M. Allen Cunningham's Blog, page 6
January 21, 2021
Attend the Launch of Cunningham&'Cunninghamam''s Novel QAttend the Launc& of Cunningham &'s QA Arrives Today!&A: Wed. 1/27/21 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Join us on January 27, 7 pm EST for:
Virtual Launch Celebration of Q & A: M. Allen Cunningham in Conversation with Steven Mayfield, author of Treasure of the Blue Whale.
Register now. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Q&A
Kenyon Saint Claire is the son of a distinguished literary family, a keeper and teacher of the written word, but his America is a land of electronic images, big pharma, high-tech distraction, and endless advertising. False impressions are the stock in trade, and big metrics matter, especially onscreeen. That’s where Kenyon finds himself, isolated behind glass, portraying a televised version of himself on a scripted game show, avoiding the devouring eye of the camera that feeds his image to fifteen million viewers. The year is 1956.
Inspired by true events, groundbreaking in its evocation of an agitated, media-soaked half century, M. Allen Cunningham’s Q&A urgently reimagines the misunderstood 1950s quiz show scandals in light of our own time, as a moment of cultural reckoning whose reverberations we feel all around us today: in reality television, TV politics, the triumph of incoherence, and the pandemic problem of how to be real in a world of screen-induced self-deception.
Praise for M. Allen Cunningham
“A fully formed, timeless American writer.”
—Square Books, Oxford MS
“One of the bravest and most talented novelists writing today.”
—Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, Pulitzer Prize Finalist
“A master storyteller.”
—Gina Ochsner, author of The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight
“Cunningham’s prose is perfect—he writes dialogue and sentences that beg to be read aloud.”
—Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe AZ
Treasure of the Blue Whale
In this whimsical, often funny, Depression-era tale, young Connor O’Halloran decides to share a treasure he’s discovered on an isolated stretch of Northern California beach. Almost overnight, his sleepy seaside village is comically transformed into a bastion of consumerism, home to a commode with a jeweled seat cover, a pair of genuinely fake rare documents, a mail-order bride, and an organ-grinder’s monkey named Mr. Sprinkles. But when it turns out that the treasure is not real, Connor must conspire with Miss Lizzie Fryberg and a handful of town leaders he’s dubbed The Ambergrisians to save their friends and neighbors from financial ruin. Along the way, he discovers other treasures in the sometimes languid, sometimes exciting days of that long-ago season. He is rich and then he isn’t. He learns to sail a boat and about sex. He meets a real actor. He sneaks into villainous Cyrus Dinkle’s house and steals his letter opener. He almost goes to jail. He loves Fiona Littleleaf. He finds a father. And best of all, he and little brother, Alex, reclaim their mother from the darkness of mental illness.
Praise for Treasure of the Blue Whale
Steven Mayfield crafts this well-conceived plot into a coming-of-age fable that is full of mystery, heroism, familial love, and humanity. It’s a genuine, imaginative, and endearing meditation on how a few good people working together can accomplish so much in a weary world.
– Dylan Ward, The U.S. Review of Books [read the entire review]
“Readers looking for a slightly stylized yarn of small-town drama will find much to enjoy in this charming book. A whale of a tale concerning a boy who tries to lift everyone’s spirits”
–Kirkus Reviews [read the entire review]
“In the masterful novel Treasure of the Blue Whale, snowballing secrecy and lies are counterbalanced by genuine community warmth.”
-Karen Rigby, Foreword Reviews [read the entire review]
Attend the Launch of CunninghamCunningham'ham's Q&A'ss Novel QAA Arrives Today!A: Wed. 1/27/21 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Join us on January 27, 7 pm EST for:
Virtual Launch Celebration of Q & A: M. Allen Cunningham in Conversation with Steven Mayfield, author of Treasure of the Blue Whale.
Register now. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Q&A
Kenyon Saint Claire is the son of a distinguished literary family, a keeper and teacher of the written word, but his America is a land of electronic images, big pharma, high-tech distraction, and endless advertising. False impressions are the stock in trade, and big metrics matter, especially onscreeen. That’s where Kenyon finds himself, isolated behind glass, portraying a televised version of himself on a scripted game show, avoiding the devouring eye of the camera that feeds his image to fifteen million viewers. The year is 1956.
Inspired by true events, groundbreaking in its evocation of an agitated, media-soaked half century, M. Allen Cunningham’s Q&A urgently reimagines the misunderstood 1950s quiz show scandals in light of our own time, as a moment of cultural reckoning whose reverberations we feel all around us today: in reality television, TV politics, the triumph of incoherence, and the pandemic problem of how to be real in a world of screen-induced self-deception.
Praise for M. Allen Cunningham
“A fully formed, timeless American writer.”
—Square Books, Oxford MS
“One of the bravest and most talented novelists writing today.”
—Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, Pulitzer Prize Finalist
“A master storyteller.”
—Gina Ochsner, author of The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight
“Cunningham’s prose is perfect—he writes dialogue and sentences that beg to be read aloud.”
—Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe AZ
Treasure of the Blue Whale
In this whimsical, often funny, Depression-era tale, young Connor O’Halloran decides to share a treasure he’s discovered on an isolated stretch of Northern California beach. Almost overnight, his sleepy seaside village is comically transformed into a bastion of consumerism, home to a commode with a jeweled seat cover, a pair of genuinely fake rare documents, a mail-order bride, and an organ-grinder’s monkey named Mr. Sprinkles. But when it turns out that the treasure is not real, Connor must conspire with Miss Lizzie Fryberg and a handful of town leaders he’s dubbed The Ambergrisians to save their friends and neighbors from financial ruin. Along the way, he discovers other treasures in the sometimes languid, sometimes exciting days of that long-ago season. He is rich and then he isn’t. He learns to sail a boat and about sex. He meets a real actor. He sneaks into villainous Cyrus Dinkle’s house and steals his letter opener. He almost goes to jail. He loves Fiona Littleleaf. He finds a father. And best of all, he and little brother, Alex, reclaim their mother from the darkness of mental illness.
Praise for Treasure of the Blue Whale
Steven Mayfield crafts this well-conceived plot into a coming-of-age fable that is full of mystery, heroism, familial love, and humanity. It’s a genuine, imaginative, and endearing meditation on how a few good people working together can accomplish so much in a weary world.
– Dylan Ward, The U.S. Review of Books [read the entire review]
“Readers looking for a slightly stylized yarn of small-town drama will find much to enjoy in this charming book. A whale of a tale concerning a boy who tries to lift everyone’s spirits”
–Kirkus Reviews [read the entire review]
“In the masterful novel Treasure of the Blue Whale, snowballing secrecy and lies are counterbalanced by genuine community warmth.”
-Karen Rigby, Foreword Reviews [read the entire review]
Attend the Launch of Cunningham's Q&A: Wed. 1/27/21 4pm PST / 7pm EST
Join us on January 27, 7 pm EST for:
Virtual Launch Celebration of Q & A: M. Allen Cunningham in Conversation with Steven Mayfield, author of Treasure of the Blue Whale.
Register now. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Q&A
Kenyon Saint Claire is the son of a distinguished literary family, a keeper and teacher of the written word, but his America is a land of electronic images, big pharma, high-tech distraction, and endless advertising. False impressions are the stock in trade, and big metrics matter, especially onscreeen. That’s where Kenyon finds himself, isolated behind glass, portraying a televised version of himself on a scripted game show, avoiding the devouring eye of the camera that feeds his image to fifteen million viewers. The year is 1956.
Inspired by true events, groundbreaking in its evocation of an agitated, media-soaked half century, M. Allen Cunningham’s Q&A urgently reimagines the misunderstood 1950s quiz show scandals in light of our own time, as a moment of cultural reckoning whose reverberations we feel all around us today: in reality television, TV politics, the triumph of incoherence, and the pandemic problem of how to be real in a world of screen-induced self-deception.
Praise for M. Allen Cunningham
“A fully formed, timeless American writer.”
—Square Books, Oxford MS
“One of the bravest and most talented novelists writing today.”
—Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child, Pulitzer Prize Finalist
“A master storyteller.”
—Gina Ochsner, author of The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight
“Cunningham’s prose is perfect—he writes dialogue and sentences that beg to be read aloud.”
—Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe AZ
Treasure of the Blue Whale
In this whimsical, often funny, Depression-era tale, young Connor O’Halloran decides to share a treasure he’s discovered on an isolated stretch of Northern California beach. Almost overnight, his sleepy seaside village is comically transformed into a bastion of consumerism, home to a commode with a jeweled seat cover, a pair of genuinely fake rare documents, a mail-order bride, and an organ-grinder’s monkey named Mr. Sprinkles. But when it turns out that the treasure is not real, Connor must conspire with Miss Lizzie Fryberg and a handful of town leaders he’s dubbed The Ambergrisians to save their friends and neighbors from financial ruin. Along the way, he discovers other treasures in the sometimes languid, sometimes exciting days of that long-ago season. He is rich and then he isn’t. He learns to sail a boat and about sex. He meets a real actor. He sneaks into villainous Cyrus Dinkle’s house and steals his letter opener. He almost goes to jail. He loves Fiona Littleleaf. He finds a father. And best of all, he and little brother, Alex, reclaim their mother from the darkness of mental illness.
Praise for Treasure of the Blue Whale
Steven Mayfield crafts this well-conceived plot into a coming-of-age fable that is full of mystery, heroism, familial love, and humanity. It’s a genuine, imaginative, and endearing meditation on how a few good people working together can accomplish so much in a weary world.
– Dylan Ward, The U.S. Review of Books [read the entire review]
“Readers looking for a slightly stylized yarn of small-town drama will find much to enjoy in this charming book. A whale of a tale concerning a boy who tries to lift everyone’s spirits”
–Kirkus Reviews [read the entire review]
“In the masterful novel Treasure of the Blue Whale, snowballing secrecy and lies are counterbalanced by genuine community warmth.”
-Karen Rigby, Foreword Reviews [read the entire review]
November 18, 2020
October 13, 2020
The Largest Possible Audience
(For best viewing results, enlarge the video to full-screen.)
August 24, 2020
Cunningham Presents PERPETUA'S KIN at Powell's Books - FULL AUDIO
Listen to "M. Allen Cunningham Presents PERPETUA'S KIN at Powell's Books" on Spreaker.
During this event at the fabled Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, Cunningham discusses his fourth novel PERPETUA'S KIN . A sweeping story of five generations in one American family, PERPETUA'S KIN spans much of North America, from the 1820s in Iowa to the American south during the Civil War to World War II San Francisco. In a structured presentation, Cunningham describes the story's origins, his research, the themes and characters, the influence of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and why this novel was 11 years in the making. He also reads short selections from the book. The event includes an audience Q&A. It was recorded on a rainy night in November 2018.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m-allen-cunningham-presents-perpetuas-kin-at-powells-books/id1479000289?i=1000488106800
August 20, 2020
What Would Leonard Cohen Do?
WHAT WOULD LEONARD COHEN DO? If you’re a hardworking creative soul striving to continue doing the work of the expressive imagination, striving to honor an authentic vision that resists the forces of market optimization, you could do a lot worse than immerse yourself in Leonard Cohen’s corpus and give that question your consideration.
Mentioned in this episode: Leonard Cohen; Cohen's "Hallelujah"; Songs of Leonard Cohen; Cohen's 1963 debut novel The Favorite Game; CBC Television; Cohen's novel Beautiful Losers; Cohen's performance style; Bob Dylan; Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat"; Zen; Mount Baldy; Leonard Cohen world tour; skipping at age 78; Cohen's album You Want It Darker; Cohen's album Thanks for the Dance; Feist; Beck; Damien Rice.
https://anchor.fm/in-the-atelier/epis...
August 17, 2020
August 12, 2020
VIDEO: The Poet & the Sculptor / Rilke & Rodin
In this video excerpt from a talk I recently gave to a class of brilliant young writers, I describe the interdisciplinary relationship between Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin (a relationship depicted in my novel Lost Son).
What can creative writers learn from what Rilke learned from Rodin?
The talk includes my own translation of Rilke's great poem "The Panther" (also found below).
The PantherRainer Maria Rilke(transl. M. Allen Cunningham)
His gaze, from the passing bars,has grown so weary that it can hold nothing more.To him there are a thousand barsand beyond the thousand bars no world at all.
The soft drop of his dread sleek steps,conscribed to a tight circle,is like a dance of stamina around a centerin which a greater will stands stunned.
Yet sometimes the curtain of the pupil stirs,opens itself soundlessly -- then an image gets inside,passes through the silent tension of the limbsand -- snared in the heart, ceases to be.
August 9, 2020
NEW AUDIO: Cunningham's essay "Variations on a Beginning"
Cunningham's autobiographical essay, with musical accompaniment and slightly abridged.
"Variations on a Beginning" was originally published in complete form in The Timberline Review, Issue No. 3 (summer/fall 2016). You can read the full essay HERE.
