Dreaming of Florida

With this snow on its way to DC (24 inches? really, folks?), there is only one appropriate course of action: start thinking about next week's trip to Miami. 

SeminArt - LegalArt Writing Workshop at Rubell Collection

Next Thursday (February 12, 2010), LegalArt, an organization in Miami that provides artists with affordable legal services, grants and educational opportunities is holding SeminArt, a writers workshop hosted at The Rubell Family Collection (show above). The workshop which aims to empower would-be writers with the skill set necessary to make it in the professional realm promises to be a unique opportunity for emerging writers of all types to get the inside scoop on launching a writing career. The workshop will be presented by literary agent Shannon O’Neill, and author Sandra Beasley.

“An experienced literary agent, Shannon will discuss how to find an agent, what agents do, and how to know if you have a good agent. She will also give tips on ensuring a successful meeting with an editor, such as what to include in a pitch and book proposal. Sandra will share her experience as an author who works in different genres, and provide advice on how to take advantage of the variety of opportunities open to writers who are versatile.”

About the presenters:

Shannon O’Neill is an editor and literary agent at The Sagalyn Agency, based in Washington DC. For over 20 years, The Sagalyn Agency has represented journalists, academics, business writers, and novelists, doing business primarily with the large New York houses and focusing on up market nonfiction, business books, and commercial fiction. Shannon also teaches writing and publishing workshops at The Writer’s Center in Washington and serves as a guest panelist at events such as the annual Conversations and Connections Writer’s Conference. Shannon has a Master’s degree in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College.

Sandra Beasley is the author of two poetry collections: I Was the Jukebox (W.W. Norton, 2010) and Theories of Falling (New Issues, 2008). Her nonfiction has appeared in the Washington Post Magazine, and she is working on Don’t Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales From an Allergic Life (Crown, 2011). She first studied literature as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, and holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from American University. Beasley lives in Washington, D.C., where she serves on the Board of the Writer’s Center; in 2010 she received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:00-9:00 pm

Rubell Family Collection, 95 NW 29th Street, Miami, FL 33127

Register now: provide the names of those attending to legalartprograms@gmail.com

Review-age

I'm delighted to find out that poet Andrew Kozma has reviewed Theories of Falling for Zoland, a cool annual that operates an an interesting hybrid between anthology and journal. Beautiful print values, too (though I'm not sure the print version includes the reviews). 


The review makes some lovely observations about the organization of the book, including the tonal shifts between the sections. An excerpt:



"This world is presented through the eyes of a child who is both being taught how to perceive the world by her family, and who looks back as an adult as a witness to how these lessons in perspective have betrayed her adulthood. For the speaker, nothing is as it seems, and nothing, finally, in her world, relates to how others describe the world as being. This prepares us for “Allergy Girl”, a long sequence that recounts the life of the speaker, a girl whose allergies make the world a dangerous place. And the world is dangerous not just because of her allergies, but because of the inability for others in the world to recognize her allergies. The parents try to calm the child down with food that simply makes her more irritable. They wonder why she won’t eat, and make delicacies to tempt her with poison instead. A disbelieving boyfriend tricks her with a kiss, his mouth full of chocolate; an ex insures against physical contact by eating cheese before a reunion.


This section – the first of three, titled “The Experiment” – embodies a world of deception, where things don’t shift form, they shift interpretation. The poems here show a mastery of metaphorical narrative, all the poems fitting together tightly towards a single goal even though the poems themselves tackle widely varying subjects."



Thanks, Andrew, for your careful attention to the work. It's nice to be reminded that a book continues to make its way out into the world after the first year. The full text is here. 


...and in other, less selfish news, congrats to D. A. Powell and Beth Bachmann, winners of this year's Kingsley Tufts ($100K, whoa) and the Kate Tufts Awards!

VCCA: Home

If you have ever debated whether an art colony is for you, stop debating. They are tremendously productive. In two weeks I managed to do the following:

7 full-length prose books read
7 full-length poetry collections read
4 literary magazines read
3 chapters revised
12,450 words written

The last thing I did before leaving my VCCA studio: hit "send" on 101 pages--the first half of Don't Kill the Birthday Girl: Tales from an Allergic Life. Hallelujah!


I got back into DC just in time to head up to Cafe Muse and hear Gregory Pardlo and Ed Skoog read their poetry, then go out for a drink afterwards...at which point my 5:30 AM wake-up call got to me. I was asleep before midnight and now face a minor hurricane of unpacking, to-dos, and emails. So I'm off to work, and in the meantime I leave you with this-the first part of a Rachmaninoff Sonata being performed by Inna Faliks, a pianist I hope to work with later this year:



Here is the YouTube Channel for the rest of the piece. One thing I won't miss about VCCA....the sloooow internet connections. It has been a video-less two weeks.