Beth Kephart's Blog, page 280

Lucky Life (again)

This morning, driving home from the dentist, I thought back on what the morning had already yielded.  Clean teeth, thanks to Loretta.  Time enough to read the Proust chapter in Jonah Lehrer's Proust was a Neuroscientist (recommended to me by Haverford College's Tom Devaney).  Continuing email conversations—about John Gardner, about the after life of projects, about NYC graffiti, about children—with new and trusted literary friends. An invitation (thanks to Elizabeth Mosier and the generous fo...

Small Damages: my novel of southern Spain

There are books that one works on for years, then sets aside, then works again for years.  Small Damages, my young adult novel of southern Spain, has been that book for me, and when I finished it at last, six weeks or so ago, I felt reprieved.  Now I miss writing this book.  I suppose that happens.




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Before I ever knew what dancing was

(what it meant to lock the shoulders in, to ease the knees, to rock the hips, to let him lead) it looked like this to me.  Which is to say free.

The Glamour of Grammar: the portmanteau

Despite the fact that I have two full shelves dedicated to grammar books, collections of quotes, and dictionaries, I am no linguistical babe.  I'm just going along for the ride, mostly, reading my grammar books like I might read a novel, stopping and grinning over the nuggets I find.



This morning, in Roy Peter Clark's The Glamour of Grammar,  I was reading about blended words, otherwise known as portmanteaus—multidude, slackademic, Octomom, blog, even—and thinking back on all the fun I've ha...

Dangerous Neighbors/The Dear Author Review

It is true:  I have never quite understood how to write a big-bang, headline-grabbing, release-embargo of a book; I don't have a Mockingjay in me.  And so it means an awful lot when a reader chooses to fall in with a world I create—to spend time there, to give it a chance to breathe.  I read a review just now of Dangerous Neighbors that will stay with me for a long time.  The entire Dear Author review can be found here. 



Among the words that transcend for me:

Your writing style is one...

Andrew J. Bacevich to speak on behalf of The Lore Kephart '86 Distinguished Historians Lecture Series

On Monday, September 27, 2010, (7 PM, Connelly Center, Villanova University), Andrew J. Bacevich, PhD, a professor of International Relations and History at Boston University, will speak at the second annual Lore Kephart '86 Distinguished Historians Lecture Series. A graduate of West Point with a PhD in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, Dr. Bacevich is a "Catholic conservative" and the author of the much-discussed The Limits of Power.  He is also a father who lost his own...

Let's Take the Long Way Home/Gail Caldwell: Reflections

If there was ever a book I wanted the moment I heard of its existence, it was this one. 



If there was ever a book that conformed to my abstract idealization of it, it was, again, this one—Gail Caldwell's finely crafted, thoroughly beautiful, absolutely heartbreaking Let's Take the Long Way Home.  This is, of course, the story of Caldwell's dear friendship with the writer Caroline Knapp—the story of long walks taken with beloved dogs, of the glass face of rowed-upon water, of pasts and imperf...

My next three reads are in the house

and I am so excited. 

In the classroom

I'm about to do one of my most favorite things, which is to get in the car and drive a little while and join a classroom of younger readers and writers.  This group of students had Nothing but Ghosts as required summer reading, and I'm going to try to recreate the making of that particular story for them before leading them toward writing of stories of their own.  We'll focus on spark points, tangents, and theme.



This, for me, is what it's all about.

What do you do when Facebook blocks you from your own party?

This was the question that presented itself to moi about ten comments into the hour-long Facebook party we were throwing on behalf of Dangerous Neighbors.  You have abused the comment function, the Facebook blue box informed me. It will be hours, or perhaps days, before you can leave a comment again.



Oh. My.



This is why it's still good, in these social media days, to have a telephone nearby.  For that's the implement I used.  I picked up the telephone, called dear Amy Riley and persuaded he...