Victoria A. Hudson's Blog, page 21

Pulitzer Remix Day Four

What makes a Well-Rounded Woman is the idea discussed in day four’s remix. Taken from the story Caveat Emptor this found poem looks at what is a woman’s real worth as reflected in culture and society. Pages 76-77 were the source text.

Three by Five Presents Daniel Shapiro, Part I

Daniel M. Shapiro is a poet living in Pittsburgh. Due out this summer is his book How the Potato Chip Was Invented (Sunnyoutside Press). He is also the author of a book of collaborative poems with Jessy Randall entitled Interruptions and has authored three chapbooks. Find out more at his web site here.

VAH – I always find the reasons why writers write interesting – Daniel, what are yours?

DAS – I write because I believe daydreaming (or the greatest hits of daydreaming) should be documented. Writing allows you to sit down with ideas that don’t seem to make sense and to turn those ideas into entertainment, art, or a type of consciousness that might not have been articulated previously.

VAH – What was the first piece your wrote?

DAS – I write mostly poems, and my first poem was about springtime. It was titled “Springtime.” Mrs. Picard-Busse, my eighth-grade English teacher, published it without my knowledge in Reflections, the official literary magazine of Twelve Corners Middle School in Rochester, N.Y. I remember it had the line I clutch my umbrella hard. I’m not sure if this is related, but I really can’t stand umbrellas now.

VAH – And your favorite literary character?

DAS – Years ago I would’ve said R.P. McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because I worshiped that book, but more recently I’ve been reading to my kids, especially the Harry Potter series. I was always fascinated by Professor Snape and knew he would play a role in some sort of twist at the end of the series. I believed in Snape. I thought he was the most complete character. I am drawn to misunderstood characters whose truths are revealed gradually.

VAH – If you were stranded on a deserted island, what book or books would you want stranded with you?

DAS – The practical answer is Yukio Mishima’s Sea of Fertility tetralogy. I love his writing so much and have let those books sit on my shelf for years. Confessions of a Mask was what Catcher in the Rye would’ve been if Holden Caulfield had been a gay Japanese teenager. I’ve never been gay or Japanese, but I identified more strongly with the character in Confessions than I did with Holden. Anyhow, if the Sea of Fertility books were all I had, I would finally be forced to read them and would enjoy doing so.

VAH – And your biggest influence in your development as a writer?

DAS – I can think of two main influences: A.) Playwrights (Ionesco, Pinter, Mamet, et. al.) introduced to me by my high school English teacher Dr. Gary Wiener. After I told him how much I liked Waiting for Godot, Dr. Wiener pointed me toward other absurdest writing that wasn’t part of the curriculum. B.) Friends who write well. One of my best friends for the last 30+ years, Jessy Randall, has been writing poetry since before I knew her. Also, many people whom I’ve met first over the Internet and then in person (Matt Hart, Maria Chelko, Carol Guess, and others) continue to inspire me with their work and overall generosity. I am especially drawn to highly specific writing, e.g., poems that provide insight via the poet’s distinct individuality.

Pulitzer Remix Day Three

The story A Modest Proposal provides the source text for the next installment, Pan was found using pages 68-69. This found poem reflects upon isolation, infertility and drive for survival. 

Pulitzer Remix Day Two

The second remix is from pages 56-57, the short story The Maiden.

Using three stanzas of six lines, ten lines, then six lines again; this found poem entitled Femininity is an ode to the definition of womanhood and femininity, or perhaps a discussion from different perspectives.

Pulitzer Remix Day One

The first poem from The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford was sourced from the first section of the Table of Contents. This first poem is entitled Advice to a Young Woman.

This post used 22 words as the pool for source text, with five being the word ‘the’, thus reducing the selection to 18 words. Using homonyms, the resultant found poem provides a bit of advice for someone.

Spring Time

Spring has sprung and with it seeds are flowering across the backyard meadow. Some new seeds are planting here with launch of Three by Five, a new interview series that goes live on April 3rd. Over the course of the month, on days of the month with a ’3′ in them, five questions from interviews of authors, writers, indie artists and other interesting or intriguing people will be posted. Three by Five will continue as a recurring feature with at least one new interview subject a month.

Author First Look – a chance to read the first chapter, or a few poems, by indie authors and writers.

Book + Review will continue with new reviews posted intermittently. You might find your next favorite author or at least, a good read for an upcoming flight, vacation, commute, treadmill walk or just because.

Through the fall, I’ll continue the current calls for submission for two anthologies, Dress Right Dress: The Uniform and its Stories, and Repeal Day: When DADT Became History.

If you’re part of the writing community, and interested in a guest posting here just send me a message.

And there will be the occasional blog tour where you will find other indie authors tagged for you to discover.

Coming tomorrow – the first Pulitzer Remix posting – found poems from each of the Pulitzer Prize winning fiction books. Eighty-five poets writing thirty poems, posting one each day of the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month. You’ll find mine posted here along with a link for the main site where you’ll be able to visit the other 84 poets and their found poems (and mine).

Links: Three by Five,     Author First Look,     Book + Review,     Dress Right Dress: The Uniform and its Stories Info and Call For Submissions,     Repeal Day: When DADT Became History Info and Call for Submissions,     Pulitzer Remix,     National Poetry Month,     Random Spring.

Coming Soon for Poetry Month – Pulitzer Remix

Coming soon – Pulitzer Remix for Poetry Month 2013. Eight-five poets, each taking one of the 85 fiction Pulitzer winners, posting a poem a day created from text drawn from the Pulitzer winning book. Check back every day in April for a new poem. In particular, you can follow the Found Poetry I’m creating from the 1970 Pulitzer for Fiction, The Collected Works of Jean Stafford.

Found poetry uses existing text, creating literary collages, using only what is already in the source text with little change.  The Poet refashion and reorders, creating something new.

Read more about Found Poetry at The Found Poetry Review and Poets.org. Visit Pulitzer Remix.

Home from AWP 2013

For lack of an original term – I remain a bit shell shocked from my visit to AWP in Boston this past week. This was my first return to AWP since 2007 when I went while still in a MFA program.

My, how AWP has grown. More than 10,000 people, three massive convention halls for the book fair and hundreds of panels. I brought 36 pounds of No Red Pen: Writers, Writing Groups & Critique with me, and returned with 37 pounds of books picked up at the conference. Almost 100 writing programs received a free print copy of No Red Pen – hopefully they will find it useful for their students. “Did I mention the Ebook is free?” was my refrain when speaking with the “Influencers” about the book.

Highlights of my time in Boston – lunch with Andi Cumbo (God’s Whisper Manifesto: The Makings of a Dream) and friends P and Meghan K. Barnes (For the Love of God), visiting with Eloise Healy and a serendipitous encounter walking the book fair, moments with Katherine V. Forrest – Trailblazer and one of my personal literary heros, meeting Annie Rachele Lanzillotto when I walked by the SUNY publishing booth whose book, L is for Lion I just turned in a review for before flying off to AWP, the takeover of the Westin lobby for Kore Press‘s author readings, an intimate dinner discussing writing and life with two other authors, an invitation to send in an essay to Sinister Wisdom, and another author suggesting I write her agent using her name as reference, catching up with Charles Flowers and Bloom… and I did get to a few panels too.

If thinking about studying for the MFA – attend AWP first and check out the programs, hundreds of MFA and writing programs had representatives present. Looking for markets for your work – thousands of journals, many with free editions to hand out, had editors and volunteers at the book fair. Of course panels across a spectrum of subjects, numerous off site readings and if you are young enough to last that long, a dance party every night till midnight.

Women Writers

Women in the media – the means by which our daughters see how the culture expects them to act – is not chock full of great role models. I see this already with my not yet four year old who already is clear on gender roles and defining between what is for boys and what is for girls.

Writers contribute to culture. What happens when women writers are interviewed - not about their writing but are asked questions more about them as women than as writers?

Women writers and bad interviews – Lorraine Berry at Talking Writing discusses how women writers are often subjected to questions that have nothing to do with writing when interviewed. Read the blog post here. Find out more about Talking Writing here.

Third Sunday Blog Carnival

Visit Sweepy Jean’s Third Sunday Blog Carnival  and discover authors of fiction, poetry and writing life blog posts.