Pretty Cool, worth checking out

Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I'm such a fan/proponent of Detroit that it is almost maddening to those around me. I just recently came across this new(ish) music video for the Sam Roberts Band tune Detroit '67. There are things I like about and thing I don't, but the tune is catchy and the production of higher calibre. The film noir aspect is fun and slightly problematic in that it leaves out much of the city's present inhabitants. Makes me want to grab my camera, head north for a few hours and grab some of the other pictures. Be up that way soon. Anyways, suspend the politics for a few minutes, watch the video, and hopefully enjoy it.


Detroit '67 by The Sam Roberts Band

Woolf Speaking about Writing

I actually just received this link from another AI here at IU and figured it worth posting. I became a fan of Virginia Woolf while at Montana State and studying literature of place with poet and Woolf scholar Danell Jones. The quick two minute clip has Woolf talking about writing (big surprise right?), but what's really quite cool is the fact that the recording is the only known recording of her voice. To read the words of someone is always such a different experience from hearing them speak. The clip is worth a listening if only to hear one of the greatest writers of all-time finally speak beyond the page.

Virginia Woolf from the British Library Collection

Postmodernist Fiction and Poetics: A Trip to BGSU

I've been busy preparing for a session I'll be leading at the upcoming Winter Wheat Festival at BGSU in just a few weeks' time. Heading up north to that fantastic orange and brown campus on the fringes of metro Detroit to give my first ever conference session on creative writing. I'll be working with the idea of hybridity and post-modernism in the composition of fiction that straddles the lies critics give it. It is important to think about fiction in new ways and see form and its various consituents as vital aspects to message and communication in the craft of writing. I haven't heard about the exact session time as of yet (the schedule has yet to be updated), but this nonetheless very exciting in terms of experience. I've really enjoyed teaching craft to my students in W103 and see Winter Wheat as a nice extension of these experiences so far. I'll post my notes from the session at a later date, just in case there is any interest out there about the subject matter.

Here's a link to conference webpage. It's definitely worth checking out if you're in the region:
http://www.bgsu.edu/studentlife/organizations/midamericanreview/index2.html

Additionally, my buddy and fellow MFAer Mike Dauro will be leading a session on poetry. I've heard his lectures at IU. It should be a good-one.

Book of Note: Immortal Sofa

I just finished Maura Stanton's more recent collection of poetry, Immortal Sofa, and must definitely urge it for consideration on anyone's reading list. The poems are easily approachable, fun, and definitely full of life that only an experienced and gifted writer could give them. Stanton has good number of publications out, most of which I'm unfamiliar with. She is a graduate from Iowa's storied MFA program and does well in mixing form poetry together with story narrative sense. Stanton places the private world of domestic life into the forefront of this very public text. The collection is worth just for "Ode to Pokeweed" and the longer historical piece "The Tale of Herman Goertz." The later explores the life of the former WWII German Spy in an Irish police station. It's a fairly quick read, available from the Illinois University Press.

Novellas, Chapbooks, October Goodness.

When one is in a MFA program one runs out of time faster than one realizes. Hence the tardiness of posting. Back to it again. I've really been into the whole poetry thing for a period with both a poetry workshop and a Master Class with Campbell McGrath on the subject. I've just started a new sequence of poems about my time in Montana (with a few prose poems), and should be able to have a nice Chapbook of Goodness by semester's end. It's not my focus, but it is warranting some attention. I've gathered in the importance of notebooks to the creative process and have been drawing from them and creating them at an equally heavy pace. Images banks and raw word banks help. Consider a Cento to launch a new idea. Nothing like theft to help propell you to a new place.

The Novella "The Bastion of Industrial Decline" is starting to come together nicely. The setting is Windsor/Detroit and will help to start breaking up some deadlocks about writing stories in that neck of the world. Lean heavily on what you know and what you remember. Again, the first draft should be close to down by the end of this semester. Cobble them together and then polish them with editing. The craft of writing is key here.

Lastly, I changed up the title section to resemble the world of Bloomington, Indiana. I do mean world, this town is a nice little enclave against the rest of the very different state around us. Fall is encroaching with the colours coming out in Midwestern splendour. It's the time of cafes at night. The drinking days are perhaps way past me by now. Bloomington is also home to the largest number of scooter/mopeds I've seen in America. It's pretty cool all in all. No news about recent submissins, at least that's good news.

Quick Update: Hurricane bits, McGrath, and the Bastion of Industrial Decline

Hurricane Ike, or at least his remainants, blew through town yesterday. It almost felt like Livingston, MT with all the wind gusts. All I could think about was Greg Keeler's "Hotel Livingston, MT" parody. It gave me a full day inside. Left to reading and writing I got a fair amount of work done the "Bastion of Industrial Decline" novella I've started for workshop. Set in present day Windsor, ON and Detroit, MI, it allows for a small microcosm for the lives being lived under the collapse of North American manufacturing. More importantly though, I started Campbell McGrath's "Seven Notebooks" collection. It's a fantastic read thus far. Highly influenced by the landscapes of Florida (ohh ... childhood memories) and by his time as an instructor of Creative Writing, it is simply put, beautifully written. I also finished up David Berman's "Actual Air" collection. Yeah, he's the lead singer of the "Silver Jews" and that undoubtedly helped get this book published. But, as writers we all have to milk whatever advantages we can. All in all, Berman's book was entertaining. Not life changing, but entertaining. I'll post "New York, New York" shortly here.
Lastly, I'll be giving my first reading on October 10th here in Bloomington. Myself and the rest of the first year MFA's will be hosting readings at the Pourhouse Cafe on Kirkwood. Time is 7 pm and the readings go on both the 10th and 11th.

Notes For Creative Writing Pedagogy

First class out of the way of the semester, and I'm starting to feel a real and solid affinity for this whole instruction of the creative word. Let's face it, most of us have had very poor experiences with those so called able to construct and lead writing workshops. Then again, we've all had issues with those individuals who have told us they can lead. However, in the terms of running a workshop I'm finding that some one needs to play the role of leader. Simply put, there is clear need to have the person charge have the ability to show their expanded knowledge of craft to be able to flex some muscle. There are good writers and bad writers. Most of it has to do with craft, although let's face some people may just not be able to writer (In much the same way I'm unable to say play golf worth a damn).
The whole point here is that 1960s-70s model of the instructor that becomes part of the members of the workshop and fails to show either guidance or strong criticism, is failing his students. How can you progress as a writer if you aren't told your doing something wrong? Yes confidence places a role in the matter, but individual confidence will only improve with individual success. How can a writer achieve individual success without improving their craft? Bottomline here is that teachers should do what their suppose to do: teach. Give good grades, but also give bad ones too. Not everyone deserves an A. They all should work for it and prove their merits in the craft. Oh, and read Stephen Minot's Creative Teaching for Creative Writers