Literary Las Vegas

My (longish) nonfiction personal narrative, "Two Weeks in Vegas," appears in the current issue of Quay/a Journal of the Arts, in print and online here.

Contrary to the kitschy title, the piece is by turns somber, sober and maybe a just a little bit sweet (but not saccharin I hope), written in the days following my father's death, and dealing with the surreal feelings that particular life event churns up, set against the backdrop of the very strange city that was his home for 25 years.

So I'm hip deep in research, note-taking, author interviews, reading and planning for a critical thesis that's the major part of my third semester work in my nonfiction MFA program. I'll write more about it at a later date, especially on contacting, meeting, interviewing and learning from the writers one admires.

That was how I approached the critical thesis, which is often the most dreaded requirement of the MFA cycle, and turned it into something incredibly fun. Instead of spending hours and pages speculating about what the authors really intended, I thought, why not just ask them?

So I did. Probably because, from the time I was eight-years-old, my father's reply, when I asked for horseback riding lessons, was: Pick up the phone.

But in the meantime, a few links to check out -- frustrating, or funny, or disturbing, or just plain worth a read, and all touch on some aspect of reading, writing or the literary life. Enjoy.

We knew it all along, but now it's official - females read more.

With this nifty calendar/reminder service all about book tours, author appearances and signing, you will never again miss a nearby event.

Oh sure, that's the answer: book banning in a place where open minds are most needed. Brilliant.

Well, maybe the Oprah book-fairy dust works even when it's just nearby. We should all have such problems - a steady columnist gig, a book on the shelf, and that ability to write about the injustice of it all...

Yo, Adrianne. A cool new online semi-literary place to find intelligent essays and other nonfiction from the folks in Philly.