you enjoy, go off and search for the rest of his or her work--and then get blown away by the full force of their writing.Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times. Questionable title aside, this anthology contains a lot of lesser-known and foreign poets. It's divided into sections such as Life, Nature, Death, etc but DO NOT LET THAT DETER YOU! There are some awesome, odd poems in here.The Best American Poetry Series. A slim volume that comes out every year, this anthology is always a breath of fresh air. And what's so special about it is that along with the editor, David Lehman, each collection features a guest editor who is well-respected (kick ass) poet. I, for one, love seeing what poems my favorite poet chooses to be in the collection. There is also a Best American Short Story Series, as well as others.Now let me pause this unfinished list. I'll keep adding to it, and don't hesitate to recommend your own suggestions for cool anthologies worth checking out!Go forth and relax!

You and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

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We all have bad days: they can ruin our mood for a couple of minutes, for hours, for the entire day, or even longer. Some bad days are worse than others. So, choose the worst day you've had recently (go back a couple of days if you have to. If you're one of those lucky people bad luck can't seem to find, then go back even further.) Try writing a poem or a short paragraph of that day. However, don't write a point by point of everything that happened as if it was a report. Instead write an exaggeration of everything bad that could have happened to you. For example, instead of loosing your keys you could have left your cell on the bus and realized it when you got off. You start chasing the bus, only to slip on a puddle in front of a large crowd. So, the poem or paragraph (more if you want) should be something like "this is what happened but my day could have been so much worse". It'll make you laugh and get over your bad day... hopefully. If not, try some chocolates.

A Sidewalk Slam

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Being the procrastinator that I am, this post probably wont make it online until friday. Do forgive me devoted readers, but I have a good excuse, the best excuse possible in fact.  I have spent the last few hours engrossed in slam poetry at The Sidewalk Cafe, for The Intangible Collective's first Semi-Final of the year.  Joanna Hoffman carried the night and won a spot on the Intangible's Grand Slam finalists.  I even got to participate as one of the judges (in slam, it's simply audience volunteers who give scores to the poets.)  Though picked because I didn't know any of the poets personally, I'd like to think it was because I exuded an aura of "informed poetry critic," so I'm just going to run with that version of events.The Intangibles have just started using The Sidewalk Cafe as a semi-permanent home and the contrast from the nearby Nuyorican couldn't be greater.  Although that's bound to change if the spot catches on, it's quite different to experience a slam in a quieter, darker, overall (and i cringe to use it but) chill environment where the candle-lit tables paint us in mysterious, pensive tones and the PBR flows as strong as the Hudson River.  Plus, many of the poets remained after the slam available to chat.  While this might seem minor to most, I can't stress enough how starstruck I was.  I had died and gone to Poetry-Nerd Heaven (turns out heaven is a small venue in Alphabet City.  Who knew?)The only drawback I've run into after two visits is the cafe's insistence on a two-drink minimum (both alcoholic and non) which provoked a few members of the waitstaff to commit Fauxpas Numero Uno and loudly inquire about drinks during the poet's performances.  But apart from this complaint (which I just made in three languages...top that Starbucks) I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would highly recommend the experience.The Intangible Collective returns to the Sidewalk Cafe Thursday, December 2nd.  Go feast on some well crafted poetry.

Google Translate and the Infirm of NYC

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Let me start out by letting you know I've changed my sleeping habits this week in an effort to stimulate better writing. For most of the semester I've been operating under a 1 pm - 6 am waking schedule. This was fine, up until the daylight savings switch- 4 hours of sunlight a day does not work. Now I have rigged my alarm so I wake up at 5:30 am and fall asleep at a much more reasonable midnight.I've always heard that writing directly after awakening is the way to do it, and naturally, I assumed this was bullshit invented by some old fart who can't wake up after 8 am because of their arthritic bowel. It turns out that this is not bullshit. My internal critic is nice and quiet, and only gives me necessary advice on grammar. I can take my time and don't feel pressured to impress anyone, since everyone else is asleep, and I can always delete what I've written before they wake up (take that!)Anyways, this new temporal space I've inhabited for the past week has given me some new insights into New York City:1. There is no one in the West Village before 11 am, save for one Chinese woman who feeds the pigeons on 7th avenue.2. There are lots of old women who walk alone with wobbly legs. They putz around with those little wire land-carts for support. Often I wonder why there are so many lonely old women in New York City. I'm assuming their husbands died before they got the chance to. It must be a depressing life, especially in a city full of so many young, spry little bastards like myself running around.3. Kimmel is completely empty, and has amazing pastries and donuts before like 9 am.Ok, so I guess these are the only three things I've learned while waking up early. So to fill up the rest of the post, I'm going to plug in famous first lines into Google Translate.Lolita (English To Turkish To Basque To English)Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. --> Lolita, my life, light my fire back.

Ulysses  (English To Arabic To Finnish To Chinese To English)
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. --> Stately plump Bokemuli roots, and became the first peaceful, foam bowls, more than a mirror, the barbed wire and.
The Sound and the Fury (English To Arabic To Chinese To English [weirdly enough this managed to keep most of its meaning.])
Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. --> The fence, between the curling flower spaces, I can not see them beating.
Okay, it seems as if Google has fine tuned it's algorithm since the last time I tried this- these are not as ridiculous as I had expected. Comment if you get any good ones!

The Raven starts filming

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Hello all! I hope each and every one of you had a good lunch today. Big day, Monday. I hope you had a hearty sandwich.How I wanted to title this post something like "The Raven takes flight" or "The Raven gets its wings". I had enough self control not to use these, you see, but once I get hold of lip-smacking, cheesy ideas I really can't stop or rid myself of the cheese. Someone get me a wet paper towel.So this is news to me: The Raven, undoubtedly Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem (and made more famous by The Simpson's stellar Halloween Special version), is being made into a movie starring John Cusack as Poe. Poet + Thriller = ?!Who knows?! I'm kind of excited (read: oooooo). John Cusack of the Lovely Voice playing a decidedly interesting (creepy? married a child--his first cousin?) individual!It's all fiction, of course. They're not even trying to tell anything near what happened in the writer's actual life. But who wouldn't want to watch Edgar Allan Poe running around town trying to catch a murderer? That's the kind of Hollywood stylization I can get behind.

It's... it's...it's the start of---of what?

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I, sadly, can't write poems that will leave everyone gobsmacked. I enjoy writing stories; I'm sure some of you like prose more than poetry as well. Well, I'm going to make your day if you do. I'm starting a  round-robin story; that  means you should all add lines (yes, as much or as little as you want. I would recommend writing more than a line everyone.) to the story to make it successful. Try it; make the story as grim, wacky, dramatic, etc... as possible. Later, we can post the entire story and see how great it is.Here we go:Marybelle huffed in annoyance as she hiked up the never ending material of her white gown. Blocks ago, she had thrown  her matching heels away. Grumbling under her breath, she crossed the street to the bus stop. A man walking by stared at her oddly."What? You've never seen a lady walking in her wedding dress?" She shouted at him. Eyes widening, he crossed the street hastily."Jerk," she muttered under her breath and rudely gestured at his back. So, what if she was walking barefooted in her  wedding gown? Who the hell cared if her hair was no longer in a stylish high bun and that her mascara was dripping down her face?Marybelle silently cursed at the people who stared at her like a zoo animal as they passed by. Finally, the bus came. Patiently, she waited for people to get off and ignored their curious faces.  Grabbing her ballooning skirts, Marybelle stepped into the bus.Well? Why don't you all continue and let's see where this goes?

A Brief Yet Wondrous Reading

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96,ooo...Junot Díaz fans? holla...while the reading earlier tonight didn't pack that many fans into Cantor, the line was certainly impressive enough.  By 7:00, the line wrapped around and down University Place, past where I stood outside of Weinstein, and down to at least the Silver Center.  Know that I almost gave up and headed home West Tenthers,  but in a move worthy of those comic book heroes that inspire his work, Diaz agreed to have a second reading in an adjacent theater.  Though I nearly had a heart attack when I was stopped by public safety in the doorway of Cantor while they checked capacity, the forces of good prevailed, and I was able to swoop in for one of the last seats.  This happenstance was probably best for all parties involved...since hell really hath no fury like a New Yorker waiting in line for over an hour.  While I was one of the lucky ones, the plight of the fans left outside highlights a recurring space problem with such events (there was similar insanity when Jonathan Safran Foer read earlier this semester).  I sincerely hope the Reading Series can provide bigger spaces in future readings for well-known authors.  NYU boasts one of the biggest theaters in downtown Manhattan.  As Darrell, pronounced Da-rrell would say, "can we have it?"But, know what?  I'm willing to let it go because on this "comic-book thursday" Junot Díaz delivered. His charisma and wit won over an impatient crowd but the actual reading, from his short story "Nilda," only lasted about ten minutes.  And, while I believe everyone would have liked to have heard more, I'm cautioned by that oh-so-familiar maxim involving beggars and choosing.  I will say that the reading itself was completely overshadowed by the almost 30 min. Q&A session that followed.  Díaz used questions such as "what was your inspiration for Oscar Wao?" and "how do you handle criticism that suggests your book is sexist?" to delve into his motivations for writing characters such as Oscar, Yunior and Lola* that "map" the identities of the Dominican Diaspora, notions of masculinity, and lasting cultural trauma and legacy of dictatorships.  If it sounds deep, well that's because...it was.Perhaps Díaz's best advice came when answering a question from a writer in the room about the merits of gaining "outside approval" from others.  He responded along the lines of, "If you only want approval [for your work], you don't give people what will engage them, you give people what you'll think they like--that's entertainment, not art."

*Read The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, no but seriously, do it.

David Sedaris Seeking Ethnic Jokes and Other Things I Learned on Monday

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Monday night the Barnes and Noble in Union Square played host to David Sedaris, who read from his new book, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, short fictions about animals. Sedaris also read from his diary, told some jokes, listened to some jokes, and took questions from an ecstatic audience.I am positively certain that Mr. Sedaris would provide a much more engaging and comic resumé of the night's events, so I'm going to give it to you in the most boring manner possible, a list.1. David Sedaris has been working on Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk for seven years. Seven years ago a friend gave him an audio recording of some South African folk tales. Mr. Sedaris was certain he could write better ones.2. David Sedaris enjoys gruesome animal violence. In one of his newest stories a unicorn's horn is gnawed off by a bunny.3. David Sedaris is trying out the sweater vest as a look. It's not going so well. Mr. Sedaris was recently stopped at airport security and forced to remove his sweater vest.4. David Sedaris has a friend in Amsterdam named Pauline. A bird once pooped in her mouth while she was riding on the back of motorbike. She later broke up with the man driving.5. David Sedaris nearly purchased a home in Sussex called Faggot-Stacks, which sat between two estates incorporating the words "cocks" and "titties." Mr. Sedaris chose not to purchase the property because "it was on a busy street."6. David Sedaris really likes to hear Elaine Stritch read. Ms. Stritch reads on the audio recording of Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk which Mr. Sedaris attempted to play by placing his earbuds on the microphone. It only kind of worked.6. Here's a joke David Sedaris heard: What's the worst thing you can hear when your giving Willie Nelson a blowjob? I'm not Willie Nelson.8. David Sedaris told lots of other jokes not about blowjobs, but I only remember that one.9. David Sedaris likes when people tell him jokes while he signs their books. This probably helps him stay cheery, since he promises to sign the book of everyone who shows up, usually keeping the Barnes and Noble open until 2am. He's currently seeking ethnic jokes from all cultures, Asian and Mexican in particular, since Mr. Sedaris feels you can only tell ethnic jokes if you have one for every ethnicity.10. David Sedaris recommends the book Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower because he finds it extremely good. One of his favorite parts is where the author describes a sea creature as "the turd of someone who had been eating rubies."BONUS: For more David Sedaris, check out his interview on The Daily Show from Thursday November 4th, also featuring Ira Glass in a special cameo appearance.

Pay Attention to This: Brad Neely

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Brad Neely is a lot of things. Wikipedia describes him as a comic book artist, although he also writes short stories, creates animations and is probably most famous for his satirical alternative soundtrack to the first Harry Potter movie, Wizard People, Dear Reader. (Protip: This is actually worth it.) Most of his animated work centers around an rich, alternate universe of characters he has developed over the course of several series of animations. I first discovered Neely through his Baby Cakes series, which examines the world through the blunt eyes of a poetic "playboy man-child" named Baby Cakes. The animations are accompanied by epic narrations from Baby Cakes diary, as he comments on love, death, happiness, friendship, therapy, dads, vodka and the Brain Fugglers. (They will fuggle the shit out of your brain.) Another popular series of his is the Professor Brothers. Through the mouths of two incompetent professors, Neely reimagines the histories of Sodom and Gomorrah, JFK, and William Harrison's presidency, amongst other things.These animations seem only tangentially related to creative writing, although I think something can be learned from Neely's narrative voice he supplies to his characters. Baby Cakes' naivety produces all sorts of creative definitions for the mundane objects we take for granted. The Professor Brothers communicate a desperate passion for history, despite the fact that they often hardly understand it. I've often found Neely's work to be useful to examine when my ideas become stale. The free association inherent in the stories and dialogue almost never fails at sparking some new idea. Anyways, if you dig his sense of humor and style, check more of his short stories and videos.

Poetry at the White House

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Hey all. TGIAT! (Thank God It's Almost Tuesday) Hope Monday was fierce but you were fiercer. Windswept hair, etc.So if you didn't know about the Tony-award winning Broadway show "In The Heights", please go see it. It's closing this January and creator, lyricist, and star, Lin-Manuel Miranda, will be back to star in the final three weeks of its run. The show is amazing. But Miranda is even more amazing. I just caught a show last weekend of his freestyle improve group, Freestyle Love Supreme (I KNOW!), and it was hilarious. Funny without needing to insult anybody. Anyway, seeing that performance revived my deep affection for Mr. Miranda (he of the bottomless brown eyes and rapier wit...and yes, he is recently married).ANYWAY after much youtubing, I came across a video released by the White House youtube channel of Mr. Miranda performing a rap about Alexander Hamilton at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word way back in May 2009. Check it out here.First of all, if Alexander Hamilton isn't in your top three favorite founding fathers (yes, George Washington cannot be bumped for any man) I don't know what to say. He had fiery red hair, he was the born in the Caribbean and moved to New York, he wrote the Federalist Papers. Died in a duel because he fired into the air but his opponent didn't.Second of all, this night of poetry at the White House looked pretty cool. Wish we had been there. To, you know, read more.(Also note: JAMES EARL JONES RECITING SHAKESPEARE. Gather!)

Contest Winner

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Congratulations to Cynthia Blank, the winner of our most recent blog contest, "villanelle." We loved her poem "In a Summer Day;" give it a read and notice especially the way she both adheres to the villanelle style while also choosing moments to break out of the strict guidelines of the form.

In A Summer Day

Cynthia BlankThe things you know and refuse to say;(filling out the subconscious lists constructed in your head)I should tell you now, summer mayflies die todaywhen the sun has fled and the sky turns grayyou let me believe they’d remain forever in my bedalong with you and the things you knew but refused to saylike the stories of late spring kisses that went by waytoo fast; your hands began to slip out of mine and ledthe mayflies to sink their wings for all of yesterdayit wasn’t just those fading blue stars you chose to betrayI didn’t hate you when needles pricked me through a threadbut there were other things - you didn’t know enough to sayor to touch my wrist, the bare skin where now my fingers laypressed against my pulse; I know I’m alive not deadit was only the mayflies who were lost in a single summer dayonly not; the cold air also chased the two of us away(I should have loved some luminescent firefly instead)there were far too many things you knew you could not saysummer mayflies always die in a summer day

Personal essays, anyone?

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Hi, everyone. I’m Farzana. I’m ecstatic to be a writer for this little blog. I hope you visit often and make sure you harass your friends to visit the blog as well. I’ll be ever so grateful.Well, now that we have dispensed with introductions, let me as you a question: do you like reading or writing personal essays? If not, I hope you continue to read because then you will benefit from it  (meaning you'll increase your knowledge on this topic). If you decide not to give me a few minutes of your time, then I hope you like my other posts better! For those of you who do have some positive feelings towards personal essays, I have a few tips on writing personal essays that I have learned from class and from guest speaker Paula Darrow, the articles editor of Self magazine (she’s the editor of the “self-expression" section).  I thought I should  pass on some of the knowledge I gained on to you.Writing a personal essay:-A personal essay can usually range from 800-2,000 words.- To pick a topic, you should start with a memory--- one that sticks out the most to you because it most likely affected you in some way. Your topic shouldn’t be your best experience or your worst experience. It should be an everyday experience with a larger significance behind it.- Your personal essay should not be an overview of your life (Naturally, you’re not write an autobiography here, are you?) The reason for not including your life from birth to present in a personal essay? Probably because you won’t be detailed enough in the amount of words a personal essay usually contains---that’s one reason among others.- You want your piece to be familiar yet surprising to the readers. I doubt readers will want to continue if they know what’s going to happen. For your essay, you don’t want to choose a situation that is predictable. Paula Darrow mentioned that being counter intuitive is a good thing, the more counter intuitive the better! In your essay, it’s good if you have a shift in perspectives and have some type of epiphany (I’m guessing it’s okay if you don’t; it depends on your story).- In terms of voice, it should be conversational.-  Also, it’s good to set up scenes and characters so the readers can imagine them and relate to them. It’s quite similar to fiction writing in regards to this.For those of us who prefer reading rather than writing them, check outwww.salon.com (it’s the life section).

Thursday Night's (Also) Alright for Fighting (And Events)

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Hello there Blog-osphere! My name is Seamus and I'm delighted to contribute to this little venture.  Please check back often and do spread the word.  Love it or hate it, its going to be an obsession.  (Yes that was a Lady Soverign reference) so before I embarrass myself further...Unfortunately, Anne Carson's appearance at the writer's house tonight was canceled.  Although Carson will most likely be back (she does teach a class here after all) it is truly unfortunate, especially since her performance piece last year worked so well.  Carson and her collaborators turned the Writer's House into a "haunted room."  The surreal piece was a highlight of the reading series that re-established the possibilities of the space.  Did I understand all of it? Definitely not.  Could I appreciate the creativity? Hell yes.But instead, tonight you will find me at The Sidewalk Cafe in Alphabet City rocking out (listening appreciatively?) to some slam poetry starting at  8:00.Speaking of slam, friday nights at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (also Alphabet City) are mandatory for anybody interested in the art.  Arrive early, fight for a seat, and mentally prepare yourself for the onslaught of good poetry about to come your way.  Another worthy poetry/music venue on the east side is the Bowery Poetry Club which features a pretty generous variety of performances (tonight is a burleque show, tomorrow is a Brooklyn punk band.)Some notable + free events in fiction tonight: NYU faculty member Chuck Wachtel reads from his novel 3/03 at the NYU Bookstore and Adam Levin reads from his debut The Instructions at BookCourt in Brooklyn.  Levin's novel has been receiving numerous comparisons to David Foster Wallace for similarities in both style and literal size.  I, for one, will be very interested to see if those comparisons hold (as soon as I can devote time to fully consuming a thousand pages.  Just some light reading, I know)Until next time, have a wonderful week West Tenthers.  I know I will--Junot Diaz comes to Cantor on the 11th!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Film Now Casting for Oskar Schell Role

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Jonathan Safran Foer addicts can get their daily Foer-fill from the knowledge that the Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close movie is moving forward in pre-production and currently casting the part of Oskar Schell.Castings posters have been spotted in Foer's home turf of Park Slope Brooklyn looking for 9-13 year old Caucasian boys, so be quick to alert your younger brothers, cousins, and nephews of the news, or maybe you can even try to pass yourself off as kid for a shot at the part.The film is going to be directed by Stephen Daldry who has also directed novel-to-movies like The Reader and The Hours, and is rumoured to be starring Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks. Naturally there's the question as to whether Elijah Wood or Liev Schreiber will make appearances, as both did incredible jobs in Foer's last film adaptation Everything is Illuminated.Since Foer's first two novels are making their way into film, I can only wonder if Eating Animals will be as well, using a more documentary style? Freshmen in Foer's seminar, please do some investigative journalism and get back to us?

An Interview with Yannick Murphy

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Rejoice, young ward! Author and NYU alum Yannick Murphy has graciously agreed to a brief  interview via email with W10th. She is the author of the novels The Sea of Trees, Here They Come, and most recently, Signed, Mata Hari. She has also written several children's books and story collections. I can safely say that Here They Come is the novel that inspired me to start seriously writing on my own. Yannick's writing style borders on prose poetry, and she evokes beautiful images and haunting emotions, even while plumbing the darker depths of the human experience. So, without further ado- the interview:

 

W10th: Which is harder– writing children’s books or "adult" fiction?Yannick: It depends on what you mean by harder.  Is it hard to come up with a good idea for a children’s book?  Yes, it is.  Is it hard to come up with a good idea for a novel, yes, for me it is.  Is it hard to sit down and do the physical writing once that idea is in place?  No, that’s when the fun starts.  Maybe they are both hard and both fun, but since children’s books are shorter, the fun doesn’t last as long, whereas the novel lasts longer, but it also challenges you to sustain the fun in a longer piece.  What’s really fun is when, in a longer piece, you have the control and at the same time you are open to where the writing is going and not where you want it to go.  What’s really not fun is when you have a lot of words strung out with no meaning in sight and no way to get back to the meaning you thought the first sentence had before you even wrote it.W10th: Has having children affected your writing?Yannick: I like reading them my stories, and they are honest critics.  When you have children you are exposed to lots of children’s books because you’re reading them to your children all the time, so you get familiar with the style and form of children’s books and it ends up inspiring you to write children’s books, or it ends up making you angry.  Being angry helps you write the books too-- you just can’t believe someone wrote such a bad book for kids, so you try and do it better.W10th: Since this is for an NYU blog, of course I can’t ignore the fact that you attended NYU and studied under Gordon Lish. How was your experience at NYU? Do you ever keep a Lishian mentality while writing?Yannick: A Gordon Lish mentality is the best kind to have when writing.  Hemingway said every good writer should have a built-in, shock-proof shit detector, and having a Lishian mentality is like having that detector on at all times.  A Lishian mentality includes never forgetting that you’re trying to write your best sentences possible and that those sentences answer back to your very first line.  If you forget, then you’re just typing, not writing.  When I catch myself merely typing, and not creating, I know my Lish detector’s on.W10th: Can you tell us a bit about your early writing career when you were fresh out of college?Yannick: I don’t think I really ever had much of a writing career.  I went straight to NYU graduate school after college.  Gordon Lish published my first collection of short stories at Knopf (Stories in Another Language). Most of those stories were written while I was in Gordon’s workshop at NYU and while I was working day jobs at the same time. I had an “I’m working trying to make money at jobs and writing when I get home and on the weekends career.”  So that’s what it was like, and what it’s still like, always trying to find the time to write.  Isn’t that what all writing careers seem to be?W10th: What is your writing process? Do you have a specific time or location? Have your habits changed over the years?Yannick: Before I married I would write at night.  When I got married, my husband would wake up early in the morning to go to work, and so to be on the same schedule, I changed mine.  I started writing early in the mornings, and when I started having children I would get up before they were awake and try to write as much as I could.   At times, it was humorous, because when my husband woke up I wouldn’t want him to wake the children, so I would have a fit if he closed the door to the bathroom too hard, or if he made too much of a racket getting his cereal bowl out from the cupboard.  I turned him into a nimble tip-toeing six-foot tall, 190 pound, bleary-eyed man.W10th: What are your thoughts on MFA programs? Do they produce higher quality prose or generic, predictable writers?Yannick: It all depends on the teacher you have.  That’s the bottom line.  If a student is seeking out a good MFA program, I wouldn’t suggest looking at anything except the quality of the teachers, and by this I don’t mean the success of the writers on the faculty either.  Some successful writers may not be the best teachers, they may also not be the best writers just because they’re successful. I was lucky that I had Gordon Lish as a teacher.  But I had to make that luck happen.  When I first heard Lish was going to teach at NYU, I was determined to take his class.  I had read Amy Hempel’s article about him in Esquire where she described what a great teacher he was.  What I understood from that article was that he would test me and make me question my writing like no other teacher had, and I craved that kind of discipline and the benefits I knew my writing would achieve from looking at myself that hard. For too long I had had writing teachers who said of my work, “That’s nice. Very nice.”  I knew that I could be more of a writer than I was.  When I went to register for Lish’s class, the head of the NYU program told me I couldn’t because it was only open to second year students and I was a first year student.  Tearful, I told him I really wanted to take Lish’s class, but he still wouldn’t let me.  I found out in what room Lish was teaching his class and I went before the class started that evening.  I approached Lish in the hall (he was unmistakable in a canvas cloth coat cinched with a leather belt, and a sort of outbackish style hat worn at a rakish angle) and I said to him “I’m Yannick Murphy, and I’m not supposed to be here.”  Lish let me in after that.  Everything valuable I learned about writing at NYU I learned in Gordon Lish’s class. I don’t think it would have mattered if I had gone to Kalamazoo University; so long as I had Gordon Lish as a teacher, I was well on my way to engaging myself in my writing more and seeing the possibilities of prose in a way that I had never imagined before.Yannick Murphy is releasing a new novel, The Call, forthcoming in 2011- keep your eyes peeled! And seriously, read Here They Come- it's gorgeous.

Wish List for the Holiday Season

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Now that it's November, stop buying things. Suppress the urge. Instead, make lists of what you want. Give those lists to people (people with money, i.e. relatives) and kiss them. It's especially good to take note of what books you want because I can guarantee that some grandparent will jump at the chance to give that book to you.This year, instead of the usual fiction and poetry request, may I suggest exploring the world of letters. Great writers (and artists!) write great letters. Browse a few collections at the nearest bookstore and note them down for those wish-lists.A few of my favorite collections include: selected letters of Emily Dickinson, of Virginia Woolf, of John Keats, of Vincent van Gogh. Dickinson's letters will literally blow your mind. But you'll have the whole of winter vacation to gather yourself up again. I'm serious: if you find it hard to get into Dickinson's poetry, reading her letters is like reading her poetry but there's even more room to move around in. And she can be hilarious. (She's so weird. And I by weird I mean how-did-you-exist-you're-so-fantastic.) Plus, she sent most of her poems in letters to her friends and family. So they're in there too.ALSO: with these letters in your possession, you can have a grand old time writing erasures. Erasures are poems formed by taking a text and using its words to create a new poem. For example, if I wrote "The sun was behind the clouds but I could still see your face", you could take this and write "The sun was still your face" or  simply "behind your face" or even "the face". Use as many of the words or as few as you want. Using letters as your main source helps your creation flow because you can use "I" a lot more. And "I" always makes a poem seem more human.(Don't be scared, don't let your honor get in the way. This is not stealing. The English language is FREE! And anyway, wasn't it T.S. Eliot who said "Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal." So there's that.)

Hello!

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Greetings, citizens of the world. Cate here. I’ll be practicing greetings for a long while.I hope you’re having one of those meeting-people-unexpectedly-and-receiving-them-warmly kind of days that can be hard to come by. But when you’re on, you’re on.Possibly you’re wind-stung and flushed because it is so cold out. You look good red, don’t worry.Here’s a writing exercise to try. Write a statement so bold your reader can’t help but accept it based on the authority of your voice. We could all use some more declarative sentences in our lives. Let me elaborate. Take, for example, how Matthew Rohrer opens a poem called “Beautiful Things” with the line: “When we say something is beautiful/we mean we can laterally bisect it.” I want to read the rest of this poem because 1) a part of me unconsciously desires to affirm what the poet says, 2) it’s a unique, curious statement but it’s not outlandish and 3) this promises an explanation will follow. And 4), let’s not kid ourselves, it’s Matthew Rohrer. (He teaches in the Creative Writing department and I suggest applying for one of his poetry classes before worrying about where your next meal is coming from.)Now then. Take this statement and disavow it by the end of the poem. Either blatantly or let it slowly unravel as the line count grows. (or Don’t. Just affirm, affirm, affirm.) Make it at least 20 lines.Then pack up your notebook and TAKE TO THE STREETS! Find a friend roaming around and read it to him or her. If he or she is aroused by your intelligence and prowess, send it in. That turns us on too.