Kirby Larson's Blog, page 84

Looking into an MFA?

If you're contemplating getting an MFA, I'd encourage you to look into the short-term residency program offered by the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. The full-time faculty roster reads like a who's who of the literary world: Kathleen Alcala, Bonny Becker, Carmen Bernier-Grand, Larry Cheek, Bruce Holland Rogers, Ana Maria Spagna, Wayne Ude, David Wagoner, Carolyne Wright and Susan Zwinger.




Don't these current students look like they're having fun and learning lots?

Complain to the Today Show!

There's a short form you can fill out to share your ire with the Today Show over their decision to break with tradition and not air interviews with the Newbery and Caldecott medalists. To rub salt in the wound, they did make time to interview Snooki, whose contribution to things literary is in the category of fish wrappers and bird cage liners.
I filled out the form. If you feel you can, why don't you let the Today Show folks know how disappointed you are, too!

My friend Grier is a Jewell

She is. In fact, her name is Grier Jewell which proves it and you had better learn that name fast because she will soon be taking the children's/YA lit world by storm with her deliciously scary short stories and who knows what else. In the meantime, you can read her terrific insights and book reviews here and laugh out loud at her funny new website here.

What Are You Doing on March 5, 2011?

Dr. Nancy Johnson
Why not join Chris Rashcka and me at the Children's Literature Alternative Conference at Western Washington University in Bellingham on Saturday, March 5, from 8 am-12:30pm? Since the conference's Fearless Leader, Dr. Nancy Johnson, is in Singapore for two years, a decision was made to offer an alternative to the usual conference, rather than to cancel it completely while Nancy's away.
So I have the honor of sharing the stage with a Caldecott winner and you have the opportunity to come hear both Chris and I speak AND to have all of your questions about writing and illustrating for children answered!
Find more information here. Sure hope to see you there!

Awards

I watched the ALA podcast yesterday with pounding heart and much enthusiasm. I rejoice for the winners. . .but mourn those books I loved that didn't get any blue ribbons. 
Since I have been buried in my writing this past 18 months or so, I am, regrettably, behind on my reading. But there are a few books that I have kept thinking about long after closing the back cover and I believe books that make me think are blue ribbon books. I'm thinking particularly of Karen Cushman's Alchemy and Meggy Swann, Barbara O'Connor's The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis, Mary Nethery's The Famous Nini: The Mostly True Story of a Plain White Cat that Became a Star (wonderful meshing of text and art!),  and David Patneaude's Epitaph Road.
Let's pretend we're the queens and kings of the children's/YA lit world: what books did you love that deserve blue ribbons?

Aye, aye Captain!

Much to Winston's chagrin, I packed my suitcase this morning and headed off to Whidbey Island for the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Master of Fine Arts residency. I was part of the original faculty of this amazing MFA program, one of the few (and maybe the only) MFA programs supported by a writing community rather than a university.
I took a short diversion to West Beach to hunt for seaglass but got skunked
In the early days, the residencies were held at Fort Casey on the island; beautiful scenery, funky old-fashioned housing and soccer camp food. The young whippersnappers in the program now are spoiled with the beautiful scenery, cozy old-fashioned housing and restaurant quality food of Captain Whidbey's Inn.
The writing corner in my darling room
My own sink!
It was great fun to greet old friends like director Wayne Ude, masterful flash fiction writer Bruce Holland Rogers and poet Carolyne Wright -- who have all been involved since the beginning -- and the dear Carmen Bernier-Grand, as well as my talented fellow critique group member, Bonny Becker. I had a brief moment to chat with the current nonfiction faculty, AnnaMaria Spagna but look forward to getting to know her a bit better.

If you've thought about doing an MFA program, be sure to investigate this one. One of the plusses in my mind about it is that it focuses on several genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and children's/YA. I know when I was on staff, I loved the chance to sit in on talks by poets Marvin Bell and David Wagoner and journaler extraordinaire, Susan Zwinger. There's a great energy when you gather together writers who are all thinking about words in slightly different ways.

Plus you can't beat the view! (I'll post a picture from my room tomorrow -- too dark tonight!)

On Being a Writer

After a month's hiatus, I'm back at work on my latest project. It reminds me of the current state of our veggie garden at the bay.

I hope that sufficient elbow grease, care and fertilizer that both book and garden will turn it into something more like this:

Were you right?

On the most bitterly cold day of our Thanksgiving get-away to New York, we took a tour of Greenwich Village. Our guide was the penultimate New Yorker, elegantly tip to toe. I, on the other hand, looked like an Ellis Island reject, with two street vendor shawls wrapped over my wool coat. The theme of our tour was former residences of well-known artists and writers. As we shivered through the two-hours (I intend to take the tour again, in the spring or summer!), I felt as if we were flaneurs, strolling some quaint Paris streets. When you think of New York, do images like this come to mind? They don't for me.
Old carriage houses in Greenwich Village
Look at the small door on the right! Grove Court is an oasis in the city

This tweak of my stereotypical image of the Big Apple is a good reminder to myself to check for stereotypes in my writing, too. I can't surprise the reader if I'm not surprising myself.

Where in the World?

Any idea where these photos were taken? Tune in tomorrow and I'll tell!

Give a person a fish. . .

Santa gave me a copy of The Zen of Watching Birds in my stocking. I tried to savor one page a day. . .but couldn't. I read through the whole thing as I ate my peanut butter toast at lunch. It's definitely the kind of little book I'll read again and again but these words from naturalist John Burroughs seemed especially apropos for writers:
"Some ladies, beginning the study of birds, once wrote to me, asking if I would not please come and help them, and set them right about certain birds in dispute. I replied that that would be getting their knowledge too easily; that what I and any one else told them they would be very apt to forget, but that the things they found out themselves they would always remember."