Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 162

The Los Angeles Review: divergent, West Coast literature

One thing I was able to do at AWP was to pick up my contributor copy of the new The Los Angeles Review: divergent, West Coast literature  which includes my story (from the Oliver series), "Justice, Inc."

It's a great looking magazine that includes fiction by Rick Bass, Ben Percy, Pamela Painter and many others (including friends Aaron Burch, Ann Hillesland, Beth Thomas, and Bonnie Zobell); non-fiction by Barry Lopez (and many others, including friend Hobie Anthony); lots of poety; and intervie...

Pet Worries

This could be considered a sequel to my AWP Reports, I suppose. I got home from Denver on Sunday afternoon. On Monday morning I picked up Bhikku from the kennel. The folks at the kennel know Bhikku well and they reported, worriedly, that he'd been vomiting and had dark urine. The dark urine was especially troubling and I also observed that when we got home. Nonetheless, I fed him -- and later in the evening he threw up. I also noticed that his eyes were jaundiced.

So first thing Tuesday I took...

The Book of Fathers by Miklós Vámos

The Book of Fathers

Miklós Vámos

Other Press 2009

 
While the point of this sprawling novel eludes me — is it that we should never forget the horrors of the past? — I can't help but be impressed by its scope. The story begins in 1705 with the first entry in The Book of Fathers, a journal passed from father to son through eleven generations of a Hungarian family: "The Lord be praised, we reached the village of Kos in the month of April in His Year of 1705. Five times in that year and in the year ...

Beyond the Underground

As a recovered lawyer, I found this blog interesting:

Beyond the Underground

Announcing: Prime Number Magazine

I'm very excited to announce the coming of Prime Number Magazine, the first issue of which will debut on July 19, 20190. The magazine, which will be an online quarterly with a print annual, will feature distinctive prose and poetry, including short stories, creative non-fiction, poems, reviews, interviews, and more.

The magazine is a publication of Press 53. I am the editor. Val Nieman is the poetry editor.

Sign up for the mailing list now on the website, or become our fan on Facebook, or follo...

AWP Report - Part 3

The last day of the AWP conference was another busy one. I started with a 9AM panel: "Telling Other People's Stories: Narrative Nonfiction, its Pleasures and Perils." Five non-fiction writers talked about their projects and the challenges of finding the right subject and then getting close enough, or too close, to investigate.

Next I went to "Private Practice: Managing the Novel from Symptoms Through Recovery" moderated by my friend Elizabeth Brundage and featuring novelists Jennifer Haigh, M...

AWP Report - Part 2

The second full day of the AWP Conference was busy. The first panel I went to was "Writing the Mind's Wild Geography" moderated by Hannah Fries of Orion Magazine. The speakers all addressed how a sense of place can be both physical and metaphysical. I was especially drawn to Ann Pancake's comment that in a novel one can explore the impact of place on the interior of our characters in a way that non-fiction cannot. (Although in a panel I attended later on writing other people's stories it was ...

AWP Report - Part 1

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day for flying. Hot and clear here in the East, cool and clear in the West. I boarded a puddle-jumper at our little local airport and, after a short layover, settled into the Airbus for the trip to Denver. We arrived a little early, my luggage didn't get lost, I found the Super Shuttle kiosk, and made it the Hyatt by about 1pm.

Later in the day, after I got checked in at the hotel and the conference, I helped Kevin of Press 53 set up the bookfair table, and then ...

2010 Pulitzer Prize winners in letters and drama / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Tinkers by Paul Harding wins the Pulitzer for fiction:
2010 Pulitzer Prize winners in letters and drama / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

AWP- 2010 Conference

I leave early Wednesday for Denver: AWP- 2010 Conference. If you're a writer and haven't been to one of these events, set your sights on DC in 2011, Chicago in 2012, or Boston in 2013. This will be my fourth in row (Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and now Denver) after missing opportunities to attend the Vancouver and Austin conferences in earlier years. About 5,000 writers attend -- New York was overwhelming, with something like 7,000 -- and there are panels on just about every subject imaginabl...