Jessica Handler's Blog, page 3

In which Vanity Fair magazine’s book editor calls “Braving the Fire” wise. (Swoon)

So this morning I sent an email to the book’s publicist giving her a link to WABE-FM’s “City Cafe” piece about the book launch this weekend. “Thank you,” she wrote back. “Did you know Braving the Fire is in “Vanity Fair” this month?” (I’m paraphrasing, but she was just about that calm.)

“What the what?” I asked the computer, using the Tina Fey as Liz Lemon expression that I love so much.

“Do you want me to send you a scan?” the nice publicist emailed.

Seeing as how I was still in my pajamas and sweatshirt (i.e. writing attire) and not prepared to go in search of a print copy until I had showered, dressed, and eaten a food product, I agreed as how she could.

You can read it here. Vanity Fair_ Jan 2014 . Best part? A “wise and encouraging guide to putting one’s grief on the page.”

 

The newspaper says…

Helena Olivieros at the Atlanta Journal Constitution wrote this really nice piece about Braving the Fire. And I made fun of one of my elementary-school diaries, but then we got serious about how to write about the tough stuff during the holiday season. Take a peek!

It’s the holidays – you mean I still have to write?

Yes, kittens, you do. You want to write because it’s the holidays. If you’re me, you NEED to write because it’s the holidays. Fortunately for you, my friends at Press 53 invited me to come up with a prompt for December’s 53-word story contest. That’s right, fifty-three words. C’mon. Here’s the link to the contest and the prompt, and it’s pasted below, too. So let’s get to  venting, uh, writing and working with abstract form.

53-Word Story Contest with Prime Number Magazine: December

This month’s guest judge is Jessica Handler! Jessica Handler is the author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief (St. Martins Press, December 2013). Her nonfiction has appeared on NPR, in Tin House, Drunken Boat, Brevity, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and More Magazine. Honors include residencies at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, a 2010 Emerging Writer Fellowship from The Writers Center, the 2009 Peter Taylor Nonfiction Fellowship, and special mention for a 2008 Pushcart Prize. She can be found at www.jessicahandler.com.

Jessica’s prompt: Write a 53-word story involving a want ad.

Guidelines and Information

-53 words—no more, no less—titles are not included in the word count.

-1 submission per person.

-e-mail your submission directly to 53wordstory@press53.com by 5 PM Tuesday, December 31st Eastern Standard Time. The winner will be announced on January 14th.

-Each quarter, Prime Number Magazine, Press 53’s online literary journal, comes out with a new issue. All winning 53-word stories will be published in the journal!

-The 53-Word Story App is now available for download in the Android App Store (it’s called 53Words)! For those with other smart devices, check out the web app (developed by Daniel Krawiec) at 53wordstory.com.

I’ll post mine here shortly. (Ha, get it. Shortly?)

 

 

“…makes a reader feel as if someone is holding their hand” through the process of writing about grief.

Writer and book blogger Rhiannon Johnson read and reviewed Braving the Fire for Atlanta’s Buckhaven Lifestyle magazine. You can click on the image or this link to read the December issue of Buckhaven Lifestyle magazine. Rhiannon’s “Page Turners” write-up appears on page 23.

Wowee! I’m so glad that my intention comes through the page. Thanks for being there to catch it, Rhiannon!

You’d think a rabbit wouldn’t need a manual, or, a field trip

You would think, rabbits being known for what they’re known for, that they wouldn’t need a manual for making more rabbits. And yet, here’s a snap of what appears to be a textbook for that study, taken in the rabbit and chick breeding space at the gorgeous White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Ga.

 

(Okay, it was on a counter-top before the official entrance to the space. My guess is that a human being kept in on hand for reference. There were a ton of rabbits.)

My snazzy Atlanta foodie friends gave me a hard time (a herd time?) the other night when I told them I was going on a field trip down to White Oak Pasture with a friend who volunteers there, helping with a garden. “You don’t eat meat,” they said, “why would you go to a place that produces sustainable beef, lamb, and poultry?” Ah, the word is sustainable. And just because I don’t eat them doesn’t change the fact that most other people do. And they might as well eat well raised, humanely killed, safe-to-eat animals. (You know they don’t grow under plastic wrap. C’mon.)

And it was a beautiful winter southern day, and I went with a friend, and I met Will Harris who owns the place and is this generation of many generations of cattle farming, and his daughter Jenni, who is the next generation of same and also runs the place. And we talked about all kinds of things. And it was a lovely day.

And since when does okra grow on tree-like things, y’all? (I bought some okra. I love okra. It was humanely pickled.)

 

 

Because some days you just want a photo of a cat

This is Peach. He is working, in low light (they read with their rears, anyway.)   

Small Business Saturday, or, keeping the dollars in your community

Back in September, author Sherman Alexie (yes, I am a fan-nerd of his poetry, fiction, and YA and general arch-smartness) sent around a letter to authors encouraging us to chip in and hand-sell books at our favorite indie bookstores on Small Business Saturday. Anything Sherman Alexie wants me to do, even though I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me (what can we do to remedy that?) I will do it. No question.

While I was going “hot damn, what a great idea,” my pal Janet at Avid Books in Athens reached out to me and asked if I’d come over and do just that at her store. “Yes!” I shouted, but it was email and she couldn’t actually hear me. (She read the email, though.)

Then my pal Frank Reiss at A Cappella here in Atlanta asked me the same thing, and I figured that I can do both! Yes! That’s why there is a morning and an afternoon in the business day, and there won’t be UGA Football traffic in Athens that day.

But this is happening ALL OVER the country. Including where you are. Here is a map that IndieBound put together to show you which of your favorite authors will be at what local indie book stores on Saturday, November 30th.

 

Come over and show us how to sell you a book. And share the holiday spirit with the small businesses in your community, by spending your hard-earned dollars with them, and keeping small, independently owned and operated businesses thriving in your community.

 

 

Thinking about getting started writing “the tough stuff?”

A tumult of holidays, family-time, and the wearing of coats and better clothing are coming up in the Judeo-Christian world. I’m not a turkey eater or a Christmas-tree decorator. My menorah was  made almost forty years ago out of copper plumbing pipes by my arty, handy, born-in-a-Siberian prison grandfather (and I really love this artifact of our unusual family in eight stems and a shamash. ) Holidays can be hard if you’re not grieving, and sometimes very hard when you are. Which means, for me, that I write. I start over with new things to write about every year.

And the new online magazine Modern Loss asked me to come up with a few tips for getting started writing that tough stuff. My holiday gift to you, oh fellow writers.

Because I have sixteen crates of my Mom’s books to unpack, which isn’t the same as unpacking an e-reader.

So, SIBA put together this funny video, and I’ll think of it as I unpack each book. Because they’re books, y’all. Real live books, not digital entities. You can’t make them fight. And I can love each of them for their wholeness.

On memoir writing and airing out your skin, or, thanks, Man Martin!

My friend Man Martin is running a series on his website called “Things I Know Now I Wish I’d Known Then.” About writing, not about not eating peanuts (me) or how to clean your drains with vinegar and baking soda (also me.)

 

So, Man asked me what advice I’d give.  And I gave it. It’s worth a penny or two, I hope.

 

Thanks, Man!