Chloé Caldwell's Blog, page 17

Salon’s Top 10 Personal Essays

Sarah Hepola, the personal essay editor at Salon, included my essay “Heroin and Acne” in her list: Our 10 Best Personal Essays of 2013. It made me feel good (though I know the essay made some people feel bad).

She says: Chloe Caldwell’s story had me from its riveting first sentence: “I got a pedicure each time I promised myself I’d stop doing heroin — which is to say, I got pedicures all summer.” Her story about heroin abuse — which she uses, in part, to quell the shame of terrible acne — disturbed me and haunted me, but what surprised me most was how much I related. It is a heartbreak to crave something that is destroying you.

Also on the list is a writer I very much admire: Anna Pulley. Oh, and of course, this essay by Anne Lamott: My Year on Match.com.

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My class Polish and Publish Your Personal Essays starts JANUARY 23rd.  Here’s some info on that:

A personal essay can entertain or teach, warn or admonish. It can hold the whole of your life experience, or just generate a good laugh. There’s more than one way to write an essay—­­which is what makes the discipline so fun and versatile.

But writing personally can be difficult and questions like these often come up:

What will my family and friends think?
Why would anyone care what I have to say?
Where will I publish something so personal?

In Polish & Publish Your Personal Essay, you’ll study essayists and explore the importance of the personal essay. You’ll learn how to connect  with your audience and make your experiences universal by reading essays and experimenting with your own.

The instructor, Chloe Caldwell, knows a lot about writing personal essays—and placing them for publication. Her work has been published in venues like Salon, The Rumpus, Thought Catalog, Nylon, The Nervous Breakdown, xoJane, The Frisky, The Sun Magazine, SMITH, Jewcy, Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Freerange Nonfiction, The Faster Times, The Fix, and Men’s Health. She also has a piece in the anthology Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving NYC, alongside writers  like Roxane Gay and Cheryl Strayed. 

In the first half of the class, you’ll study the art of the personal essay—where to start and how to make it effective. In the second half, Chloe will help you nail down your voice, and find venues that would be best suited for your work.

Along the way, Chloe will be critiquing your work and answering your questions in a collaborative, judgment-free environment. All skill levels welcome! Sign up here and tell your friends!

Happy Almost New Year to everyone! THANK YOU for reading and being so supportive. Email me anytime.

Love, 

Chloe

Dancing in France

The first time I went to France I was sixteen. I stayed with a family in Toulouse. I was to shadow Agnes, a girl my age. Agnes and I became close.  One night we went to a party with a group of her highschool friends and we all danced like no one was watching.  The big song at the time (in France? Not sure if I’d heard it before I embarked on this adventure) was The Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup.  There was a special dance to go along to the song.  I’ve been to a healthy amount of parties since I was sixteen, but I think that party in a basement somewhere in France was the best one.  Agnes’s parents picked us up, as we’d been drinking.

Anyhoo–the scene I found most moving in BLUE is the dance party at Adele’s surprise birthday. Adele’s girlfriend isn’t even in it. Adele dances with her friends in her backyard in France while the sun sets. She looks happiest here than any other part of the movie. When you see this, it’s like you know she’s going to be okay. Also, they used my song “I Follow Rivers” by Lykke Li.  I’ve been listening to this song for years. It’s one of my faves. My dream job is to pick songs from emotional indie movies.

 

Some Kind Of Anthology Slut

Got some cool stuff lined up this winter. Oh and look at the new sidebar to the right. It now includes the anthologies I’m in.

Monday, January 20th:  True Tales of Lust and Love book release party at Book Court in Brooklyn . Reading and signing with Anna David, Iris Smyles, Sacha Z. Schoblic, and moi. Also on deck is a panel and Q & A with the audience. 

January 23rd: My online class POLISH AND PUBLISH YOUR PERSONAL ESSAYS begins through Lit Reactor. Sign up here!

Friday, February 7th:  A reading/signing at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck for the Goodbye To All That Anthology. With Maggie Estep, Sari Botton, and more.

Maggie Estep reading at Inquiring Minds bookstore last week with her dog Mickey

February 17th-19th: CREATIVE WRITING FOR TEENS  at The Hudson Opera House.  (More information TBA)

My essay “Getting Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable” is up on Thought Catalog. You may have read it in LGLA already. It’s also in the anthology GIRLS? which you can buy for $4.99. Fun anecdote: This essay was originally accepted by The New York Times for their “Townies” column and at the last minute they decided “Never mind.” I was devastated but got over it in like five minutes. Below is the photo to go along with the apartment I wrote about it in the essay. This photo was taken 2 weeks ago and the essay was written in 2008. Almost 6 years later, my apartment remains condemned. Photo by Sean H Doyle. 

Love,

Chloe

Personalized LGLAS

Culture Map in Austin, Texas just posted their Holiday Gift Guide and suggest Legs Get Led Astray. 

“For the classic Austin lit-nerd/writer:

Indie-lit darling Chloe Caldwell’s collection of personal essays pull you into her world of being a 20-something writer trying to get it together while bouncing around Austin-like scenes in Brooklyn and Portland, painting equally compelling and honest portraits of her time spent babysitting and partying with Strand booksellers. Her writing is honest, often hilarious, and hits anyone who’s young, artistic — and wondering what the hell they’re doing with their life — hard in the face.”

(I don’t actually bounce around Portland or Austin in LGLA. But, I’ll take it. )

 If you’d like personalized  copy of LGLA for a gift, or for yourself,  paypal me ten dollars at cocomonet@gmail.com. I’ll sign it pretty for you and enclose a bonus essay!

Also on the list is the Write Like A Motherfucker mug of The Rumpus/Cheryl Strayed. I already have my Write Like A Motherfucker mug. If you don’t have one of these mugs, you might wanna question how serious a writer you are.

This is my desk below. Look at that old school cell phone far left!

Dazed Digital put LGLA on their list of  1ST BOOKS THAT DON’T SUCK, which I found touching. Alissa Nutting, Blake Butler, and Kate Zambreno are also on the list.

We got a foot of snow here in Hudson, N.Y. I’t's pretty magical looking.

Love,

Chloe

 

I (still) love New York

Had a great time last week in NYC. Especially at Mellow Pages Library. Feel sad it wasn’t there when I lived in Bushwick, but feeling happy it’s there now. We had a small, impromptu, group reading, and it was awesome. I read a new essay “Women I Have Loved.” It’s unpublished.

The reading at Housing Works Bookstore was so much fun.  The website Last Night’s Reading drew the below pic of me, quoting my essay about NYC. You can buy it on Etsy, which is weird.

Oh–and I spent a lil time with The Rumpus people: Stephen Elliott and Isaac Fitzgerald. I know Isaac isn’t the managing editor anymore, but in my mind he is. He was the first person to accept my essays, like this one.  Also, he recently got “attacked” in the NYT, so we had a good laugh over that. I love that they both live in Brooklyn now.

I’m reading at Book Court on January 20th for the anthology True Tales of Lust and Love. Join me on that dark cold night! Pre-order the anthology here. 

Monday, January 20, 2014: True Tales of Lust and Love anthology reading/signing with Chloe Caldwell, Iris Smyles and Sacha Z. Scoblic, Book Court, 163 Court St, Brooklyn, NY, 7 pm EST

There’s still room in my online Personal Essay Class, which begins January 23rd.  Put it on your xmas list, or buy it for someone else! The class is going to be amazing, if I do say so myself.

Hope you’re having a magical winter so far.

Love

Chloe

The Long Goodbye

Really excited to have my essay quoted in this New York Times article, The Long Goodbye, published yesterday by Alex Smith.

“In my early twenties, I felt that my life could be one big experiment, and in my mid-twenties I am coming to terms with the fact that no, my life is actually my life,” wrote Chloe Caldwell in her anthology entry, “Leaving My Groovy Lifestyle.”

In putting it so, Ms. Caldwell echoed Ms. Didion’s description of how she rationalized the move that she and her husband made to Los Angeles (they returned to New York in the 1980s): “I talk about how difficult it would be for us to ‘afford’ to live in New York right now, about how much ‘space’ we need. All I mean is that I was very young in New York, and that at some point the golden rhythm was broken, and I am not that young anymore.”

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Remember: Join us at Housing Works Bookstore on December 2nd for a reading from the Goodbye To All That anthology. Readers include Mike Albo, Emily Gould, Alexander Chee, Elissa Bassist, Anna Holmes, Choire Sicha, Jon-Jon Goulian, Michelle Dean, Isaac Fitzgerald, and myself.

ONLINE ESSAY CLASS

Hey all. I’m teaching a class in January for LIT REACTOR, and I’d really love for you to join me. More information on Lit Reactor here, and please email me at cocomonet@gmail.com with questions.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I’l be reading  December 2nd at Housing Works Bookstore in NYC.

Vol 1 Brooklyn is putting on the event, and here’s was they say:

There is always that push and pull when it comes to living in New York: you love it, but you could probably do without the high rent, weird people, garbage, crazy cab drivers, loud noises pumping out from the streets at all hours of the day, and all the other random distractions that come with life as a New Yorker. Reading the essay collection Goodbye to All That really gives you a sense of the intense love/hate relationship most people have with living in New York and the conflicted feelings they might have about leaving no matter how much they love it, or how much they detest it.

Readers include:  Mike Albo, Emily Gould, Alexander Chee, Chloe Caldwell, Anna Holmes, Choire Sicha, Jon-Jon Goulian, Michelle Dean, Elissa Bassist, and Isaac Fitzgerald. 

The event is free and starts at 7 pm. RSVP at Facebook.

Please come say hi to me!! Super excited to read with this lineup. It will also be my first trip to the city in over a year.

Love

Chloe

Buy the book here. It’s in it’s third printing!

Home to NY

I’ll be moving back to New York in a couple of weeks. My friend Eliza made me this CD.  I’m obsessed with Beach House right now. We’ve been having vino and vinyl nights. These nights are computer and phone free, and we blast Beach House on the record player, drink and talk until the wee hours.

Two readings coming up this winter in NYC: one at Housing Works Bookstore and one at Book Court in Brooklyn. Details to come.

I’ve been working with writers  on their personal essays, and in the past month the peeps I’ve been working with have placed their essays in Salon.com, The Nervous Breakdown, and The Rumpus. Please email me (cocomonet@gmail.com) if you’re interested in polishing something up and getting it published!

I will also be teaching some online creative nonfiction and personal essay classes this winter and spring,–please email me if you’d like more information on that.

See you soon, New York!

“send her off to a coconut island”

Jamaica was amazing. We workshopped our writing, swam, and ate a ton of awesome food: papaya, jerk chicken, plantains, and goat. Also, I saw dolphins swimming for the first time IRL.

Bliss

Spa Day

Elizabeth and I underwater