Guest Blogger Desiree Villena on Lessons Learned from Reading Dozens of Short Stories Every Week

Desiree Villena is a writer with Reedsy, which connects authors with self-publishing resources and professionals. She also writes her own short stories.

 Please welcome Desiree Villenna.

 I’m more of a novel person at heart, but I read dozens of short stories every week. My consumption is varied, ranging from space operas set in Alpha Centauri to domestic realism confined to a tiny kitchen. Some of these stories are ideally suited to my interests, touching on the themes and tropes I tend to seek out in novels. Others, though, feel dropped into my lap like unexpected gifts — the kind you end up loving even though you’d never pick them out yourself.

Where do I find all these stories? I’m a judge for Reedsy’s writing contest. Every week, short story writers from around the world send 1000 to 3000 words of fiction in response to a set of prompts. That’s where judges like me come in. Together, we assess entries for everything from plot to prose, until the best story of the group emerges to take the crown.

Few of us judges are professional editors, but judging stories every week has honed our instincts when it comes to evaluating short fiction. I think I speak for all my fellow judges when I say this process has also sharpened our senses for craft, giving us all eagle eyes for what makes short stories work.

Here are five lessons I’ve taken from this experience.

1. The most important part of any story is the beginning. In literature, as in life, first impressions can be hard to shake. If you’re a short fiction writer, the onus is on you to dazzle readers right from that outset — you can’t rely on a mesmerizing cover design (or worse, have to overcome a possibly misleading image). And that means crafting a compelling opening.

 I’ve found that the best indicator of a stories overall quality isn’t its climax or conclusion — it’s the beginning. A strong start activates the reader’s instinct for narrative, exactly the way a mouthwatering aroma triggers the appetite. Those enticing opening lines say: Pay attention. You’re in for something good. 

2. Strong beginnings can sometimes save misshapen stories. Unfortunately, writers sometimes squander the potential of a gorgeous opening. But in my experience, that initial intrigue can buy them quite a bit of readerly goodwill, even if the story starts to unravel a bit. At its most extreme, the halo cast by a perfect beginning can blanch away all kinds of flaws, making unsatisfying endings seem sophisticated in their ambiguity and reframing rambling passages as nuanced and philosophical. 

Of course, you should strive to make your story uniformly strong. But if you want to pour a little more effort into one particular part of it, invest in the beginning. 

3. Style matters more in short fiction. When it comes to novels, I tend to be somewhat style-agnostic. As long as the writer’s voice doesn’t strain understanding, what they say is far more important to me than how they say it. Even flat, colorless prose can be an effective vehicle for a dazzling plot or an unforgettable protagonist. 

As a short fiction reader, I’ve grown more and more attuned to the importance of distinctive, aesthetically pleasing treatment of language. In a form as compressed as a thousand-word story, the boundaries between style and substance feel blurred — there’s no room for carelessness in the writer’s expression. 

4. But good style is genre-dependent. Know that “good” style doesn’t have to mean Nabokovian gorgeousness or Hemingway-esque minimalism. It just means that the prose conveying the writer’s ideas complements them in a way that seems thoughtful and intentional. Different types of stories naturally demand different treatments. 

A story aimed at young readers can be zippy and cute, full of short sentences, snappy dialogue, and delightful onomatopoeias. Meanwhile, a piece of mature historical fiction might be staid and restrained in its language, filigreed with period phrases that give it an air of authenticity. As different as they are, these are both examples of thoughtfully crafted, appropriate literary styles.  

5. Short form makes it easier (and more rewarding) to take stylistic risks. The formal restrictions imposed on short fiction writers might amplify stylistic problems, but they also make it easier to take big risks.  

Some of the strongest entries I’ve encountered as a judge make a point of flouting established writing guidelines. I’ve seen second-person stories, stories written entirely in future tense, and even stories that, on balance, do far more telling than showing. Somehow, they’ve all worked, and not just worked — they won.  

If you want to gamble on a controversial narrative choice, your next short story is the perfect chance. Even less adventurous readers will find unusual storytelling techniques more palatable in short form. Meanwhile, those with avant-garde sensibilities will applaud you for your daring. Even after all the stories I’ve read, there’s nothing I admire more than a stylistically ambitious story told with conviction and verve.

Visit Reedsy to learn more about their contests and other resources.

Images: Flickr/CreativeCommons - Stack of Papers, Philip Wong; Handwritten Pages, Julio Garciah.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers -- June 17, 2016 Edition

> Joshua Becker, at the Minimalist advises, "Accomplish More with a 3-item To Do List." My comment at that post: I have been doing this for years. Didn’t know it was a real thing. I just call it my 1-2-3 Rule. Long to do lists are overwhelming. But who can’t do 3 things?  (And there -- you've just gotten one of my *secret* coaching tips.)

> Read and weep (a little - in the spirit of what my father sometimes said: Beware what you wish for - you might just get it.) "Lisa33 and Me -- The Harrowing True Story of a Six-Figure Advance," at Rottingpost.

> One of my bigger editing pet peeves: dialogue tags other than said or asked.  (Okay, very occasionally I can see the need for something like whispered which usually can't be communicated via the dialogue itself. Then again, I'd probably opt for action, if appropriate, like...he leaned close to her ear and...). My writer pal Linda Sienkiewicz weighs in with "Nancy Pontificated."

> The Wall Street Journal reports that HarperCollins launched a Facebook Live initiative, featuring live video with authors interacting with readers on HC's FB page daily (and also on the individual authors' FB pages).

> At Book Riot, Kelly Jensen with "33 Ways to Have a More Bookish Summer." Why not? (hat tip Buddhapuss Ink)

> Writer Beware examines the BookLife Prize in Fiction.

>Love food and literature, and are local to New York's Hudson Valley? Check out Read and Feed on July 30. Details: "Basilica Hudson, in partnership with CLMP, the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, announce READ & FEED, the launching of a projected annual event bringing together artisanal makers of food with artisanal makers of literature." Tickets here.

> At Writer Unboxed, Donald Maass asks (and does a pretty good job of answering) 

"What Makes Fiction Literary: Scenes Versus Postcards." Be sure to check out the many good comments too.

> Finally, if you have not done so yet, do read Maggie Smith's excellent poem "Good Bones" at Waxwing Magazine. It's rare for a contemporary poem to "go viral" but apparently that's what has happened this week. Read it and, if you're paying even sideways attention to U.S. and world news lately and are weary and disheartened, you'll know why it's struck such a universal chord.

Have a great weekend!

Image: Flickr/CreativeCommons -FaceMePls

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers - November 15, 2013 Edition (And, this one's OFFICIAL!)

Here I thought I was toiling alone on Fridays, clearing out my bloggy fridge. But then I learn (why did it take me six years to learn this?) that there's a official day named after this activity -- and, it is today. Yes, today is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day, started I don't know when by who knows who (though some say it was Whirlpool in 1995.) So let's get those rubber gloves on and get to it!

> The Virginia Quarterly Review has begun a new series, "Writer Dad," the counterbalance perhaps to the mountains of words on how women writers juggle. The first, now up, features Tobias Buckell. 

> I'm a big fan of Roger Rosenblatt's nonfiction, so I loved this PBS interview with Judy Woodruff, in which he discussed the slightly different way in which he views memoir writing and memory (see especially the final 3 minutes).

> When I was a kid, my father gave me tips on how to ask for something from "higher ups" -- make eye contact, shake hands, etc. Today, we writers need to know how to ask for things (blurbs, an agent referral, an introduction to an editor) via email.

> Memoirist Constance Adler -- and her publisher, a reputable university press -- were nearly duped by a scam "book festival awards program". Rather than shrug and move on, Adler went into investigative reporting mode, named names, and emerged with a fine piece of nonfiction narrative, now up at Blackbird.

> From one bloomer boomer to another, thanks Kim Triedman for "Writing Out of Middle Age," over at Beyond the Margins.

> Maybe you've already seen Diane Lockward's post about the specific upside to some of her rejections, as it's been linked to a lot this week, but I think it's worth a little more passing  on. 

> On Small Business Saturday (two days after Thanksgiving), the workforce will grow at more than 100 independent bookstores, when authors will be hand-selling books to customers. The effort began with a challenge from Sherman Alexie in September, and by now, hundreds of authors have signed on. Indiebound has maps, lists, etc; in some stores, a half-dozen authors are volunteering, including a slew of meganames (including Cheryl Strayed, Margot Livesey, Richard Russo, Dave Barry, and Alexie), all interacting and recommending books based on shoppers' interests.

> Canadian author J. Kent Messum has some important words about something wonderful every writer needs:  tough love.

> Finally, in case you're interested in doing the hygiene deed, here are some no-nonsense, no-kidding tips for a healthy fridge cleanse (the real kind).

Have a great weekend.

The Trip from Pragmatic to Optimistic. And Back Again.

Writers, if you've ever been a finalist in any kind of contest, and felt optimistic (or not) about your chances, you may be interested in the story of my journey along that route earlier this spring -- and what came next. It's featured in my newsletter, which went out over the weekend. If you're not on the list, you can read it here. (And, there's a cool giveaway going on that you may like, too.)

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, May 11, 2012 Edition

► Wonder how authors decide on book titles? (Hint: they often don't. Publishers' marketing departments do.) 
► I know, I know, no Pulitzer was awarded this year for fiction…but in case you wondered about the other winners, the list is here.
► On a related note, there also was no award in the nonfiction manuscript category this year for the Bakeless Prize (administered through Bread Loaf Writer's Conference and Greywolf Press). Sigh.
►I'm interested in Pressfolios, a new site where a freelance writer can build an online portfolio. GalleyCat reviewed it.
► Ever wonder if a publishing "opportunity" is really just a scam or at most, borderline ethical?  Writer Beware and Preditors & Editors may help.
► Some of these "super sad true habits of highly effective writers" you may not want to know. But there's also a bit of reassurance, too.
► In case you missed it, here is the essay by Meg Wolitzer from the New York Times Book Review which sparked a lot of discussion the last six weeks about women who write literary novels and why they still aren't included in fiction's elite.
► Finally, England's largest online bookseller has a fun new feature that lets anyone see what books have sold and in what worldwide location, in real time.
Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, Jan. 20, 2012 Edition

I've been crazy busy (thank the freelance gods), so even the link list is short this week. But I am cooking up several author interviews and guest posts for the next month or so, including one with the inimitable Bill Roorbach. So stay tuned. Meanwhile...

►Some good tips from Robert Lee Brewer about experimenting as a writer, and getting out of that comfort zone.

► I try to keep tabs on the precious few book manuscript contests for creative nonfiction, and found this one, from Zone 3 press, with a May 1 deadline. 

► Robert Vivian has some thoughts on the meditative essay.

►If you are considering adding a new poetry book to your collection, NPR previews a dozen good ones set for 2012 release.

►As a teenager, I wanted to be a sports columnist for the New York Times; and still love to read their sports pages. Yesterday, Jere Longman's column hit several of my buttons -- Royal gossip, an equestrian athlete, jocks behaving badly (in this case rugby players), and anything British. But mostly I loved it because of Longman's excellent craft and hilarious style.

►Finally, wouldn't be cool if a U.S. department store held literary events, housed a reading space, and if a fast food chain on this side of the pond were to give away, oh 9 million books? 

Note: Registration is now open for The Submissions Project - an online class to help you get active in the area of moving your work out into the world. Begins Feb 27.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, March 25, 2011

► Are you a book hoarder? Then you will understand this guy's problem.

► End your week – start your weekend – on a grace note, by reading Emily Rapp's elegant essay about how her terminally ill son's diagnosis led her "home" – in every sense of the word.

► In a Poynter interview, Frank Bruni describes how he prepared (in part) for the different challenge of writing his memoir, Born Round, after decades as a New York Times reporter, foreign bureau chief and restaurant critic: "In part I approached my own story the way I would someone else’s. To supplement my own memories I debriefed family members and friends. But mostly I took some time to read, in rapid succession, the kinds of memoirs I’d read before but never with a particular focus. I looked closely at how they were done, how they were paced, their tones. And I tried to draw from that some internal sense of how I should proceed with mine and what I wanted it to read and sound like." The rest of the interview is here.

►Penned a short line you love? Gotham Writing Workshops is running a Twitter-length contest (140 characters).

► More than two dozen AOL sites have either been shut down, or folded into similar "stronger" Huffington Post verticals. It's my understanding that these AOL sites were paying freelance contributors, so what will happen to that policy now? Will the freelance writers now be labeled bloggers, which HuffPo claims it's okay not to pay because they are "not really writers"? And what about that statement anyway?

► I recently concluded the Winter Prompts Project, emailing daily writing prompts to dozens of writers. The final prompt was, "The end of the line." In response, Stephanie Walulik, a former writing student of mine and Prompt Project participant, wrote this post on her blog – about writing, waiting, and endings.

► Have journaling fever? Or wish you did? Maybe Journalfest is for you.

►Local folks interested in online journalism might want to attend this 2-hour panel, Truth and Authenticity in News in a Digital age, at Caldwell College on April 7.

►Finally, if only every writing job ad were this honest.

Have a great weekend.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: April 23rd Edition

► Interesting interview with novelist J.A. Konrath, who is apparently making a tidy living from selling his books almost exclusively on the Kindle: “I've sold 40,000 ebooks since last April. At first, I was amused to be paying my mortgage with Kindle earnings. But now it's turning into serious money.” Indeed.


►Good tips over on Women’s Memoirs, on how the words we remember loved ones saying, and the way we remember their being spoken, can impact our memoir writing.

►The Rejectionist (an assistant to a literary agent), takes aim at the submissions by MFA graduates (mostly fiction).

► Hey, I may never get to Hawaii, but I like the tours and reviews of the state’s libraries over at the Hawaii Book Blog. I don’t know of any other sites that do this for libraries, do you?

►Every freelance writer has seen their share of lousy fee offers. Now, Forbes wants some of the contributors to its website to work for free because “your posts would be available to millions of Forbes readers.” Gee, swell. Wonder if any of them will offer to pay the writers’ rent. And by the way, we’re not talking “citizen journalist” bloggers here. Apparently, the magazine/site – dedicated to helping its readers increase their financial position – is making the offer to established financial journalists.

► Narrative magazine is coming to the iPad, and they’re holding a contest to help kick off the new free app.

► Writers in the San Mateo County, California area have a few days left to enter the nonfiction contest about a special horse, sponsored by local resident Verna Dreisbach, editor of Why We Ride: Women Writers on the Horse in Their Lives, which, if you haven’t been reading this blog much, is just out from Seal Press (and I am one of the contributors).

► One of my online students published this fun little piece, which she worked on during a week we focused on humor. It’s up over at The Writing Mamas – a nifty site for those who write and mother.

►Finally, when I want a quick laugh, I sometimes head over to Dr. Grumpy’s blog, written by a fed-up anonymous neurologist. It has nothing to do with writing, usually. Except for the other day, when I was working on a future lesson about comic dialogue for my online classes and came across this:
Dr. Grumpy: "What time was your seizure last night?"
Mrs. Etoh: "Around 10:00, as we were leaving the bar."
Dr. Grumpy: "I thought you'd stopped drinking?"
Mrs. Etoh: "I did, but last night we had a round after our AA meeting."

Have a great weekend.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: January 8 Edition

► Roger Ebert, film critic legend, whose surgeries have destroyed his ability to speak or eat, wrote a compelling blog post on the subject.

►I’m planning to get the new collection, Interference and Other Stories, by Richard Hoffman, a key faculty member in my MFA program, from whom I learned a great deal. As for his work, I like the way one reviewer put it: "In the case of author Richard Hoffman, you may well finish his stories only to find that they're not finished with you."

►Hey, here's an idea: "Encourage others to respect your writing time. This starts with you respecting your writing time." Nine other tips for liberating more time to write – plus lots of other interesting posts -- are over at AuthorCulture.

► Have an opinion about, well, anything you can express with the opening line: "There are two kinds of people in the world…."? Then head on over to the fun Two Kinds of People blog for an essay guest post contest, where Susan Bearman has been posting – seriously, comically, engagingly -- about dichotomous folks and their interests/likes/dislikes for quite a while.

►I'm not sure there was anything Elizabeth Gilbert could write as a follow-up to her wildly profitable memoir Eat, Pray, Love (5 million copies in print, Julia Roberts film in production) that would please critics. Her new book, Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage was bound to generate mixed reviews. Hey, Gilbert's a Jersey girl now, so I'm in her corner!

►A rerun of the October interview with Julie Metz, author of the memoir Perfection, will air on Oprah today.

►From the Department of Shameless Self-promotion: I was honored to be included in the latest round-up of accomplishments by members of the Emerging Writers Network, which does so much good on behalf of so many writers.

► From the let's-hope-it's-not-really-that-bad department: From a literary agent: Statistics to Torture Yourself With in 2010. From the Los Angeles Times: Freelancing Writing's Unfortunate New Model. Let me know when you start having fun.

►Finally, if after reading those, you still want to write, consider siging up for (free) my Prompt-a-Day project for January here.

Have a great weekend.

The Story Behind the Essay

So where did that essay come from, what craft decisions were made along the way, and how did its eventual form evolve? These were the questions I attempted to answer yesterday in a guest post on Erika Dreifus's writing blog. The essay I wrote was "42 Lies About My Child," which was a winner recently in the 31 Hours Contest. The essay's form is unusual, and begins like this:

But he's such a good baby. But he's floppy and never comfortable.
He's developing at his own pace. He's lagging behind.
Stop reading books. Books are often right.
So what if he doesn't point? Pointing is a developmental milestone.

To read the rest of the piece on the contest site, click here. And to get my take on the story behind the essay, click here.

Department of Shameless Self Promotion: One savvy author, one of my essays. It's a win-win..

A short, nontraditional piece I wrote is one of five winners in the 31 Hours Contest, featuring essays about parental intuition. The pieces are featured on the website of author Masha Hamilton, who ran the contest in connection with her new novel, 31 Hours, which traces a mother's deep intuition about her son through a compelling story of compassion and complications. You can read the contest winners, including my piece, 43 Lies About My Child, here.

Every writer needs a creed. Here's mine.

About five years ago, when my career needed a major shake-up after a lengthy hiatus for child-rearing, I decided I would do two things:

1. Stretch, especially in ways that I think, for various reasons, are off-limits to me.
and
2. Say YES.

Usually, the YES part comes first. "Yes I can do that," I say, with a confident smile on my face, all the while thinking, "How the hell I am going to do THAT?" Still, these two mandates have led me to many great places. Lately, I've added a third: Do what scares me.

Which leads me this: I'm writing fiction. Yup, three (probably very bad) rough drafts of short stories have somehow appeared on my desk. It doesn't look like "this fiction thing" is going away; but it also isn't going to take center stage. So, I'm just engaging with it, writing a bit every day, saying yes. The scary part: I've always understood how important it is to incorporate some of the elements of fiction when writing nonfiction; BUT discovering that the opposite is not entirely true -- that some of the foundation stones of memoir and personal essay don't translate to the act of writing of fiction -- was quite disconcerting at first.

I also said YES this month to judging a writing contest for a local arts organization, and to co-chairing plans for a master class series for MEWS (Montclair Editors & Writers Society). Neither of these two things fall into the scary department, except maybe in the sense of finding the time. But I don't sleep that much.

By the way, these three mandates don't always turn out fabulously. Road bumps have ensued. I've made a few dumb choices. Rejections seem to multiply. But they seem manageable. So, not so scary.

On the other hand, the high school reunion coming up in five weeks – the one I still can't decide to attend or not? Now, that's scary.

Writers, I Hereby Submit. And submit. And submit.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I am a big fan of the submission process and the role it plays in a writer's development, craft, and business. (Even if one's writing is not meant to generate income, I still think of every writer as having a business).

Whether you are submitting completed pieces to literary journals, query letters and manuscript chapters to agents, or queries to obtain article assignments, I believe that having a submission plan, routine, and a healthy attitude toward the process can only be a good thing. Regardless of what stage, phase, or malaise you find yourself in, I think it's a good idea to keep the submission muscle in play.

Well.

I must fess up. It's been a while since I took my own advice. A few months, to be exact. (I know this because I checked my very efficient Excel submission tracking spreadsheet – did I mention you must have one of these?)

The lull had to do with a combination of being in a major push to get to a new stage in my teaching efforts while at the same time being in a stubborn phase of not feeling too confident about the "completed" pieces and ideas in my to-be-submitted pile. Then there were paying clients whose work had to come first. And (non-paying) houseguests. Rudderless kids galumphing about. And rain, rain, rain. Oh, and did I mention the three friends who scored major literary coups recently? Yes, I'm happy for them -- truly, madly, deeply happy. But.

So, late yesterday afternoon, after the house cleared of menfolk headed to a Giants preseason game, I got back on the submission stick. First, I had to face some of my "reasons" for the hiatus.
• Confidence in completed work. The truth is, even after a piece is accepted for publication and after it's published, I'm still not really confident about it. Not really. Not completely. Is any writer?

• Energy targeted in another direction. Spending the time and focused energy on branching out in my teaching efforts is important. (And worthwhile - I'll be teaching one class at a local university this fall, but more about that in a future post.) Still, I want to stay tuned in to students' publishing goals, and to set an example by continuing to chase my own.

• Paychecks vs. possibilities. Yes, paying clients are freelance gold, but continued attention to publication builds my list of "calling cards", keeps me personally aware of the challenges my editing clients face, and of course -- published work (whether well-paid or not) usually leads to other paying work.

• Home office vs. B-&B. Working at home while relatives are staying with me for weeks, all I can really manage is to get to the stuff marked editor's-waiting-for-it / client-wants-it / program-director-needs-it. Shoot me.

• Summer & the living is...different. When they are kicking about the house, my kids are, thankfully, very considerate of my work time/space; they don't ask me to have lunch with them, play against them in a few games of Wii Sports, or discuss the plot of their summer reading books. Those things are all my ideas, and you know what? It's a good trade-off.

• When good things happen to good people. The three writer friends whose recent success I applauded but secretly envy? One won a major contest, another was published in a coveted spot, and the third signed with an agent who sold her book within two weeks. So I asked myself: Is there any real reason to feel that their accomplishments say something negative about my own work? And the answer was, frankly to my own surprise – NO! I had not entered the same contest as my first friend (though I will, next year). I had not submitted anything in three years to the column my second friend was published in (though I could have, and maybe should). And, I am not agent-shopping at the moment (though I may be soon). So my friends' coups should do nothing more than give me hope, right?

Even if my friends' good fortune were in exactly same arenas in which I had also tossed my hat – well, so what? Letting that keep me from pushing on helps no one. What helps is to get back into action.

And so I did, sending my words off on wireless wings.

Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Hot August Writes

Today’s list of links I liked lately. Enjoy.

• My friend and former MFA classmate Kerry Herlihy wrote the Modern Love essay in last Sunday’s New York Times, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. (Okay, I’d be more thrilled if it were me, but I screamed out loud while alone in my office when I got the news a few weeks ago). On the blog of another mutual MFA classmate, Kerry describes how she nailed the acceptance, and its aftermath.

• Short stories seem suited to today’s shorter attention spans, right? Not according to the traditional publishing industry, and this piece (and all the comments) asks why not, and ventures a few guesses.

• Not busy over the upcoming Labor Day weekend? Maybe the International 3-day Novel Writing event is for you.

• Mothers (and fathers) who wish to participate in an online workshop focused on writing about parenthood would do well to check out this class, taught by Susan Ito, creative nonfiction editor at Literary Mama (and a generous, smart and funny gal).

• The Poets & Writers Maureen Egan Writers’ Exchange Contest, which moves from state to state, will reach my state in 2010 – New Jersey fiction writers and poets are eligible (deadline Dec. 1, 2009).

• Would you accept, and even be happy about, a payment of $30 for one of your creative works to appear in Time magazine? Apparently that’s what happened when the media giant paid for a cover photograph a little while back.

• France’s version of the blog-to-memoir-to-movie-to-second book deal. Ka-ching. And, good for her.• I’ve said this often: I’m not a huge fan of “balance.” Maybe because I’m not all that skilled at it. Yet I admire anyone – especially a writer-mother with a full time day job – who is trying anew to make it happen.

• Excellent writing prompts, tips, exercises over here.

• Harriet Brown’s next book is going to be a family memoir about dealing with her daughter’s anorexia and recovery. She’s posted a draft of her prologue here, and welcomes comments, particularly from those who have experience with the subject matter.

• It’s all about the story, says this writer. No matter what.

•And finally, I can’t nominate my own blog (well I could, but I feel a bit smarmy doing so), but if you think this blog is helpful for writers, you could do the deed.


Have a great weekend.


Coming soon on the blog -- an interview with Sue William Silverman on writing memoir.

Literary Journal Subscription Winner

We have a winner.

Congratulations to Bonnie Naradzay, a poet and fellow Stonecoast MFA alum, who is now the recipient of the one-year subscription to the literary journal Prairie Schooner.

Bonnie's name was chosen at random by my very high tech in-house random selector, otherwise known as an 11-year-old who reached into a bowl filled with folded up pieces of paper on which I had written the name of each commenter from the two Prairie Schooner posts we ran.

Thanks to all who entered and have a great weekend.

Two Takes on an Essay from Prairie Schooner

It was no fun last week being a writer with a double eye infection, sinus infection, mega-headache, head cold and assorted other complaints. Can you imagine how much reading or writing got done? Enough said. Now that I'm clear-headed and, ahem, clear-eyed, let's move on. We're giving away a subscription to a fine literary journal this week.....

Last week I had the privilege of previewing and commenting on one of the poems in the current issue of the literary journal Prairie Schooner, now in its 83rd year. Today, it's a creative nonfiction essay which has our attention. The piece, A Grand Canyon, by Lee Zacharias, appears in the print version of the journal, and in part online at their website.

Of the four good essays in the Spring 2009 of PS which I was graciously permitted to preview, I knew immediately I was most connected to A Grand Canyon. She had me at hello, with an opening sentence that's tight, enticing and effective – and not only because it brought up something intensely personal for me, and I suspect, for many adult children juggling teenage children and the seemingly trivial wish of an aging parent.

In Zacharias's piece, it's a trip to the Grand Canyon her mother yearns for; for me, it's Williamsburg, Virginia my own mother longs to see, never mind that she's unable to handle the walking about required. Okay, I admit that's perhaps a bit like judging a book by its cover, but there you go. Yet, I can think of no better way of selecting how to spend my reading time than to find an opening line so arresting it makes a reader decide, immediately, yes, I'll spend time with that narrator, I'll follow where she leads – take me.

Zacharias opens her narrative this way:

"My mother said she always wanted to see the Grand Canyon. Actually what she said was "I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, but I guess I'll never get there." Then the guess fell silent, the comma disappeared, she was sure she'd never get there, and the pause between the two clauses grew so short, the thought was one, desire and disappointment a single breath. She wasn't going to see the Grand Canyon before she died, and to her it surely seemed a melancholy measure of her life."

You can read a longer excerpt of the opening of the piece here.

Then, after a few paragraphs of backstory, we're off, physically and metaphorically; daughter and mother will travel to the Canyon, along with the narrator's 14-year-old son: "But the truth is I didn't really decide to take her to the Grand Canyon. One night when she began, "I always wanted...," I snapped, "I'll take you," because I never wanted to hear the rest of that sentence again."

Now here, Zacharias had entered my particular emotional territory, and the landscape in which I often travel as a writer – mothers and sons, daughter and aging parent, grandparent and grandson. Yet the truth is, Zacharias's prose is excellent all around, and her narrative style is compelling enough to pull a reader through the journey of the plot as well as the journey on the page, regardless of whether a reader shares any of her particular situational dynamics. Of course, isn't that the sweet spot of personal nonfiction, the embodiment of why people read nonfiction at all? Not because they necessarily want the narrator's story, but because they wish to find, somewhere within that story, some way to process and understand their own.

Zacharias delivers, weaving a piece rich in family dynamics and generational chasms. The questionable pairing of travel companions, grandmother and teenage grandson, begins sweetly, devolves into perhaps predictable bickering, and – once all have seen the physical Canyon – ends with the narrator's confiding a future separation between mother and son of a far greater emotional distance, with more at stake than a mother's unrequited wanderlust. There is as especially effective segment where, much later, the narrator is looking at photographs from the trip, and trying to make sense of the gaping distance to come: "Max and I should have lingered on the trail – why didn't we? My mother is fine and he is so soon to retreat from me – but the shadow is long, it's late, we're tired and hungry, it's time to move on."

In reading through Zacharias's essay and the Christiano poem, I was struck by the mirrored themes of sons growing away from their parents, as of course, all teenagers must As Zacharias puts it, "One day the love affair ends for the child, though it never does for the parent….As children always do, he grew up and became someone else, a young man I love more than anything on earth even though I will never know him in the way I once thought I knew the boy."

Prairie Schooner's managing editor James Engelhardt, had this to say about A Grand Canyon:

"Here again, families are at stake. What’s good to note, at least in passing, is how the two genres (poetry and creative nonfiction) differ in their compression. Zacharias has a lot more (dare I say it?) space in which to work. But also notice the strength of the opening and how the narrator moves so deftly through the paragraph, establishing the breadth and narrowness of the mother’s ambition (note, too, the sly alliteration of “Nashville, New Orleans, and Niagara Falls”). We get a very quick look at how the mother/daughter relationship around travel was built, but with very little commentary or judgment. And then the end of the second paragraph when we read that the Grand Canyon “was big enough to hold everything that had failed to come her way in life.”

Then the focus switches to the narrator's son and by the end of the third page (probably five or so manuscript pages) the characters are onstage and off on their adventure. As the essay moves along, I find myself nodding over the ways that Zacharias situates each tension explicitly. I mean that instead of saying that the grandmother and teenaged son bicker constantly over small things, she picks two small points: legroom and earphones. There are other conventions that Zacharias borrows from fiction besides a tight focus. She tells us that “the stark beauty of the land seemed to bode well” in a deft example of foreshadowing that seems lovely (and notice that the comment is within a visual detail) and yet ominous. Not too much later, she sketches out some of the trouble her son would have, but not on this trip.

She compresses time marvelously at different points to work us through the narrative more quickly. Every scene picks up some new aspect to the characters and their relationships. The narrator is slightly distracted, distressed, we wonder about some of her decisions, but we never lose identification with her.

At the end of the essay, Zacharias does a kind of summary that is pretty well strictly forbidden for poetry. She makes explicit that the Canyon is a metaphor for the divisions within family, and the erosion that left the Canyon AS a canyon reveals how a relationship can change and yet remain wonderful. And yet she leaves some things unsaid, and it’s the wonderful job of the reader to find the theme of Otherness that also runs through the piece, as we discover with her how each of them experiences their environment and each other as wholly different."

UPDATE: If you leave a comment here, or over on last week's post about the Roberto Christiano poem, you'll be entered in a giveaway of a year's subscription (four issues) to Prairie Schooner. (Be sure to leave an email or another way for us to contact you.) We're going to extend the contest until midnight PST on Friday, April 17. You can also order your own subscription or back issues here.

Poetry, Publicity, Reading, Contests, and is the Publishing Sky Falling?

►Okay, I'm heading out to a poetry master class (some people just have too much time on their hands, right?), and after the class, I'll have an hour lull before the evening readings, which is when I plan to read my copy of New York magazine, starting with this the sky-is-falling piece that so many publishing and media sites are buzzing about.

►At lunch yesterday with a new novelist friend, I was telling her that one of the reasons – in addition to excellent prose and fine storytelling -- why her latest book was such a satisfying read for me, is the place I found myself both physically and psychologically when I sat down to read it. So it is with complete simpatico that I read Erika Dreifus's post about what one of the late David Foster Wallace's works meant to her.

►Even though I have a background in public relations, I still keep picking up great new (and new media) tips from Publicity Hound, relevant to positioning and developing one's "brand." I keep passing these along to friends with books to promote.

►Contests. Good, bad and sometimes, very, very ugly. Poet Stacy Lynn Brown recounts a tale which starts with a familiar hanging-in-there-and-continuing-to-submit scenario, leading to an eventual contest win that came with a publishing promise…then it turns depressing: deceit, lawsuit threats, disillusionment, and other unsavory situations. And, she names names. There's a response from the small press she indicts, and I suppose only the two of them know the "real" story. Still. Those who enter contests (me included), might take note.