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August 31, 2007
A MANNA OF SHORT STORIES AND MOVIES
I had just put away my collections of short stories - finished the Pushcart 2007 and almost-finished the O'Henry '07 - to begin reading a few novels, starting with Cormac McCarthy's The Road when:
My first issue of my Harper's subscription arrived and there it was - short fiction by David Bezmozgis' titled The Proposition. One of the books I brought back from my first trip, last year, to the US was his Natasha and Other Stories. He was also one of the workshop instructors I was fortunate to meet at last years Zoetrope All-Story camp in Belize. The story in Harpers is a wonderful one and it reminded me of a 2004 Argentinian movie I saw this week - Whisky.
The guy at Video Dogs in Carlton has promised me another in the same vein - Brazil - that I am looking forward to.
Posted by girija tropp at 07:01 PM | Permalink
August 19, 2007
MY COFFEE TABLE IS COVERED WITH SHORT STORIES
Yesterday, the cafe was short-staffed and my son agreed to work if I took him in and then onto his friend's place at the end of his shift so he could watch football. My husband asked if I could keep an eye on the counter as well in case they needed me to take orders.
I took a couple of books with me and managed to read about four pages in three hours because I was constantly aware of everything that was going on in the cafe. At some point, a woman called Donna (have I remembered right?) sat next to me and asked about the Granta upon which I had propped The 2007 Pushcart Prize XXXI BEST OF THE SMALL PRESSES. I had begun reading Richard Burgin's Vacation (the four pages) and I finished it this morning. I'd forgetten that I'd started it because of 'my coffee table that is covered with such a treasure trove of short story anthologies and collections'. I'd picked up Colm Toibin's Mothers and Sons and finished another story - Famous Blue Raincoat - and was thinking of the musical setting and how that was so much the Ireland I'd visited around the time the story took place.
I told Donna that she ought to, absolutely, read this collection by Colm Toibin. It is suberb. She told me that she liked his work anyway. I said that I did as well but this was beyond first rate.
I also recommended the 2007 Pushcart which I have been reading cover to cover - I love the arrangement of fiction, poetry and essay here in a 'Best Of' selection. Besides, it has Kim Chinquee's FORMATION, a wonder that originally appeared in the literary magazine Noon.
In reading Kim's story, I was reminded of reading Noon when I was in New York, cover to cover, and the story, The Caterpillar by Lydia Davis, that appears in her SSC from Farrar Straus and Giroux, Varieties of Disturbance. But more about this book in my next post.
Now I should be excused for a moment -- a friend of ours has become a grandmother, her twenty-old-daughter has just had twins, girls. WOW!
Back again - It is by accident that my coffee table is full of these marvellous SSCs. Mothers and Sons came via the library, but the others are from my last Amazon order. In my next post - a full list.
But more about the gems in the Pushcart 2007: Cool Things by Brian Doyle from Oregon Humanities. Check that journal out. The Medicine Man by Kevin Moffett. I wondered why the name was familiar until I realized that Kevin Moffett's SSC had won the Iowa Prize the year before Jim Tomlinson did, and that I'd fondled both books at the Atlanta AWP before buying Jim's (there is only so much one can carry across international waters). Poetry by Louise Gluck, fiction by Laura Kasischeke with the fabulous title: If A Stranger Approaches You About Carrying A Foreign Object With You Onto The Plane.
That's it for now. I am ready for my Lunch and more Reading!
Posted by girija tropp at 01:49 PM | Permalink
August 17, 2007
Zoetrope All-Story Workshop
I meant to tell the world to get to this workshop. But many things have interrupted my plans. Here is a LINK. Last year, the workshop happened in September. Much earlier this year. Tomorrow actually. I'll wake up thinking of everyone arriving at the airport, and the long ooh-aah ride, 2 hrs, up into Blancaneaux Lodge. The whole experience is like being inside a film, a movie of yourself as a writer.
The place, the people, the experience -- I went last year -- was totally luxurious. As a part paticipant awoved on their website, I'd go there every year if I could. Going last year was made possible for me when I won The Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize.
I met David Bezmozgis whose book Natasha and Other Stories is a wonderful read. He recommended the work of Leonard Michaels and The Collected Short Stories of Leonard Michaels has just been put out by Farrar Straus and Giroux.
Michael Ray is one of the instructors this year. A wonderful person and editor, he saved my ass when we went walking to the waterfall and I faltered. I was jetlagged. In my first attempt at travelling in twenty years, I flew to LA, then to New York, overnighted at JFK, took Delta to Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Belize.
I met other writers who I kept in touch with: Angela Coombs who I stayed with in LA, showed me the ins-and-outs of Hollywood, and of screenplays. Nina Antoine who came to join us. Jim Darr (and his wife) who took me out to dinner when I turned up to do an Agni reading in Boston.
I rarely get a chance to do a workshop. Still don't. But I highly recommend this one. Look out for it next year!
Posted by girija tropp at 06:42 PM | Permalink