Sari Wilson's Blog, page 2

Returning to Provincetown

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style> <br /><div class="MsoNormal">Some years ago I spent eight months living here, on this spit of curved land in the ocean. At that time, I began the book I am now finishing. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I want to afford the luxury of nostalgia.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I remember sitting on the harbor beach just after nightfall looking at an enormous orange globe perched at the horizon, wondering, disoriented, until I realized it was a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moon</i>. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">I remember a bog in the beech forest, a tangle of branches stuck in ice, the thought of ice skating but not doing it. The skullcap white sky of winter. No birds. An absence, a silence so deep it gave me goose bumps. I was a city girl and nothing in nature had ever gotten to me like that before. It’s still in me, that frozen winter bog.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal">Before Provincetown I wasn’t a person who could get chills from a frozen bog or could be shocked by a harvest moon. But there is something about the salted air, the clanging buoys, the rocks grown soft green hair. If there is anything like magic in the world, some portion of it is grown here. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div></div>

Upcoming Visual Narrative/Graphic Novel workshop at Fine Arts Work Center

Bestselling cartoonist Josh Neufeld and I co-taught a comics-making workshop last summer in at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and it was a really rewarding experience—for us and for our students. We had a great mix of “serious” comics-makers and writers trying out the form for the first time. We're proud of the work we did together. In fact, one of last year’s students was recently accepted to the Master’s program at the Center for Cartoon Studies with work from our workshop!

In short, we learned that nothing makes a better combination than writing and art, summer, and beautiful P-town. So we’ll be teaching the class again this summer, during the week of July 21–26.
Our workshop is called The Graphic Novel: At the Intersection of Writing and Drawing, and here’s the beginning of the workshop description:

In his seminal work Understanding Comics, cartoonist Scott McCloud writes, “The art form—the medium—known as comics is a vessel which can hold any number of ideas and images.” This class will explore the dynamic realm of sequential art, and the ways that graphic novels/comics can produce powerful moments of frisson between words and images. Some find their way to the form through their writing and others through their art—comics allows for both options. 

Click this link to read more and to find out how to register. We're very excited to work with an adventurous group of writers and cartoonists to produce some dynamic new work this summer!

The Next Big Thing Blog Chain: Self-Interview

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Arial; panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>I was recently invited by writer Colleen O’Brien for The Next Big Thing blog chain "self-interview." I liked the Mailer-esque quality to the idea. <span style="font-size: small;">Here's </span><a href="http://laurieanncedilnik.com/Laurie_A... post</a>. And here's<span style="font-size: small;"> mine:</span></i></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><div class="paragraph_style_2"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What is your working title of your book? <i> </i></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Girl Through Glass. </i></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Where did the idea come from for the book? </b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Years ago, I sat down and wrote a long scene of a group of young ballet dancers getting ready for class—putting on their tights, then leotards, then wrapping their hair, and it went on an on, it was like they were soldiers getting ready for battle. <span style="font-size: small;">I<span style="font-size: small;">t <span style="font-size: small;">was</span></span></span> like my own childhood as a dancer coming back to me in a burst. I held onto it for years until it grew slowly as I added to it and grew still more, and then it became fictionalized, until it now has two storylines and spanned years. At some point I realized it wanted to be a book. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? </b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">One book I really admire that is both a literary and commercial success is my good friend Jean Kwok’s novel <i>Girl in Translation. </i>It’s so well structured and compelling and also lyrical and surprising. I value the structure of good plot, maybe because it’s been so hard to me to find that piece. I also love Jennifer Egan’s <i>Look at Me</i> as an example of a compelling read that flirts with elements of genre and has a lyrical, imagistic heart. Something in that space. I also love Haruki Murakami’s blend of the fantastic and the mundane and tried to bring some of that into the writing of it. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Who or what inspired you to write this book?</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thinking back on my childhood as a dancer and watching my friends’ kids start to enter into these rites too. Like so many girls, I was trained as a ballet dancer for some key years of my girlhood (ages 8-15). I was obsessed for a time with the ballet world and mastering ballet steps. Thinking back on that period in my life, I began to wonder what it is about the ballet world that still draws girls to it in this modern age? I mean, why do we care about an old aristocratic tradition of movement? What atavistic memory or desire speaks to us through ballet?  </span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>What else about your book might pique the reader's interest? </b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">There’s a Lolita-esque aspect to the narrative. And also, a mystery. Involving a letter. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">And: Next up on The Next Big Thing<span style="font-size: small;"><b>:</b></span><br /> </span></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_5"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.undyouvilllikeit.blogspot.... Dohrmann: </a>has received a New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Nonfiction Literature, a Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant, and a Fulbright Fellowship of the Arts for Creative Writing. With photographer Tiana Markova-Gold, Sarah won the 2010 Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University for, "If You Smoke Cigarettes in Public, You Are a Prostitute," about female prostitution in Morocco. She has written feature work, travel writing, cultural commentary, short stories, and essays for <i>Glamour, Poets & Writers, Teachers & Writers Magazine, Bad Idea</i> (England), and <i>The Iowa Review</i>.</span></span><br /><div class="paragraph_style_6"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://zoezolbrod.com/">Zoe Zolbrod:</a> Zoe's excellent <a href="http://zoezolbrod.com/currency/"... came out from Other Voices Books in 2010. It won a Nobbie Award and was selected as an honorable mention by Friends of American Writers. Zoe's currently working on a memoir exploring the lens through which she viewed her childhood sexual assault. She often posts on <a href="http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/au... Nervous Breakdown</a> on topics often relating to sexuality, parenting, and gender.</span></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_6"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>

The Future of Storytelling

So the video on The Future of Storytelling I was interviewed for back in August is up. It's well produced, called "Objects of Our Desire," and features eBay spokeswoman Richelle Parham talking about ecommerce and storytelling. It also features me reading from my Significant Objects story "Penguin Creamer"! Ben Greenman and Toni Schlesinger also read. Very cool.

You can also check it out on the Signifcant Objects tumblr.

The 10-minute film was produced in association with a Future of Storytelling conference — and there are even “discussion questions” to go with it! Wild.

Pocantico Writing Residency: Museum of the Future

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} </style></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Through my work with Teachers & Writers, I was invited to be a Pocantico writer in residence at the Breuer House on the grounds of the Rockefeller Estate about an hour north of New York City, on a hilltop overlooking a particularly wide part of the Hudson River.</span><br /><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Never have I a been a writer-in-residence in such a unique environment. The landscape and grounds around the mansion are ample, pastoral and at the same time home to a fabulous and quirkily-curated Modernist sculpture garden. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the really interesting thing was living in the Breuer House, which was created by Marcel Breuer in the late 1940s for a MoMa exhibit to be a "house of the future." It was<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/200..." rel="nofollow"> displayed</a> in 1949 in the MoMa sculpture garden and then, on the verge of being dismantled, moved in pieces to the Rockefeller estate where it was reconstructed on a hillock. This is where it still is. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">There was something totally dislocating and magical about inhabiting a “house of the future” that was built before I was born. There was a playfulness and an intimacy in these pre-plastic modernist spaces of wood and stone (Breuer was enamored with the natural landscape and designed his houses to sit within nature). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;">So much was particular, odd, and charming in its particularity. The cool, mottled surface of the slate floor. The clever, wood sliding doors that created a series of spaces an views within a space, like this one from my loft sleeping area. </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VDH5QS62-o..." style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9VDH5QS62-o..." width="240" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"> There was so much that Breuer got right. The future—now!—was everywhere. The open multipurpose spaces, each room's wall of plate glass, which obscured the distinction between inside and outside, reminded me of the Richard Meier construct on Plaza Street near us in Brooklyn, the feeling of being in a Bo Concept catalog.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">  </span></div><style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Cambria; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Sec</style><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I  found myself in my free moments looking through books on Marcel Breuer and came across this quote in which he expressed his idea of architecture as  “physical aesthetic."  I kept it on my desk.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>Colors which you hear with your ears,</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>Sound to see with eyes</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>The void you touch with you elbows</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>The taste of space on your tongue</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>the fragrance of dimension</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>The juice of stone.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>  </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The juice of stone! Architecture was a kind of sensual poetic problem for him. This is obvious of course, but it was the first time I truly understood in a <i>physical </i> way that architecture is a kinesthetic art. </span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">And as I explored Breuer's architectural process, which I found a different kind of inspiration for my own work too. I worked on my novel each day, and I became more aware of this work as a concrete process—even an <i>architectural </i>one.</span><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">It is extremely rare for a working writer to have time in seclusion, in a landscape of such natural beauty, as well as an interior space of such creative vision. The two together made for a powerful and dynamic writing residency. </span></div>