Roy Miller's Blog, page 244
March 16, 2017
Librarians Vow to Fight Trump on Funding Cuts
Just over halfway into his first 100 days, President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating virtually all federal funds for libraries. And librarians this week said they will fight back.
In a statement, the American Library Association called Trump’s proposal to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services in his FY2018 budget (effectively ending all federal funding for libraries of all kinds) “counterproductive and short-sighted,” and vowed to fight the measure.
“The American Library Association will mobilize its members, Congressional library champions, and the millions upon millions of people we serve in every zip code to keep those ill-advised proposed cuts from becoming a Congressional reality,” the statement reads. “Libraries leverage the tiny amount of federal funds they receive through their states into an incredible range of services for virtually all Americans everywhere to produce what could well be the highest economic and social ROI [return on investment] in the entire federal budget.”
As had been expected for almost two months, President Trump’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2018, released this week, also eliminates funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institutes of Museum and Library Services. The NEA and NEH had both received about $148 million in funding, while the IMLS budget was $230 million.
In mid-January, The Hill reported that the Trump administration planned to take the axe to a host of domestic programs in order to raise military funding by 10% (or $54 billion).
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‘The Stranger in the Woods’ for 27 Years: Maine’s ‘North Pond Hermit’
What Knight didn’t need, clearly, was other people. They depleted and confused him. Nor was he seduced by busyness. Living in the woods amounted to a kind of self-erasure, an obliteration of time and identity. “What did he do for a living?” Finkel asks. “He lived for a living.” The Chinese have a name for it: wu wei. Non-doing.
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Michael Finkel
Credit
Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos
I’ll confess that a small part of me was haunted by a different sort of question, which was whether Knight was telling the authorities the whole truth. I am not alone in my skepticism. Finkel writes that roughly 80 percent of the North Pond summer residents he spoke to couldn’t believe Knight had survived for decades in a crude shelter of his own making — not when the winter temperatures could fall to 20 degrees below zero, not when the summer mosquitoes were so vicious they would raise a sky’s worth of constellations on your skin.
But the state police and game warden who interrogated Knight did believe him, and they had plenty of experience in smoking out fibbers, if not hermits.
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Knight had definitely fashioned an elaborate North Pond encampment — made exclusively from stolen goods — concealed inside a ring of boulders and hemlocks. He was a poltergeist in a parka, a Charles Boyer on little cat feet. For 27 years, those with vacation cabins on North and Little North Ponds in central Maine would return to find that something was ever so slightly off: steaks gone from the freezer, a pack of batteries missing from a drawer.
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Over time, these bewildered residents realized that someone was lurking in the woods. When Knight was apprehended, he estimated he’d committed 40 robberies per year. His was the largest burglary case in the state. “Maybe the world,” Finkel adds.
Be prepared for occasional flourishes like that one. (Another: “Christopher Knight, you could argue, is the most solitary known person in all of history.”) A few sentences in this book are sprayed with that inexplicable men’s-magazine hyperbole cologne.
Much of “The Stranger in the Woods” is devoted to logistics: How Knight bathed (sponge baths), how he kept warm (pacing), how he eluded detection. (He cooked with a camp stove rather than a fire, for example. Because where there’s smoke. ...)
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Finkel, to whom Knight gave stunning access while in jail — especially for a hermit — also does a fine job conveying the idiosyncrasies of his subject’s character. He was awkward and blunt, yet almost formal in his diction. He brimmed with persnickety literary opinions. He avoided looking at people’s faces — “there’s too much information there” — which may have contributed to the state’s three possible diagnoses for him: Asperger’s syndrome, depression or schizoid personality disorder.
Finkel makes a convincing case that none of these labels are especially apt. Isn’t it possible he just wanted to be alone?
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Though my question persists: How alone was he?
“The Stranger in the Woods” is involving and well-told; it certainly casts its spell. But there are inconsistencies in Knight’s story.
When he was first caught, for instance, Knight had trouble calculating his age, because he seemed not to know what day or year it was. But he stole plenty of watches and radios while he was in the woods — he was intrigued by Rush Limbaugh — which suggests that he must have had some idea. And while we’re on the subject of electronics: This is a man who once stole a small television, which he powered with a stolen car battery. If he was so close to civilization, how could no one hear it when he tuned in to Ken Burns’s “The Civil War”? I could go on.
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There are possible explanations for these things. I just wish they’d been addressed. Finkel, as many journalists know, has been driven at certain moments to tell improbably awesome stories. In 2001, he wrote a cover article for The New York Times Magazine with a composite character at its heart. He spent a long time in the penalty box for it, but over time, he was sprung — possibly because he, unlike some other sinners in the profession, seemed to have a largely clean record. His other stories checked out fine.
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Finkel appears to have been quite conscientious in writing “The Stranger in the Woods.” He provides notes on sources. He gives the names of his (two!) fact-checkers. But it’s hard not to notice that he’s chosen a story that is, in some sense, impossible to completely nail down.
Yet it’s important to note that Knight had no incentive to lie. It’s not as if he craved the attention. People have not stepped forward to say they provided him assistance in all those years. Local authorities speak of his knowledge of the woods with reverence; the Maine newspapers reported his story as truth. And Finkel does tackle a number of objections his readers might silently raise.
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He never gets an entirely satisfying explanation from Knight about why he decided, at 20, to vanish from the world. But perhaps we don’t need one. Maybe some people just feel an overpowering longing for solitude the same way others feel an overwhelming urge to ski off the edge of the Matterhorn. It’s another kind of extreme craving. For quiet. For aloneness. For no part of what most of us know.
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ALA Presents Senator John Tester with 2017 James Madison Award
American Library Association (ALA) Past President Sari Feldman this week presented U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) with the 2017 James Madison Award during a ceremony streamed live from the Newseum’s Knight TV Studio in Washington, D.C. The award honors organizations or individuals who have “championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know how it functions.”
In a statement, ALA officials noted that since coming to office in 2008, Tester has led congressional efforts to bring transparency to government and improve the public’s access to information. In fact, in the two months that the 115 Congress has been in session, Tester has already introduced three campaign finance reform bills to increase government accountability.
Tester joins a distinguished group of 28 past Madison Award winners, who include former Vice President Al Gore, Senators Russ Feingold and John Cornyn, philanthropist George Soros and journalist Nina Totenberg.
“In an age of information overload and inaccuracy, librarians around the country are keenly aware of the critical role they play in supporting information access and literacy,” said Feldman. “Senator Tester has not only protected but strengthened access to information by introducing legislation that brings it online to the public.”
Montana State Librarian Jennie Stapp added that Tester’s track record demonstrates that he shares librarians’ core values.
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Opposing Views on What to Do About the Data We Create
Not everyone believes that our information should be freely available as long as we agree to the terms of use. In “The Art of Invisibility,” the internet security expert Kevin Mitnick advocates the opposite. Mitnick notes various reasons we may want to hide our data: We’re wary of the government; we don’t want businesses intruding into our lives; we have a mistress; we are the mistress; we’re a criminal. Mitnick, who served five years in prison for hacking into corporate networks and stealing software, offers a sobering reminder of how our raw data — from email, cars, home Wi-Fi networks and so on — makes us vulnerable. He describes basic privacy protections (using a strong password, avoiding public computers) along with more advanced techniques (encrypting files on a hard drive, using a VPN and Bitcoin for online purchases). Most will seem familiar and perhaps rudimentary to those with any technical savvy. For everyone else, he offers an uncomfortable view of how data can be exploited.
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Both books are meant to scare us, and the central theme is privacy: Without intervention, they suggest, we’ll come to regret today’s inaction. I agree, but the authors miss the real horror show on the horizon. The future’s fundamental infrastructure is being built by computer scientists, data scientists, network engineers and security experts just like Weigend and Mitnick, who do not recognize their own biases. This encodes an urgent flaw in the foundation itself. The next layer will be just a little off, along with the next one and the one after that, as the problems compound.
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Right now, humans and machines engage in “supervised learning.” Experts “teach” the system by labeling an initial data set; once the computer reaches basic proficiency, they let it try sorting data on its own. If the system makes an error, the experts correct it. Eventually, this process yields highly sophisticated algorithms capable of refining and using our personal data for a variety of purposes: automatically sorting spam out of your inbox, say, or recommending a show you’ll like on Netflix. Then, building on this foundation of data and algorithms, more teaching and learning takes place.
But human bias creeps into computerized algorithms in disconcerting ways. In 2015, Google’s photo app mistook a black software developer for a gorilla in photos he uploaded. In 2016, the Microsoft chatbot Tay went on a homophobic, anti-Semitic rampage after just one day of interactions on Twitter. Months later, reporters at ProPublica uncovered how algorithms in police software discriminate against black people while mislabeling white criminals as “low risk.” Recently when I searched “C.E.O.” on Google Images, the first woman listed was C.E.O. Barbie.
Data scientists aren’t inherently racist, sexist, anti-Semitic or homophobic. But they are human, and they harbor unconscious biases just as we all do. This comes through in both books. In Mitnick’s, women appear primarily in anecdotes and always as unwitting, jealous or angry. Near the end, Mitnick describes trying to enter Canada from Michigan, and wonders if he’s stopped “because a Middle Eastern guy with only a green card was driving.” (He might be right, but he doesn’t allow for the possibility that his own criminal record could also be responsible.)
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Weigend’s book is meticulously researched, yet nearly all the experts he quotes are men. Early on he tells the story of Latanya Sweeney, who in the 1990s produced a now famous study of anonymized public health data in Massachusetts. She proved that the data could be traced back to individuals, including the governor himself. But Sweeney is far better known for something Weigend never mentions: She’s the Harvard professor who discovered that — because of her black-sounding name — she was appearing in Google ads for criminal records and background checks. Weigend could have cited her to address bias in the second of his six rights, involving the integrity of a refinery’s social data ecosystem. But he neglects to discuss the well-documented sexism, racism, xenophobia and homophobia in the machine-learning infrastructure.
The omission of women and people of color from something as benign as book research illustrates the real challenge of unconscious bias in data and algorithms. Weigend and Mitnick rely only on what’s immediate and familiar — an unfortunately common practice in the data community. University computer science, math and physics departments lack diversity in staff and coursework. Corporate data science is homogeneous. So are professional and academic conferences, where the future of data is discussed. If the people mining and processing our data are nothing like us, and if the machines learn only from them, our data can yield only warped caricatures, like the zombies you see on TV.
As a futurist, I try to figure out how your data will someday power things like artificially intelligent cars, computer-assisted doctors and robot security agents. That’s why I found both books concerning. Think of all the characteristics that make up who you are: how much coffee you drink, how fast you drive, how often you open your refrigerator, your respiratory rate, what slang you use, the random strangers you’ve friended on Facebook. You may look like Weigend and Mitnick and therefore may not have experienced algorithmic discrimination yet. You, too, should be afraid. We’ve only recently struck oil.
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In This Thriller, an Israeli Doctor Can’t Escape His Irresponsibility
Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Credit
Nir Kafri
WAKING LIONS
By Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Translated by Sondra Silverston
341 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $26.
Eitan Green, the protagonist of the Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s novel “Waking Lions,” is a respected neurosurgeon who has been forced by a professional dispute to relocate from Tel Aviv to Beersheba, a desert town where dust is everywhere, “a thin white layer, like the icing on a birthday cake no one wants.” Speeding through a remote area in his S.U.V. late one night, he hits an Eritrean man walking by the roadside. And when he decides that the victim is beyond help, he impulsively flees the scene.
The next morning, the victim’s widow shows up at Eitan’s doorstep, holding his wallet and demanding not his money but his expertise. Soon she has blackmailed him into treating illegal immigrants from the northeast of Africa at an abandoned garage that has been turned into an underground hospital. The novel that follows — part psychological thriller, part morality play — takes readers through the wilderness of the Negev desert and its underworld of Israeli drug dealers, Bedouin gangs and desperate refugees.
Gundar-Goshen has said that she believes the writer’s job is to force readers to look at what they’d usually avoid. Not short on discomfiting scenes, “Waking Lions” offers a commentary on privilege and otherness, challenging readers to confront their own blind spots and preconceptions. The themes of visibility and invisibility, of the power dynamics between the observed and the observer, run throughout the narrative. Although the victim’s widow, Sirkit, who scrubs floors at a gas station restaurant, often goes unnoticed by Israelis, she is a beautiful woman, and thus used to the male gaze. She knows that “men can fasten their eyes on you the way people put a collar on a dog.” As the lone witness to Eitan’s crime, she has become “the only one who knew him for what he was.” she holds over him both infuriates and intrigues him. The intimacy that emerges between them is rendered with a restrained intensity that creates some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes.
In an ironic twist, Eitan’s wife, Liat, is among the detectives investigating the hit-and-run accident. Brilliant at her job, she has an uncanny ability to see through people, yet she finds her own husband increasingly unknowable. Mercilessly scrutinizing him as he sleeps, pushing aside her customary tenderness, she finds the moment “so cruel, so horrifying” that she must look away.
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Trained as a clinical psychologist, Gundar-Goshen examines her characters with the same formidable gaze. Nobody emerges unscathed. Not the arrogant doctor, who displays little compassion for his patients and whose guilt, “like a flower that blooms only for one day,” withers in the face of Sirkit’s “blazing extortion.” Not Liat, who struggles to find her place in a misogynist police force, yet admits to her own prejudice against Arabs. And not Sirkit, whose moral flaws and failures in judgment are divulged as the story unfolds, allowing her to evolve from a saintly victim into a complex heroine.
Gundar-Goshen is adept at instilling emotional depth into a thriller plot, delivering the required twists and turns along with an incisive portrayal of her characters’ guilt, shame and desire, fluidly shifting between their perspectives. Although the tension slackens midway through as the narrative becomes burdened with elaborate back stories and lengthy musings, readers will be rewarded by its exhilarating, cinematic finale. Skillfully translated by Sondra Silverston, “Waking Lions” is a sophisticated and darkly ambitious novel, revealing an aspect of Israeli life rarely seen in its literature.
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March 15, 2017
How Working at a Bookstore Changed My Writing Career
I was one of those regulars who lingered too long at the counter, but I was excited like everyone else in North Brooklyn that there was a new bookstore in the neighborhood. It was exactly a mile up the road from me—I lived in Williamsburg and the store was in Greenpoint—and I could bike there when I needed a break from working on my third book. I had a lot of time on my hands, it seemed, but also it was a special place, WORD Bookstore was. It was small and clean and sunlit and they had a great small press section and a wonderful display window that we writers in the neighborhood all hungered for our books to be in someday.
Everyone who worked there was smart and young and exquisitely nerdy. Eventually I befriended the owner, Christine Onorati, a funny, sharp, fast-talking whirlwind of a woman, and her store manager, Stephanie Anderson, who at 25 had already read everything I had read and also everything I hadn’t. I admired them both and loved talking to them. I had a book launch there, and another, but also it was a spot for my friends and I to meet on a weekend morning, and a store where I could buy last-minute gifts, and perhaps most of all a place to feel less lonely when the words weren’t coming out just as I would like. Ray Oldenburg writes in The Great Good Place of the importance of third places in communities, how we need a place that is different from work and home where we can connect with our neighbors. WORD, like all great bookstores, had become my third place, and I imagine for many others in Brooklyn as well.
One day in 2010 Christine asked me if I wanted to work there. It felt like some kind of dream had come true, to be able to touch all these books, and talk to all these people. My third book had come out and flopped, and I was questioning my career, not that I had one, because I knew I wanted to write, but what it meant to have one. We get so occupied with the numbers sometimes—especially when they are terrible—that we can lose track of why we’re doing what we’re doing. We forget people are actually reading our books, and that it has a life outside of reviews and sales figures and book advances and marketing plans. I remembered all of that again once I started working at WORD.
During a single shift there I might sell just one copy of an author’s new book but I could feel outrageously happy for that author because I saw the face of the person who was buying the book, their excitement to take it home, and I would remember the conversation we had about it, and I would think, “It’s in good hands now.” And maybe a week later that same customer would come back in and tell me exactly what they thought about it.
Every shift, all around me, there were people who were delighted to be in that store, carefully fingering the covers, whispering to friends, asking questions of the employees, sharing knowledge, being excited and charming and nervous. It was the neighborhood (not yet quite changed and still relatively affordable), it was Christine and Stephanie (exuberant and enthusiastic), it was my co-workers (a few of whom I count now as dear friends), and it was the exact right moment in time.
While I worked there I started writing my fourth book, The Middlesteins. I wrote it for me first—I will always write my first draft for me—but there was another version now, a draft where I knew now the possibility of my book being read. In my mind I saw the potential joy and interest of an audience. I had a better understanding of what books meant to the world because of my time working at that unique third place. It’s why I thanked them in the dedication to that book, calling them “the best bookstore in the world.”
WORD just celebrated its tenth anniversary, and has expanded once to a shop in Jersey City and just announced it is expanding again with a children’s shop near its Brooklyn shop. What a triumph to have made it a decade as a small business in New York. I feel so proud to have been a small part of it, but more than that, grateful.
I feel absolutely certain that working at that store changed my career and my life. I learned how to think and talk about books differently because of my time there. But it also offered me the chance to interact with my community in a new way. It was a shared space, and everyone was welcome. It was a place people could call home.
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January Bookstore Sales Fell 3.7%
Bookstore sales fell 3.7% in January, compared to the first month of 2016, according to preliminary estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Sales in the month were $1.49 billion, down from $1.55 billion during the same period a year ago.
According to the Census Bureau, sales for the entire retail segment rose 5.2% in January.
While bookstore sales rose 2.5% in 2016 over 2015, business softened in the second half of the year. Sources PW talked to attributed the weakened book market to distractions caused by the U.S. presidential election. Publishers and booksellers were hopeful that there would be a sales rebound after the election ended. Now, with these numbers, it's clear that the industry will have to keep waiting for that rebound.
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Readers Share Their Love for ‘The Outsiders’
This month, S. E. Hinton’s classic young adult novel “The Outsiders,” which she wrote when she was still a teenager, turns 50. Apparently, many readers still want Ponyboy to stay gold. More than 700 people on Facebook responded to Hayley Krischer’s recent article in The Times about the anniversary, expressing their enduring love for the book, and for the 1983 film adaptation directed by Francis Ford Coppola, which starred a gaggle of young heartthrobs: Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez and Tom Cruise.
“I played Ponyboy in eighth grade,” Josh Goodpaster wrote. “I was a shy punk kid in a poor town intent on turning out like every other burnout in town. With the encouragement of my math teacher/director, Mr. Wanko, I tried out for the play. Being a part of the group that put on that play was a pivotal moment in my life. I wouldn’t be the man I am today without that experience.”
“I have a brother a decade younger than me,” Katie Quinn said. “When he was in sixth grade he told me he hated reading. I was horrified. I dragged him down to the used book store in Wildwood, N.J., and got him a copy of ‘The Outsiders.’ I told him he had to read it, we could talk about it, and then he could decide if he REALLY hated reading. He read it in two days and asked me for more S.E. Hinton books. We purchased every single one. He ended up going to an Ivy League school!”
Sage Robinson called it “an incredibly beautiful book about being lost and fighting against stereotypes and poverty,” and then offered a comment particularly appropriate for a book about rebels: “I loved the book so much I cut school for a week in junior high school and went to see the movie everyday when it came out.”
Cheryll Jaramillo, Susan Montag and Margaret Morneau were just three of those who appreciated that the novel introduced them to the work of Robert Frost. (His poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” plays an important role in Ms. Hinton’s story.)
Several readers said they still reread the book from time to time (or more often than that), and see the generations that followed them doing the same. “I read this book dozens of times as a kid and just recently read it out loud to my 10-year-old,” Jennifer Schmidt said. “Timeless indeed.”
“My first book obsession,” Carrie DeChavez said. “Read it 37 times before high school. I’ve read hundreds of books since, but ‘The Outsiders’ will always be special to me. My daughter is reading it now for school, funny how this article came up today.”
Diane Cicchetti Nelson said: “‘The Outsiders’ moved me as a young teen in the ’80s and it holds a special place in my heart to this day.” And Stefanie Tattis said: “This was the first novel to make me cry. I will remember its effect on me forever.”
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Cheryl Thomson said she “read the book so many times I almost know it by heart. . . . I’m 55 and still pull it off the shelf now and again.”
Bonnie MacKellar pointed out that the novel “lives on because middle school teachers make all the kids read it. Which is ironic because it was supposed to be a rebellious book, but now it is a mainstream part of the curriculum.” The teacher Jonathan Chang is one of those participating in that irony. “Every year the 7th graders at my school read this book,” he wrote. “At first I thought the kids would be bored by it, but it always clicks. Doesn’t matter what the kid’s language, culture or race is, they come to really enjoy it and relate to it.”
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Comments were edited for length and clarity.
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Should I hire a writing coach?
I’ve been teaching creative writing at colleges and universities for nearly 20 years, and I’ve been a writing coach for nearly as long. But here’s something you likely don’t expect: I use a writing coach, too. In fact, I recently invested in my own writing career by getting five one-hour sessions with Florida writing guru Jamie Morris. In that short but focused time, I had two breakthroughs on a semi-comatose project that’s been languishing away for a year. I also felt energized, clear-headed and excited about writing again. Her fresh eyes on my work and my career was exactly what I needed.
Morris explains that hiring a writing coach is like hiring a guide, a Sherpa. “Your writing coach knows the terrain you want to travel; she knows how long the road is, how steep the climb and where obstacles are likely to lie.” And she’s got enough distance from you and your work to see things as they truly are. If she’s talented like Morris is, she’ll shorten the learning curve on your writing career.
Let’s put it plainly – if you’re interested in breaking through the ceiling of your writing career, moving past baggage that’s getting in the way of your success, or transforming the entire process into something more enjoyable and effective, then bringing in a writing coach can be a great choice. Yet there are some crucial considerations to make to ensure you get the most for your writing coach buck. Let’s face it: You’re paying for a high level of expertise and skill, and that doesn’t – and shouldn’t – come cheaply.
1. One of these things is not like the others. (And that’s a good thing.)
Not all writing coaches are the same. Some are like your grandmother. Some are all business. Some allow you to forge your own path. Some will insist you follow their routine and route to success. Some only do phoners. Some do phone, Skype, face-to-face and anything in between. Make certain that the coaches you’re considering are open to your preferred coaching style and communication method.
Bonus Tip – Ask them if they think they’re the right coach for you or not. You might be surprised at how many have the integrity to say, “Perhaps not.” Some might even steer you directly to another coach who’s a great fit. I do that often.
2. Get all matchy-matchy.
It’s reasonable to seek out a writing coach who’s got deep experience in your specific arena, such as food writing, travel writing, memoir writing, etc. Each of these areas has special conventions and nuances, and, realistically, few writing coaches can appropriately cover every single type of writing. Hold out for the real literary love connection unless you feel that an outsider’s perspective on your work might have ample value.
3. Trust but verify.
Do check out a potential writing coach’s credentials to ensure she’s in a position to give you what you need. Don’t just assume what’s listed on her website is correct. Do a bit of sleuthing – a few have been known to say they’ve written for The New Yorker or some other large-scale publication, and it’s simply not true. Don’t be tricked by someone looking to make a fast buck by “teaching.”
Bonus Tip – Feel free to reach out to people whose names appear on the coach’s testimonial page. Asking them a quick question or two by email is completely appropriate.
4. Dare I sample the goods?
Most coaches have some kind of let’s-see-how-we-work-together option to start things off. Hey, when I’m in Sam’s Club, I always accept the samples regardless of whether I just scarfed down some McDonald’s or not. Sometimes I am horrified Sam’s Club is giving this stuff out. Sometimes I’m delightfully surprised. For exactly this reason, I give prospective clients a free taste of what my coaching is like for 15 minutes.
Bonus Tip – Even if they don’t advertise a free session, ask for one. Most will be open to a reduced rate or even a short free trial run if you’re truly serious about engaging their services.
5. What’s a fair rate?
A fair rate is whatever you’re willing to pay for coaching that you believe is helpful. But $75 to $125/hour seems like a reasonable range to start with, though factors such as geography and levels of expertise might affect that range.
Bonus Tip – Consider asking for a bulk rate, such as getting six one-hour sessions for the price of five if you pay in advance. It never hurts to ask!
6. To contract or not to contract?
It’s best to have something in writing that outlines your agreement, even if it’s just a clear email that details rates, terms of service and expectations for how you’ll communicate and work together. This doesn’t need to be written in heavy-duty legal language, though with some coaches, it will be.
7. Be realistic.
Morris offers this advice: “If she tells you she can help transform your rough-draft novel-in-progress into a best-seller – or even a good fit for a big publishing house – in less time than it takes to, say, renovate your kitchen, be sure to ask exactly how she is going to help you accomplish that.” Remember that writing coaches can work magic, but this type of magic does take time.
Whether you’re new to the game or you’ve got a big list of writing credits, a writing coach can be an invaluable career partner. She can give you extra accountability, create action steps toward specific goals, help you get unstuck and offer a fresh perspective on your work. She can also guide you to find clarity on why you feel the need to write, who you intend to reach and what impact you wish to have on that audience. Who wouldn’t benefit from all this?
The best coaches, too, don’t just offer a temporary fix. They teach the clients how to coach themselves through difficult times. Those are the true success stories. That’s the right way to supplement what you learn in critique groups, in writing classes and in the pages of magazines like this one to get your career into high gear.
Ryan G. Van Cleave is a Florida-based writing teacher and author of 20 books, including most recently Memoir Writing for Dummies and The Weekend Book Proposal.
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Kevin Young Is Named Poetry Editor at The New Yorker
Kevin Young
Credit
Melanie Dunea/CPi
Paul Muldoon, who for a decade has served as the poetry editor of The New Yorker, will step down, the magazine announced on Wednesday. His successor will be Kevin Young, who to become the director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Mr. Young is an esteemed poet and scholar whose work has been published in The New Yorker dating back to 1999. His most recent work, “Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015,” made the 2016 National Book Award longlist.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Mr. Muldoon, 65, who was raised in Ireland, had his first poem published when he was 16 and his first short collection at 19. In 1996, he was awarded an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature. In 2007, he replaced Alice Quinn at The New Yorker as the poetry editor, a post that she held for 20 years.
In 2013, Mr. Muldoon started a poetry podcast, saying that the “eye is not the only buyer into, and beneficiary of, the poem.” He was also well known for his interviews at the New Yorker Festival, including with Patti Smith in 2012 and Paul Simon in 2013.
“When Paul began as poetry editor, in 2007, he immediately disqualified himself from publishing poems in our pages,” David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, said in a statement. “As anyone who has read his recent work knows, that was a loss. Happily, I am sure we will see his name in our pages again soon.”
Mr. Young, 46, will officially take over the post in November, after he takes part in a passing of the torch of sorts: a reading and interview with Mr. Muldoon at the New Yorker Festival in the fall.
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