Philly Word of Mouth

LYNN READS A BOOK: The Bird House by Kelly Simmons

2011-02-11T11:24:00.000-05:00

LYNN READS A BOOK: The Bird House by Kelly Simmons

Lynn Rosen writes about local author Kelly Simmons and her new novel The Bird House.

Literary Mama : Blog : Blog Book Review: Chosen

2010-12-18T09:18:00.001-05:00

Literary Mama : Blog : Blog Book Review: Chosen

Read my review of local author Chandra Hoffman's Chosen on Literary Mama's blog.

For W. Phila. writer, poetry pays | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/04/2010

2010-12-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

For W. Phila. writer, poetry pays | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/04/2010

Yay for Elyse! Yay for Poetry! Yay for Philly!

Local Event: Nicole Krauss - Great House

2010-10-23T10:45:00.005-04:00

This Thursday, I joined Lynn Rosen's Sneak Peak class for Nicole Krauss's reading at the Central Library on the Parkway. Everyone in Lynn's class has already finished reading the newly-released Great House, a fact that surprised even Krauss. (The class reads advance review copies of soon-to-be-published books.)

I saw Nicole Krauss when she was touring for History of Love. This time around she seems more comfortable in front of a crowd. Instead of reading from Great House, Krauss read from something she had prepared about the making of the novel. Not only was it an exercise that addressed one of her obsessions (memory), but it anticipated those how did you write this questions. When the final proof of the book is at the publisher, she says, it's like a door is closed. Locked. And soon the writer herself begins to forget all that went into the making of the story, how it came to be, the decisions involved, the discarded ideas. The door is closed and the writer has lost the key.

Great House started as the short story "The Young Painters" published in The New Yorker, in which a New York novelist works at a desk she inherited from a Chilean poet after he was disappeared. A year after she finished the story she went back and asked, what would happen if the desk was taken away from the novelist?

She had three elements, three obsessions going in -- a desk, a shark and a reassembled room. She knew there would be four voices and that in some way they were going to connect. There was no outline, no structure.

Writing for Krauss resembles anthropologists searching for dinosaurs. The crew start out following their intuition about where a dinosaur might have fallen. They walk back and forth looking for a claw or a knuckle. When they find something, they dig until they uncover the dinosaur they've walking back and forth on top of all along. That's her process. Follow her obsession, her intuition, until she uncovers the story she's been walking on all along.

In listening to her describe her process. You might think, oh this is too intellectual. There's no emotion. This sounds suspiciously like a plotless endeavor. But you would be wrong. Now, I haven't read Great House yet. (The Sneak Peak class thoroughly endorses it.) Her second novel, History of Love, is one of my all-time favorite novels. The character of Leo Gursky is one of the most memorable and lovable people I have met. As a woman in the audience confessed, she sees Leo in a coffee shop whenever someone spills something and thinks that person wants to be noticed. Krauss's obsessions do meet up and create a novel you want to keep reading.

If you missed this reading, look for the podcast. It takes a bit for the library to get them up. I just listened to Jonathan Franzen's reading and the quality of the recording is very good. Of course it's not the same as being there and having the opportunity to ask a question if you are so moved, then standing in line to get your book signed and being a blithering idiot in front of your literary idol, but it's good.

Read Local: We're Always Reading In Philadelphia

2010-09-13T11:22:00.000-04:00

Well the summer's over. I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for reading along and supporting local writers, especially in this lousy economy. Over the past few weeks, I've received some feedback about Philly Word of Mouth's Read Local that I want to share it with you.

There so much great talent in Philly - both writers and lawyers. I know now that if I'd worked at Cozen O'Connor, I'd be a Pulitzer Prize winner. --John Grisham

Philly Word of Mouth is the absolute best. This summer's Read Local reading list was 50% women. That's 12% more representation than the New York Times.--Jodi Picoult

Amen, Sister! --Jennifer Weiner

Philly's Lit Scene rocks. Brooklyn sucks. We're moving. What's the admission's number at The Philadelphia School? --Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer

This summer's Read Local program was a boon to the local economy. Who knew! When you buy local writers' books, they spend like they've never had money before. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board alone reported a 10% increase in revenue.
--Mayor Michael Nutter

Even the undead read in Philly. What a great town! --Stephanie Meyer

Keep reading and sending your comments. Remember the fall is the perfect time to catch up on your summer reading.

Read Local!

Book review: 'Let's Take the Long Way Home' by Gail Caldwell - latimes.com

2010-09-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

Book review: 'Let's Take the Long Way Home' by Gail Caldwell - latimes.com

If I'm not mistaken, Judith Klein is talking about the Lombard Swim Club:

One evening, I accidentally left the book behind on a chair at an upscale Philadelphia swim club famous for its copious open bar and hard-drinking regulars. To my considerable annoyance, it disappeared, and its fate remains unknown.

Stories sparkling with poetic vision | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/29/2010

2010-08-30T12:31:00.000-04:00

Stories sparkling with poetic vision | Philadelphia Inquirer | 08/29/2010

A review of Robin Black's If I loved you, I would tell you this. I love when the Inky recognizes brilliant local talent.

Read Local: Almost Home

2010-08-13T12:57:00.010-04:00

Pam Jenoff became an international sensation with her first novel The Kommandant's Girl, an historic fiction set in Poland during WWII. Readers wanted more and Jenoff delivered with The Diplomat's Wife, in which one of the Kommandant's supporting characters takes center stage.

With her latest novel, she steps away from historic fiction to give us a present-day spy adventure. It makes you wonder if there's anything Jenoff can't write.

In Almost Home, Jordan Weiss works for the State Department as an Intelligence Agent. It's been ten years since she graduated from Cambridge, ten years since her fellow crew member and boyfriend Jared drowned in the River Cam. She vowed never to return to England and has managed to avoid assignments there. But when she learns that her dear friend is terminally-ill, she puts in for a transfer to England.

Weiss's assignment is to investigate the Albanian mob. She's also contacted by an old college friend who was on crew with Jordan and Jared. He suspects Jared was murdered.

Jordan's no damsel in distress. She's been compared to Jason Bourne of the Bourne Identity. They both have lots of action and international intrigue, but Jordan has a past that she remembers, a past that she must revisit to solve her case and to learn what really happened to Jared.

I really enjoyed Almost Home. Up until the very end, I wasn't sure who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. Jenoff's knowledge and love of London and Cambridge is obvious in that they are not merely backdrops, but essential characters in this mystery.

What really happened to Jared? No need to wait; the sequel A Hidden Affair has just been released. These two books make for a great week of beach reading. Just make sure there are lifeguards on the beach, because your kids are on their own.

Who should read this: Anglophiles who love to read about dreary old England while on the sunny shores of Jersey.

Philly Shout Outs: There are none, but it's nice to travel abroad.

Philly Street Cred: Pam Jenoff teaches law at Rutgers University in Camden.

'The Murder Room': Heads-up on 'heirs' of Sherlock Holmes

2010-08-12T17:07:00.004-04:00

This book sounds fascinating. The Vidocq Socety in Philadelphia, a group of world famous detectives and crime specialists, has been solving cold cases pro bono since 1990.

Author Michael Capuzzo will be at the Borders on Broad Street next Thursday, August 19 at 12:30.

Read more in USA Today.

Mary Roach on The Daily Show

2010-08-05T22:24:00.001-04:00

If you missed Mary Roach at the Central Library this Tuesday, check out this video. Very funny.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Mary Roach

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

Pam Jenoff featured in The Inky!

2010-08-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

Posted on Thu, Aug. 5, 2010

Globe-trotting heroine from a local writer

By Tirdad Derakhshani

Inquirer Staff Writer

Two "Read Local" Author Events This Thursday Night

2010-08-02T14:22:00.001-04:00

Susan Abulhawa will be reading from Mornings in Jenin at the Big Blue Marble on Thursday, August 5 at 7PM.

Pam Jenoff will be reading from her brand new novel A Hidden Affair at the Free Library's Central Library on Thursday, August 5 at 7:30PM. Great gig, Pam!

Both events are free. Come out and support these exceptional local writers.

Robin Black on the shortlist for the Frank O'Connor Award

2010-07-09T21:04:00.000-04:00

So exciting!! Let's hope Robin wins in September. Still we're so proud. Congrats.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jul/09/us-writers-award-shortlist

Read Local: Philly Girls Rock in Broad Street

2010-07-05T16:17:00.006-04:00

It's 1993 and Kit is dating Dale, the front man for a struggling Philly band. Despite the band's lack of success, he's already mastered the rock star persona. He knows how to amuse his groupies. Kit and Dale break-up. Kit is devastated. On her first post-Dale outing, she meets Margo, a woman who also dates a musician with similar skills. After many martinis and the revelation that they're in the same situation, they decide (no, not to open a bar together but) to start a band together.

"You know," Margo said, "these people work in comic book stores and coffee shops and they feel so superior to people like us who have the nerve to get a nine-to-five job." She shook her head in disgust. "Just because they can wear an eyebrow ring to work they think they're fucking artists. What gives them the corner on creativity?"

Kit and Margo do start a band; they get gigs; they're on the cover of the City Paper. They experience more success than the old boyfriends' bands do, and faster too. You know what they say: success is the best revenge. But along the way, Kit stumbles--a lot. Being single for the first time in years and being in a band gives her more and more opportunities to make bad decisions. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll bad decisions. As the band’s reputation grows, so does Kit's. You start to wonder if this whole band thing was a bad idea.

I have to admit I wasn't expecting Broad Street to be as racy as it is. What fun to vicariously experience all-nighters and one-night stands and wake up refreshed and guiltless in the morning!

Kit and Margo develop a true friendship through some trial and error as they search for a reliable drummer and wonder what they really want out of this. Weiser captures the drama of putting an all girl band together in the mid-90s. Here's a taste of Broad Street's feminist rock lyrics from "Slander You":

You go cruising down the Jersey shore,
Getting lucky with the local whores,
I don't care if what they say is true,
I just feel the need to slander you.

According to Weiser, she's putting the finishing touches on the sequel. I'll keep you posted. Until then try to catch her band The Tights playing a local gig. Perhaps if you buy her a drink, she'll give you a hint as to what happens next.

Who should read this: If you dated someone in the mid-90s who thought he/she was all that and a bag of chips.

Philly Shout Outs: The Khyber, the Trocadero, Bacchanal's, Tower Records, Philly Record Exchange, Electric Love Muffin, etc.

Philly Cred: Weiser and Carla Spataro are co-publishers of Philadelphia Stories literary magazine, PS Books, and they organize the annual "Push-to-Publish" Writing Conference, and the Writers Retreat at Rosemont College, etc.

Next up: Mornings in Jenin.

Local Event: Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

2010-06-28T11:38:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Egan's latest book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, is a collection of stories that revolve around the record industry. There's even an A side and a B side.

At the Central Library, Egan read the first chapter "Found Objects." Sasha is a kleptomaniac out on a date. In the hotel restaurant's bathroom, she discovers an open purse on the floor, a green wallet waiting to be taken. As we follow Sasha through her date and robbery, we travel between this night and sessions with her therapist, Coz.

It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel. Sasha was adjusting her yellow eye shadow in the mirror when she noticed a bag on the floor beside the sink that must have belonged to the woman whose peeing she could faintly hear through the vaultlike door of a toilet stall. Inside the rim of the bag, barely visible, was a wallet made of pale green leather. It was easy for Sasha to recognize, looking back, that the peeing woman's blind trust had provoked her: We live in a city where people will steal the hair off your head if you give them half a chance, but you leave your stuff lying in plain sight and expect it to be waiting for you when you come back? It made her want to teach the woman a lesson. But this wish only camouflaged the deeper feeling Sasha always had: that fat, tender wallet, offering itself to her hand -- it seemed so dull, so life-as-usual to just leave it there rather than seize the moment, accept the challenge, take the leap, fly the coop, throw caution to the wind, live dangerously ("I get it," Coz, her therapist, said), and take the fucking thing.

And that's where the novel began for Egan. With a wallet in the bathroom. One evening she was having dinner with her mother at a hotel restaurant in NYC and went into the bathroom to discover a very vulnerable wallet. Except Egan didn't steal it. At first, she sympathize with the unknowing woman in the bathroom stall, having been the victim of many such crimes. It set her to thinking about what kind of person would be tempted to take it. At this point, Egan was researching a novel about women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but she decided that the next morning she would write about this person. That led to Sasha who led to Bernie Salazer who led to a cast of characters who move from the background to the foreground in different stories. (I wonder if we'll ever see that other book.)

Egan sites two inspirations while writing the Goon Squad. Proust for his obsession with time and "The Sopranos" for two reasons. The characters are cliches in public, but are nuanced in private, and the characters go from being peripheral characters in one episode to central characters in another.

So she would follow different characters and explore beyond the cliche. It was an exciting process, complete lawlessness as she hand-wrote story after story. Then she typed them up, printed them out, and developed some self-defined rules. In the end she stuck with three:

Each piece had to stand on its own. They could not lean on each other; they could only enhance each other.
The collection had to have an extreme range of tone.
There could be no overlap in the stories. Each piece had to be unique.

I love the way Jennifer Egan's mind works, her layering, her weaving. As a writer, I find her inspirational. When The Keep came out I gave it to everyone. (Although I loaned my copy to someone. Whoever that is, can I have it back?) It's one of my favorite books of all time.

Even though I'm excited to read A Visit from the Goon Squad, I'll have to wait to the fall. Egan's not local, even if she is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and confesses that she occasionally tries to convince her husband to move here--unsuccessfully.

Check out her groovy website.

Local Author Gets a Nod From Oprah

2010-06-24T10:39:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to local author Robin Black. Her debut collection of stories If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This is on O Magazine's Summer Reading List.

I might have to add this to our Read Local Summer Reading List. Has anyone read it?

Summer Plans: Stay Local, Eat Local, Read Local

2010-06-06T18:22:00.008-04:00

This summer I'm planning on staying local. So I'll be spending a lot of time in the pool with my children climbing all over me. When I do get some time to enjoy peace under the sun poolside, I'll be reading local Philadelphia writers.

Perhaps I'll even run into other writers staying local and shopping at the local farmer's market. I'd like to say that I'm a foodie who cooks with fresh seasonal ingredients, but I'm not. That's my husband. I go to the farmers market for the Apple Cider Donuts. Yum. Although I can tell you that when figs are in season, wrap them in some prosciutto and Viola! Perfection. A recipe even I can handle.

So this is the pile of local writers on my nightstand right now:

Almost Home, Pam Jenoff
Broad Street, Christine Weiser
Mornings in Jenin: A Novel, Susan Abulhawa

Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home: A Memoir, Lise Funderburg
The Silver Lining Handbook, Matthew Quick
Thirst, Ken Kalfus
and somehow a book of poetry snuck in -- Charles Carr's paradise, pennsylvania.

You'll recognize some of the names from previous post about readings. Now that school is out and my book tour has slowed down, I have time to catch up on my reading. Let me know who your favorite Philly writers are.

I'm starting with Broad Street - an all girl band in the early 90s. Ah, that'll bring back lots of memories. Look for me by the pool. And Read Local this summer.

Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

2010-06-02T15:17:00.011-04:00

Finally, I went to a reading at a coffee house. Really, it seems like they should happen more often. The Philadelphia Java Company (518 S. 4th Street) and Head House Books co-hosted a reading by Susan Abulhawa, the author of Mornings in Jenin.

In his introduction, Richard Holmes, owner of Head House Books, said that it was his mother-in-law who first discovered Mornings in Jenin in a London airport. She loved it and gave it to her daughter to read. Her daughter gave it to everyone to read including Richard. The book has been selling twice as many copies as any other book at HHB, because the staff can't stop talking about it.

Susan Abulhawa talked about how she came to write the book. She spoke about Palestinians leaving their homes in 1948, believing it was temporary, merely packing a bag for a few days away. Jewish refugees who arrived from Europe, Russia, America, etc. walked into fully furnished homes - family pictures hung on the wall, fruit bowls still overflowed on the kitchen table.

That image hung in my mind. What could have been going through the Jewish settlers' minds? They have survived through horror, traveled miles and miles to live in peace. But when they walked into these homes, didn't they think of who they were replacing? Did they feel justified because someone had done the same to their homes?

But Mornings in Jenin is not about the Jewish refugees. It is unapologetically the Palestinian story.

Some have criticized Abulhawa for being biased or unbalanced in her portrayal of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. In her opinion, Palestinians have been made to pay for the sins of the West. Edward Said, she said, believed that the story of the Palestinians isn't heard because they are victims of history’s greatest victims: the Jews.

Abulhawa didn't start out to become a novelist. A combination of things happened. First she traveled to Jenin in 2002 following the 9 day massacre. She arrived just as the camp was opened. For two weeks, no one including the press and human rights organizations had been allowed entry. What she saw there and the stories she heard deeply affected her.

Second, shortly after she returned from Jenin, she was laid off from her job. Her experience inspired her to write create a multi-generational novel about one Palestinian family's experience. She spent four years writing Mornings in Jenin. What started out as a story of two brothers separated in 1948, one being raised Palestinian and the other raised Israeli - a story to illustrate a history of a people- became a very personal story of one family. Abulhawa's characters came alive to her and were no longer symbols of a struggle.

She read two passages from her novel. In this sweet scene, five-year-old Amal sits with her father (Baba).

     I could hear the turbulence inside Baba's chest, the protests of his lungs against each inhalation of honey apple tobacco.
     "Baba, who do you love more, me or Yousef?"
     "Habibti," he began. I couldn't help but smile when he called me that. "I love you both the same," he said.
     "How big do you love me?"
     "I love you as big as the ocean and all its fishes. As big as the sky and all its birds. As big as the earth and all her trees."
     "What about the universe and all its planets? You forgot that part."
     "I was getting to it. Be patient," he said, puffing on his pipe. He exhaled, "And I love you bigger than the universe and all its planets."
     "Do you love Yousef that much?"
     "Yes. As big as the ocean . . . but without all the fishes."
     My heart grew with all the fishes, the idea that Baba loved me just a little more. "What about the sky and earth? Do you love him that big but without all the birds and the trees?"
     "Yes. But don't tell anyone."
     "I won't, Baba, I swear." My heart swelled with the birds now. "What about the universe part?"
     "Don't be greedy." He winked at me. "I have to get to work, habibti. Tomorrow."
     Habibti. Tomorrow.

Susan Abulhawa founded the organization Playgrounds for Palestine. Visit the website if you want to help.

I Have Been Remiss

2010-05-25T16:43:00.002-04:00

I have been remiss in updating the blog, and I must admit it has been for selfish reasons. For the past few months, I have been busy giving readings instead of attending them.

Having your book published is a tremendous event in one's life. Having your book published is embarking on a new career--one that you have not spent years toiling away at in solitude. You must go out and sell your book.

My book was published by a small press and had no bookstore distribution. In other words, my book was only in bookstores where I or someone who liked my book convinced the buyer to put it on the shelf.

This is not a posting of complaint. It is a posting of gratitude for those people -- friends, acquaintances, and strangers -- who made a difference by getting When Love Was Clean Underwear into bookstores so that readers could stumble upon it.

Oddly enough, it was Barnes and Noble that gave me my first bookstore breaks. Their store in Plymouth Meeting was the first to carry my book and I owe this to a stranger. Fellow author Gus Cileone and I briefly met at the Montgomery County Community College Writers Conference last November. After that Gus persuaded his local B&N to carry my book. Later the Community Relations Manager Chris Broome contacted me about participating in their Read Local Books series.

My second B&N success I owe to Tim Clancy (not Tom), a neighbor, who read my book and made sure it was stocked in the Rittenhouse store. He was also helpful in scheduling a reading there. Over sixty people came and my books sold out.

I was at the Big Big Marble as part of their Writers and the Process Series thanks to the encouragement of my friend Don Gordon. It was a lovely evening hosted by Minter Krozter. There, I spoke to aspiring writers who attend writing workshops at the bookstore lead by Minter or her husband poet Hal Sirowitz.

I also owe my publicist Becky Kraemer a big debt. The day she took me on as a client things fell into place. Thank God she has a thing for fledgling authors wandering the marketing landscape without a clue. Without all the local press, I wouldn't have had so many opportunities, like the chance to meet Debbie Rech and read at Head House Books.

My sister Mary Barr Mann set me up at Words in Maplewood, NJ where I met half the town. Afterwards I hung out and we had drinks a few doors down. A great evening. I plan to write more books so I can go back there.

I've learned a lot over the past months. In the future, when opportunities arise I'll have more ways of spreading the word about books I love.

This Weekend

2010-04-16T13:44:00.000-04:00

Book it at the Free Library Festival | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/16/2010

Check out the line up for this weekend's Festival. Lots of local talent too!

Novels she wrote, in Philadelphia | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/15/2010

2010-04-15T10:20:00.000-04:00

Novels she wrote, in Philadelphia | Philadelphia Inquirer | 04/15/2010

Check out Diana Marder's article on the local lit scene -- Susan Abulhawa, Robin Black, Joanne Dahme, Ru Freeman, Pam Jenoff, Ligia Rave and yours truly!

Everything Is Wrong With Me » Buy the Book

2010-03-28T12:05:00.001-04:00

Everything Is Wrong With Me » Buy the Book

I don't know this writer, but took an interest because my mother's maiden name is Mulgrew. He's giving a reading at Barnes & Noble - Rittenhouse on April 8 at 6PM. Check out the blurbs for his book. They're really funny.

CP Fiction/Poetry reading — next Wednesday @ Tin Angel :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

2010-03-28T11:55:00.000-04:00

CP Fiction/Poetry reading — next Wednesday @ Tin Angel :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Elise Juska will be reading. She's a fabulous writer.

Colson Whitehead Finalist for PEN/Faulkner Award

2010-02-24T19:24:00.001-05:00

I'm starting to think I might be good luck for writers!

PEN/Faulkner Award Finalists Annouced

By Marissa Newhall

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Books by Sherman Alexie, Barbara Kingsolver, Lorraine M. López, Lorrie Moore and Colson Whitehead are finalists for the 2010 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation announced Tuesday.

Alexie's short-story collection "War Dances" and Kingsolver's historical novel "The Lacuna" are in contention for the $15,000 prize along with López's "Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories," Moore's "A Gate at the Stairs" and Whitehead's "Sag Harbor."

The winner of the award, the country's largest peer-juried prize for fiction, will be named March 23.

Judges considered nearly 350 entries -- all novels and short-story collections by American authors published in 2009.

Last year's winner, "Netherland" by Joseph O'Neill, was rushed into paperback after President Obama mentioned it in a newspaper interview. Having tired of briefing books, Obama said, he had taken respite in O'Neill's tale of cricket and friendship in post-9/11 New York City.

As each year's winner is thought of as "first among equals," all five finalists will be honored May 8 at an award ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Each runner-up will receive $5,000.

Maxine Hong Kingston Receives 2010 Writers for Writers Award

2010-02-16T18:06:00.002-05:00

As I wrote last year, Kingston has a wonderful generosity.

Poets & Writers Announces Recipients of 2010 Writers for Writers Award and Editor's Award | Poets & Writers

Maxine Hong Kingston

2009-11-09T08:18:00.085-05:00

This year, Maxine Hong Kingston was the keynote speaker at Montgomery County Community College's Writers Conference. Addressing a group of aspiring writers, Kingston was very generous as she described her life as a writer and how each of her books came into being. There is so much to say about her talk and her writing that in this blog I will focus on her first book. (Perhaps as I continue to read her work, I'll blog more on Kingston.)

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts was published in 1976 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. Having now read it, I understand why Dr. Halbert said in his introduction that Kingston was one of his "literary heros."

Kingston says she was always a storyteller as she was raised by a mother who was perpetually "talking story" and a father who sang classical Chinese poetry. In college however the storytelling stopped as she learned critical thinking and how to write essay. So that when she began to write she chose the essay form.

Writers, she believes, have to break through a door to find a place where they are free to tell all their secrets. She cited two other authors who subscribe to this. Alice Walker who begins The Color Purple with Celie writing "You better not never tell nobody but God." and Toni Morrison who begins The Bluest Eye with "Quiet as it's kept." Then, they both go through that door. In writing Woman Warrior, Kingston does the same. She begins:

"You must not tell anyone," my mother said, "what I am about to tell you. In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born."

Her aunt committed adultery while her husband was "out on the road" in America and became pregnant. The villagers ransacked her house when she went into labor. Her family threw her out. She gave birth outside and alone. Then she did the only thing left to her. Kingston covers several scenarios as to how her aunt found herself in this condition - rape, incest, loneliness, desire, maybe even love. Each believable. The outcome is always the same.

And why did her mother decide to finally reveal this story to her young daughter?

"Don't let your father know that I told you. He denies her. Now that you have started to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don't humiliate us. You wouldn't like to be forgotten as if you had never been born. The villagers are watchful."

What an introduction to sexuality!

In Woman Warrior, Kingston doesn't follow any rules. It is a memoir but most of it isn't about her. It's far from complete. It's not chronological. Dates and facts aren't documented. For one section, she switches from first person narration to third. She can do that, because she's brilliant. We listen her as she pieces together the stories she's heard and overheard throughout her childhood in an attempt to figure out what is real. She follows her imagination to go into the past and recreate stories that are beautiful, poetic.

In the end, she gives us her truth as best she can understand it. But she also gives us Chinese history, mythology, superstitions, culture, and food.

I couldn't find a website for Kingston, but you can find her on Red Room.

Lise Funderburg

2009-10-24T11:31:00.016-04:00

On October 17, I participated in Philadelphia Stories' Push-to-Publish Writers Conference at Rosemont College. I highly recommend this conference for anyone who is not just interested in writing, but also interested in finding an audience for his/her writing. Despite the cold wet weather, there was a strong turnout for the day's events, which included speed dating with editors and agents, and panels on placing short stories, creative non-fiction, children's fiction, utilizing Web 2.0 and more.

This year as the keynote speaker, Lise Funderburg delivered her Five Point Plan for Publishing (or her "Self Delusional Techniques.")

The Lotto Motto - You've got to get in it to win it. Basically, do your research and submit your work.
It's Only Postage - Send your work out. She endorses multiple simultaneous submissions.
One Bad Apple Doesn't Spoil the Barrel (of Submissions). Just because one magazine or publisher passes on your work, doesn't mean you should give up.
Embrace the Petty - Rejection is inevitable. You may experience the 5 steps of grief. For Funderburg, one step is Zappos.
Man Up/Woman Up - After 30 rejections, you may want to rethink and revise your work. If you get helpful criticism from an editor, use it.
Bonus Point - Fake it 'til you make it.

Funderburg gave solid advice with lots of humor, a necessity to withstand the rejection that goes along with being a writer. She's very down-to-earth and likable (plus she knits!)

At the end of her talk, she read from her memoir Pig Candy - Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home. It is the story of a her relationship with her father as he returns to his hometown in rural Georgia and faces his mortality. Her love for her father is tangible in the beauty and care she takes with her words; but, one gets the sense that this is a complicated relationship. Funderburg mentioned that she often finds herself writing about food and this excerpt is no exception:

Down South, spring has advanced. Pear trees are in full bloom, naturalized daffodils stripe the just-greening pastures with yellow, and deep red camellias dot walkways and yards, sentries at every door. Sweaters need to be kept nearby but not on, windows are cranked open to ensure a cross breeze. We make good time from the airport to the farm, just over an hour, and Dad and I don't bother to unpack before we turn our attention to the two items on our agenda: roasting a pig and getting him some chemo.

First, the pig. In January, my father read a newspaper article that chronicled the author's experiment with cooking a seventy-pound pig in a Cuban-American-designed roasting box called La Caja China: a simple plywood cart lined with metal and designed to suspend coals above rather than below the meat. The outcome, sweet and savory, succulent and crisp, earned the paradoxical moniker "pig candy."

Funderburg's language is so lush I can smell the southern spring blossoming, and I can definitely smell that delicious pig. Yum!

For more about Lise Funderburg, visit her website at http://www.lisefunderburg.com.

Brown and Juska

2009-06-19T12:58:00.045-04:00

Last Monday, I read at the Rosemont Writers' Retreat. For a week, writers live in Connelly Hall with its architectural mix of old and new on Rosemont College's bucolic campus. In the mornings, participants write, attend lectures, and/or do yoga. In the afternoons, they workshop. Each day there is a lunch time reading which is free and open to the public, and each evening there are casual faculty readings for the retreat participants. Carla Spataro does a great job of bringing established writers/teachers to lead workshops in short story, poetry, and novel writing. Plus there's yoga. And it's a local oasis. No airfare necessary. You can disappear and devote yourself to the life of letters for a week without going broke.

I was flattered to be in the company of two very talented and accomplished writers who were both leading workshops at the retreat.

Randall Brown is a flash fiction wizard. He read several pieces. He brings an enthusiasm and energy to both his writing and his readings. Before each selection he gave its genesis. His first piece, for instance, came one day when he decided to explore what the internet had to offer in lieu of getting down to writing. After several distractions he came to this last one:

I moved to a name generator that gave me my robot name Supernova Bombedier, my porn star name Hard John Thong, my hip hop name MC Slim Dogg T and then a random one, Morton Bonsey. What happened after that was odd enough to become story worthy.

"Morton Bonsey" appears in Brown's collection called Mad to Live. In it, the author observes the character he has created. Morton becomes independent of his creator; he becomes a better man than his creator. It's intelligent, smart and funny and it is really short. How does he do that? For a long list of Randy's many publications and writerly endeavors, visit his website.

I read an excerpt from the first chapter of When Love Was Clean Underwear, which was published in Philadelphia Stories this month.

Elise Juska was the last reader. She has published three novels and is at work on her fourth. She has also published many short stories. This evening she read the first half of a short story called "The Nice Guy." In this story, a man picks up a lost cell phone. The next morning the owner of the cell phone's mother calls him and convinces him that he should bring the phone to her daughter, a college student. Juska carefully intertwines his past relationship with a girlfriend who came to hate his laidback accommodating ways and his current attempt to do the right thing and hopefully win the girl. Will the nice guy win out in the end? Luckily, the story will be published in the next issue of the American Literary Review so we can find out.

Visit Elise's website for information on her latest novel One for Sorrow, Two for Joy. I picked up a copy after hearing her read and can not wait to delve in.

And mark your calendars for next year's Rosemont Writers' Retreat!

Whitehead

2009-05-08T16:46:00.019-04:00

Luckily I arrived early to hear Colson Whitehead at the Central Library. For some reason, we were in Room 108 instead of the Montgomery Auditorium. Many had to stand in the back, but they were glad they stayed.

Whitehead gives an amazing reading. With the hum and pop of a poet, he recites his passages. His voice is silk. As he is writing, he explained, he reads his material over and over again. He must have the whole book memorized.

His latest novel, Sag Harbor, is set in 1985 and is narrated by fifteen- year-old Benji. The first selection was from The Hey Day of Dag chapter. Benji arrives at Sag Harbor for the summer. Whitehead really captures the mentality and the one-upmanship of insults between boys that age. It’s a sport with specific rules and it requires sportsmanship. I admit I was getting a little lost as the narrator began to discuss the complex yet consistent way they addressed each other. Whitehead stopped to assist by giving the audience a visual aid. He looked very professorial in his skinny tie and grey vest over a crisp white shirt as he revealed the first of two charts written in a large sketchpad.

They illustrated that the “trend that summer, insult-wise, was toward grammatical acrobatics, the unlikely collage.” The comments were usually about appearance, using the very visual “in’” verbs. (These charts also appear in the book.)

Modifier	In’ Verb	Object
Gorbachev		Mother Fucker
Angela Davis	Lookin’	Bitch
George Jefferson		Nigger

Modifier	In’ Verb	Object
Garanimal-Ass		Mother Fucker
99¢ Gold Chain	Wearin’	Bitch
Fake Adidas		Nigger

You can switch them around. For instance, Garanimal-Ass wearin' bitch. Or “ If someone had a birthmark he would be a Gorbachev lookin’ motherfucker.”

While Whitehead reads like a poet, he delivers like a comedian. People in the room were losing it. Whitehead had to wait for the laughter to die down before he could continue.

I’m hoping that there is a Sag Harbor Colorforms Special Edition in the works. Wouldn’t that be great?

The second selection was from the To Prevent Flare-Ups chapter. The big plot point as Whitehead likes to point out is that Benji is getting his first haircut at a barber’s. In the past, his father always cut his hair. Throughout the process, Benji tried not to move, but always did. So, his father had to keep trimming more and more of his ‘Fro. Whitehead is upfront that Sag Harbor is based on his youth. I couldn’t help but notice that his long dreads tied neatly at the base of his neck reached his mid-back.

The first question of the Q&A session was from a young writer who didn’t want to be a post-modern writer. Whitehead’s advice – write the story you are compelled to write. “They’re going to label you want they want in the end. And if they ask you, ‘Are you a post-modernist writer?’ Say, ‘I don’t even know what that word means.’ It works for me.”

I bought a book and waited in line to have Whitehead sign it. I’m a book geek, okay? I asked if he did the audio versions of his books, because I’d consider buying them all. He said he had only done The Colossus of New York; the others were too long and it’s an exhausting process. I can see why it would be. Whitehead is as hard working a reader as he is a writer.

Visit his website at www.colsonwhitehead.com for upcoming events.

Wolff

2009-04-16T16:33:00.026-04:00

I saw Tobias Wolff at Arcadia University last week. He read from his collection of new and selected (previously published) stories, Our Story Begins, which is now out in paperback.

Wolff also spoke about his life as a writer and how it all began. As a teenager, Wolff saw a picture in Life magazine of Ernest Hemingway with Marlene Dietrich on his arm and thought, "I want to be a writer." This was back when writers enjoyed the glamorous life, when they were featured in the black and white photographs of Life--Hemingway at his camp desk in Africa, F. Scott Fitzgerald in Paris. Once he began writing, Wolff said, he realized all the hard work these men had had to do before they attained the glamorous life.

With each of the stories Wolff read, he briefly talked about their origin. His fictional work is not autobiographical. He saves that for his memoirs - so far This Boy's Life and In Pharaoh's Army. Instead he says that "more and more it is the interior life" that he is describing. An emotion, a decision, revisited in fiction. "Her Dog" captures the regret a man feels as he walks his dead wife's dog. The dog talks. As Wolff says, "Anyone who has a dog, knows they talk." The dog is hard on the man, insisting that he, the dog, treated the wife better than the husband had.

Next he read "Bullet to the Brain." A book reviewer is caught in a bank robbery and can't help critiquing the cliched language of the robbers. The idea for this story began when a friend of Wolff's was telling him what happened when he witnessed a bank robbery. Wolff was disappointed that what the robbers said was something right out of a TV show.

If you have a chance to see Wolff, I highly recommend it. Not only is he one of today's best short story writers, he's funny and has an amazing memory for the words and stories of other authors.

After the reading, a reception was held at the Grey Towers Castle. Once a private residence, it is now the jewel at the center of Arcadia's beautiful campus. Take a tour if you're in the neighborhood.

I'm not sure if Wolff is hobnobbing with Hollywood stars, but he certainly is glamorous.

McCallum-Smith

2009-04-06T12:02:00.010-04:00

This weekend I attended a reading at the home of the lovely and gracious Leigh Jackson. About twenty of us gathered to see author Susan McCallum-Smith read from her collection, Slipping the Moorings. I had never been to a reading in someone's home before and I have to say I enjoyed the intimacy of sitting in a cozy chair by the fireplace, looking at the greenery outside the casement windows while listening to the author read.

McCallum-Smith is a striking woman, fair with almost white blond hair. She has a Scottish accent, which is delightful. I could listen to her all day. Then again, the primary reason I listen to NPR's Coffee Break Spanish is for the Scottish accents.

But it is not only her accent that makes her readings so enjoyable. She's a good reader. She brings her words to life, she connects with her audience, and she knows how to leave them wanting to read the rest of the story.

On this afternoon, she read excerpts from three stories--"Ploughman's Lunch," "Hell Mend You," and "The End of the Season." Some writers write the same story over and over again. Not so with McCallum-Smith. Her scope is evident in just these three stories. In the first, we meet Tom in London. His wife of over fifty years is leaving him; he stops in an art gallery after having lunch with her to collect himself and to try to convince himself that she'll change her mind. In the second, it's young mother Carol-Anne in a Glasgow police station. Something's happened at the family home. In the third, Mrs. Merrick, a woman in turn-of-the-century New York, receives a guest at an odd hour. It's a young woman.

There is something about having an author's voice in your head as you turn the pages of a book she spent years of her life creating that is very personal. It's as if she's reading just to you.

Now, I must go and find out what happened to Carol-Anne in "Hell Mend You."

Check out McCallum-Smith's website for upcoming events or to order Slipping the Moorings.

McCracken

2009-03-20T21:19:00.015-04:00

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to hear Elizabeth McCracken read at Temple University. Usually, I don't go to see a writer read unless I have read her work or am at least familiar with it. In this case, I hadn't read or heard much about McCracken's work. My friend Lynn Rosen, the best read woman in Philadelphia, said I would love her.

McCracken read a short story told from multiple points of view. A rather ambitious work to read aloud. At times, I must admit I was confused about who was speaking and about what exactly was going on, but I was still sucked in. McCracken made me smile, made me frightened, made me think. I was completely emotionally enthralled by the end.

Before McCracken read I teased her that I would buy one of her books if she impressed me. After the reading, I went to the nearest bookstore and bought The Giant's House. It's about a boy named James who is 8'2" at 17. His growing is out of control, his growing is killing him. And yet, it is Peggy Cort the librarian narrator who is the freak. A woman who has trouble making real human connection until she falls in love with James. Peggy's inner life is so compelling, her thoughts on love, on loneliness, on life are funny and sad. Here's a taste of Peggy:

. . . I was outside on my park bench, eating some tragic sandwich I'd assembled from odds and ends out of my fridge--sliced apple, some cheese, pickle relish. Single people eat sadly--they cobble together things left from shopping trips based on dreams of all the meals they'd fix for themselves, all the ways they'd treat themselves to something grand; those dreams, for me, died by the next day and, despite my best hopes, I wanted only canned hash and apples. Dogged by practicality, I had to use everything I'd bought anyhow.

I ran into McCracken in the lobby as she was rushing to catch a flight home to her children - a two-month-old and a twenty-month-old. I must say, as a mother of two, I vividly remember those days and was even more impressed with how smart and witty (and coherent!) she was during the reading and the question and answer session.

I look forward to reading more of her work. Check out Elizabeth McCracken's website.