Beth Kephart's Blog, page 314

The Lacuna/Barbara Kingsolver

Ruta Rimas sent me a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna for Christmas, and it's been sitting over there, on the chair of unread books, ever since—gold and heavy-weighted.

This morning I rose to a desk full of work, glanced at the book chair and said to myself, "Well, who is going to notice, really, if you spend an hour of this morning reading?"

So that's all I've done—spent an hour reading The Lacuna—and may I just say that if nothing else wonderful happens in this story (and I doubt that ...

The Heart is Not a Size: A Lovely Blog Review

These beautiful words about The Heart is Not a Size conclude a week that was, for me, full of both tumult and deep graces.

Every writer living is grateful to sympathetic readers. I am particularly grateful today.

Thank you, Susan Uhlig. My box of Heart arrived this week. On March 10th, I'll be announcing the winner of the Heart giveaway contest.

We Went Away

(then we returned)
(20 hours undesked)

What is Dance?: The House of Dance Contest Winners

Something rather extraordinary happened when I invited you to define dance here, in this blog. It was as if all the other noise of the world had been turned off, and only music was playing. Your responses were all so good that I've chosen to reprint them all here.

I have chosen not two, but four winners (and wish, indeed, that I could send books to you all). Those of you who see your quote highlighted here, get in touch with me so that I can mail you a copy of House of Dance, now out in pape...

Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives/Brad Watson: Some Thoughts

Sometimes it seems that I already know people I've never yet met. The profoundly talented Brad Watson is one of those. I first heard of him through my W.W. Norton editor, Alane Mason, who recounted discovering Watson's work in a literary magazine. He was a fresh talent, book worthy. She got in touch. Their first publication, Last days of the Dog-Men was uncanny and brave. It won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction.

I was working with Alane then on a sequence of books, and so, from t...

Sarah Laurence takes us to the ponds of Maine...and Undercover

Don't spend a second more on my blog today. Head here, to Sarah Laurence's beautiful blog—rich with her photographs and musings on books and the writing life. This week she's featuring an interview with me (my favorite teen books, my assessment of teen readers, a never-before-seen photo of me in high school, among other things) and a review of Undercover. But more than that, she's sharing her own lovely sensibility. I urge you to take a look.

Bring your Imagination: Alice in Wonderland

I was reading "Rabbit Redux," the Ramin Setoodeh piece in this week's Newsweek.

He was talking about the imagination—those who use it splendidly well—and I was remembering my friend, Cuileann, who is one of the most imaginative people I know (we met in San Francisco, late last summer). Oh, what she does with words and photographs. What she does with heart.

So I was thinking about her, and then I kept reading, and I was thinking about my own book about the imagination (Seeing Past Z: Nurturin...

Killing my Darlings

Having written my way toward the end of the Seville novel (transformed, over time, into a young adult novel), I yesterday returned to the adult novel that has been stewing in its own juices these past many weeks. A brilliant friend had read it through. She had suggested that I take a particular look at how some chapters ended (had crispness been achieved, and suspense?) and at a few stretches that might, she seemed to say, benefit from a certain economizing.

Might I, in other words, kill mor...

Moving Past Self-Doubt, Toward Final

I have spoken, often, of this book that I have carried with me through a decade of rework, reconfiguration, enough half faith not to give up on it entirely, but still. Tears have been shed. Papers tossed across the room. Favorite sections and characters hacked out all to preserve: What?

The mood and the flavors and the dust and the flamenco and the carnations thrown from the rooftops of Seville.

I have spoken of this book, and oh, I have fought with it. You want to know where self-doubt l...

Funny Business

I'll be the first to admit: I've been less than my sunshiney self of late—lots of snow, lots of late work nights, a winter cold, not enough Zumba, and one small snafu in the publishing business that had my heart sunk real low for a spell.

It was, therefore, a very happy thing, when my friend, the humorist Anna Lefler, wrote with a bit of Zumba-quality news this week: one of her pieces was up on the esteemed literary site, McSweeney's. I wasn't just happy for this unquestionably talented, sup...