May 2013
8 posts
“It’s a tricky thing to address pressing issues of the day in fiction without...”
– The Werewolf Novel as Post-9/11 Political Allegory? - The Daily Beast
To Be Seen, To Be Heard: Erica Lorraine Scheidt's...
A YOUNG WOMAN PARTIES with a group of teenagers, her friends and peers. She passes out, and is raped, degraded, videotaped and photographed. There is a trial in which it seems like she is being prosecuted for the crime of being a young woman around young men. The complexities of young adult sexual violence have dominated cultural conversations in the wake of harrowing news out of Steubenville,...
Postcard from the Acela Express
Friends, I just spent three days in our nation’s capital. On Saturday, I read at 826 DC, a museum of unnatural history. D. Gilson blew me away. I was familiar with his work, and even included it in PANK. The poems he read, made me want to jump out of my seat. So great. It was also lovely to meet the crew for Folio Magazine. The reading was in celebration of their re-launched print magazine,...
Postcard From Florida
Dear Internet Friends,
I am visiting my parents. They have a strange understanding of “air conditioning,” as something that should be set at 79 degrees. They like to wake me up in the morning, early, because they are awake, so why shouldn’t everyone be awake? Why doesn’t my dad remember the shortcuts for copying and pasting on the computer yet? A couple days ago, my dad...
“Meg Wolitzer is a bestselling novelist and an unapologetic advocate for women...”
– bookforum talks with meg wolitzer - bookforum.com / interviews
April 2013
25 posts
The Electric Typewriter: 10 Excellent Essays →
tetw:
As Chosen by Roxane Gay
Roxane Gay, author, essayist, editor (at Pank, The Rumpus and Bluestem), and professor, has picked 10 of her favourite essays for us. As she rightly says, “their excellence speaks for itself”:
The Love of My Life by Cheryl Strayed Notes From…
Some essays you maybe want to read.
The Year I Learned Everything →
I felt like I was about to have the best night of my life so I took a deep breath and I jumped.
The Truth Must Be Told About the Chip Taco
The Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos or whatever it’s called is disgusting. I put off trying this Doritos taco food item because I don’t like Taco Bell but finally curiosity got the best of me so I got two of the Cool Ranch tacos with beans instead of beef.
I rather like Cool Ranch Doritos so I assumed I would like these tacos but I did not. They are disgusting. They tasted like stale,...
Beans, Beans, The Magical Fruit
I recently bought the Smitten Kitchen cookbook and it’s really pretty. Most cookbooks don’t work for me because I am so picky and I find all the recipes gross. Such is not the case here. There are a lot of seemingly edible dishes in this cookbook! Anyway, I was flipping through it the other day, mostly looking at the pictures, wondering why my food never, ever looks like it does in...
lsjohnson asked: And I wanted to answer your question about interviewing women writers twice! My other rule being do not assume that if the woman is a mother her work must conflict with childrearing. You see that so often, "how do you manage it?" No one asks male writers this; no one even asks if they are a dad unless it's relevant to the text, but women get asked it a lot.
wolfmanstreebark asked: what are your favorite things to write?
Things You Should Know About Isaac Fitzgerald
Yesterday, Isaac Fitzgerald announced that on May 1 he is leaving The Rumpus after four years as managing editor, and will be assuming the position of publicity director for McSweeney’s.
This is wonderful news and I couldn’t be happier for him. He deserves all the best things. He will also be deeply missed at The Rumpus where he has been the beating heart and the bloody soul.
Isaac...
Here's the Thing, Dove
That Dove project/commercial which is designed to show women that they are more beautiful than they think is well and good but it’s also really irritating.
1. Most people know, intellectually, that they are not as hideous as they feel. Beauty is actually not that rare. A forensic artist revealing reality versus perception isn’t going to change human psychology. There’s so much...
Interesting Writing Opportunity
Announcing the inaugural Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize, an award for a previously-completed, unpublished manuscript which comes with $5,000 and a Black Balloon Publishing book deal.
Contest website here.
Submissions: now through April 30, 2013
Only completed English-language manuscripts are eligible
Must be a work of fiction: a novel or short story collection, minimum word count of 50,000...
Real Talk Topics
I have a uniform—dark jeans, dark shirt. I rarely stray from this uniform. It makes me feel… invisible. I know it’s not like the Harry Potter cape of invisibility but I can pretend pretty well. Once in a while, I think, “I am going to mix things up today,” and I will wear, say, black slacks instead of dark jeans. I might even wear a blouse or a pop of color. I did...
The (a)Morality of Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry loves to tell a good morality tale. Whether his movies or stage plays are offering up what goes for humor in Perry’s universe by way of Perry in drag as Madea , or chronicling a wealthy man learning how to be true to himself and others, or following tight-knit friends as they weather the trials of marriage, there is always a lesson to be learned, one supported by fidelity,...
“In the wake of something terrible, I am generally stunned into silence. There is...”
– Stunned Silence - The Rumpus.net
Some Random Thoughts on Complexity and Discourse
Donald Norman’s 2010 book Living With Complexity deals with the importance of complexity, primarily from a design perspective. In the book’s introduction, he distinguishes between complexity, which represents the state of the world, and complicated or confusion, which represent a state of mind. He says, “Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion....
I Don't Really Believe in Amounts: Vegetarian...
I hate chili. When my mom used to make it when I was a kid I got mad because chili is gross and terrible even though she is a wonderful cook. I actually still get mad when she makes it now that I am an adult, like UGH, chili? Why do you hate me? Spoiled much? Yes. She makes what she wants anyway, worry not. She also gets lifetime technical support. I’m a good daughter.
Anyway, I was at my...
Channing Tatum is My Spring Boyfriend
GI JOE RETALIATION WAS AWESOME. I wrote about it on my website.
Nicholas Sparks is Evil And Wants You To Cry
Late last night, after hours of my TV not working because of a storm, finally, there was satellite. Hark!
The Notebook was on and goddamnit, I was completely absorbed by the movie, which I’ve seen far too many times.
What I find particularly hateful (perfect) about The Notebook is how emotionally manipulative it is. Also, not to be too militant, but it says some pretty fucked up things...
Statement on behalf of the Coalition For the Black...
We, the Coalition For the Black “Friends” of Racist White People, hereby declare that we do not claim our white “friends” who so often conjure us when they have misspoken or committed a racist misdeed.
We have never claimed these people regardless of however passionately they have claimed us.
These racist white people have, unfortunately, confused friendship with, at...
Foolishness
This one time, this guy
and this guy:
collaborated (?!?!) on a song called Accidental Racist. This song is not, to my knowledge, a parody.
I was actually so busy at work today that even though this amazing thing happened, I could not give it a fraction of a fuck until I got home just now.
This is one of those songs that is so wrong in so many ways that you have to wonder if Brad Paisley...
THE WRITING SUCCESS SECRET
I often get questions from new writers asking what it takes to become a successful writer. In their questions is the implicit suggestion that there is a an answer to this question, a formula that can be easily replicated. Other times, I’m asked how writers can get published in X, Y, or Z magazine, as if writers have magical connections.
It’s a nice fantasy, the idea that success has...
“I’m not angry, I’m awake. There’s a difference.”
– Roxane Gay (via shamlet)
March 2013
21 posts
Greatest Sentence Ever
A few years ago both men attended a rally of what Pearlson calls “pro-Israel Zionist Christians” at Miami’s Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús.
Contemporary Fiction is Good and So Is My New...
Somehow, my drying rack broke.
I needed a new drying rack, one that could withstand the burden of laundry. Lo and behold, I found a SYSTEM, one that is heavy duty AND compact. I excitedly told my best friend about it and she said, “You do know it has to be assembled, right?”
I was undeterred!
My SYSTEM arrived today and the instructions were extremely terrible, so terrible that...
Beautiful Lifetime Movie Problem
Last night I was watching this epically terrible Lifetime movie, The Trainer. There’s a woman, Annie, who is unhappy. Her ex-husband keeps dating young women. She wants him back. She also wants a promotion at work. She has a best friend who is stock Quirky Best Friend. This is all the character development you’re going to get on her.
Annie decides, impetuously, after seeing her ex...
Check it Out: Ed Walks
Ed Champion is going to embark on an adventure, seeking to unite oral history, long-distance walking, and mobile journalism. The plan is to walk 3,000 miles from Brooklyn to San Francisco starting on May 15th, writing dispatches as he makes his way west across twelve states over the course of six months. Ed will be talking with many people and putting together an oral history radio narrative when...
I Will Follow You in West Branch 72
I have a story in West Branch 72. It is called “I Will Follow You.” It is very long. A subscription to West Branch only costs $10, so I warmly encourage you to check out this fine magazine.
Here is the beginning of my story, that isn’t about what this beginning implies:
My sister decided we had to go see her estranged husband in Reno. When she told me, I was in a mood. I...
Just Trying to Understand This One Essay
I read an essay over the weekend by Anna March, a writer I respect and whose work always interests me whether we agree or not. Anyway, this essay has kept me UP. I literally could not sleep last night. And everyone seems to love this essay, so I honestly feel crazy, like I am missing something, or I am reading it wrong so I am just going to write my way through my confusion.
March writes about...
Clients Wanted for Document Design Class
Friends, I am teaching a document design class and for the last unit, I am looking for clients who need some kind of document or series of documents designed by my babies. In the past students have created brochures, posters, reports, information cards, etc.
If you have a need, we can probably meet it. If interested, e-mail me at roxane at roxanegay.com by the end of the week, with the details of...
Crime & Punishment
Guys, look:
These pancakes are still kind of fucked up but not inedible. Thanks for all your pancake advice. I tried the butter slick method one of you kindly recommended. The quest will continue.
Over the last few days, I’ve read many haunting essays by women about the sexual violence they’ve experienced (I cannot even get into the iaskedpolitely hashtag). These women have felt...
The Writer Serves
One of the first writers I admired and learned from was Chinua Achebe. I haven’t read everything he’s written, by any stretch of the imagination, but three of his works really had an impact—Things Fall Apart, one of the finest novels ever written, his essay, “English and the African Writer,” and his Paris Review interview. Plenty of people smarter than me will write about...
Curious Creatures
I’m going to ramble incoherently today.
New York Magazine published this article, The Retro Wife, that tried to make a trend out of a minuscule sample size, that trend being women staying at home as the new feminist choice. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous, and then at the end, there’s blatant misinformation about one of the women the article’s author, Lisa Miller, writes...
Sad Pancake Story And Book Talk
It started with a desire for pancakes because pancakes are delicious. I looked in my cupboard, always an adventure, and found some Hungry Jack Complete! I pumped my fist in the air but then I couldn’t recall the last time I had tried to make pancakes. A quick glance at the top of the box revealed that the pancake mix had expired in March 2012, an entire year ago. Oh, I was bereft, but then I...
What Empathy Is
I was a visiting professor at the University of Alabama last week, teaching a group of students about how to write difference into our fiction. I thought about how we teach many things in the creative writing workshop—how to read and think like a writer, how to bring discipline to the wilder of our creative tendencies, how to use the various principles of good fiction or poetry or nonfiction to...
The Meaning of Leaning*
In the weeks leading up to the publication of Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In, critics had plenty to say about the Facebook chief operating officer’s ideas about being a woman in the workplace—even though few had actually read the tome. Many of the resulting discussions bizarrely mischaracterized what Lean In was about, tossing around misleading headlines, inaccurate facts, and unfair...
These Ways We Are Different
I am in Alabama for the week, teaching a mini-class at The University of Alabama on writing difference into fiction.
The South is what I thought it would be and nothing like what I thought it would be. I’ve noticed that you rarely see people of different races together in public. It’s disconcerting. Segregation is alive though there are black people everywhere.
People here move slow...
