How come no one wants to publish my Gowanus canal poem? Sigh.
Writing is a dog’s life.
This is amazing. And my sister asks me why I can’t write the next Fifty Shades of Grey!
Trying to write — laptop, pens, workshopped drafts, inspiration in the form of a novel, coffee, blankets.
One writes out of one thing only — one’s own experience. Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give. This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.
—James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Notes”
I think I disagree with this, but still:
“Nevertheless, social affairs are not generally speaking the writer’s prime concern, whether they ought to be or not; it is absolutely necessary that he establish between himself and these affairs a distance that will allow, at least, for clarity, so that before he can look forward in any meaningful sense, he must first be allowed to look back.” — James Baldwin,Autobiographical Notes
I think that the past is all that makes the present coherent, and further, that the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.
—James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Notes”
Any writer, I suppose, feels that the world into which he was born is nothing less than a conspiracy against the cultivation of his talent — which attitude certainly has a great deal to support it. On the other hand, it is only because the world looks on his talent with such frightening indifference that the artist is compelled to make his talent important.
—James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Notes”
A Day in the Life of a College Writing Professor:
“College professors have a bit of an image problem here — because we are not in our classrooms every moment of every day — the way K-12 teachers are — but rather teach in blocks. It is assumed that when we’re not standing in front of a classroom, we’re not working. I like the way my colleague, Anna Leahy, explains this to her mother, a lawyer. As a lawyer, Anna’s mother is probably not in court every day but that doesn’t mean that when she’s not in court, she’s not working. In fact, all of the time a lawyer spends outside of court is devoted to preparing for those vital hours when she is, and when she must be, on her best game. As a writing teacher, I spend the time I’m not in the classroom preparing to meaningfully fill the hours that I am, so that my students get the most for their tuition, so that they learn as much as possible about being good writers. In order for that to happen, they also have to write. They have to write a lot. They have to write a lot and I must respond to that writing, to every word, so that they will learn from it and bring what they learn to the next piece of writing and ultimately, out into the world.” - Stephanie Vanderslice
More here.
Hey @darinstrauss,
I just applied for a grant in the hopes of taking a class with you at Skidmore this summer. I liked Chang and Eng and I also liked More than it Hurts You (hooray for awkward first dates in Huntington, and also for capturing Long Island’s culture) and also also I had nightmares after I heard you read Half a Life and have not read it for fear of more nightmares. But I would like to write in such a way that causes casual listeners to enter into a narrative so fiercely that it causes psychic pain. Yours, Monica
