I had every intention of blogging again sooner than this - after all, how am I ever going to build a loyal audience without regular entries? - but life has once again gotten in the way. The good news, however, is that I have plenty to talk about!
I finished Zadie Smith's On Beauty. It's been a while since I did so I can't really get as specific as I'd like, but I enjoyed it very much. I picked up her first novel, White Teeth, but haven't had a chance to start it yet. I just found out that Smith is only five years older than me, which makes On Beauty all the more amazing, considering how much she dealt with the inner lives of middle-aged people. I'm looking forward to reading White Teeth and The Autograph Man and seeing how she's evolved.
After On Beauty I read Push by Sapphire. I had actually listened to it as an audiobook some years before; I was going on a road trip with my parents and then-boyfriend Jo (we were teenagers) and I had been assigned the task of choosing audiobooks from the library. God knows why I selected that one, but suffice it to say that it made for some uncomfortable moments in the car. The story made quite an impression on me though, and it stuck with me, even though the title and author did not. Not too long ago I stumbled across it online somewhere, recognizing the synopsis, and decided to read it. It deals very, very graphically with incest and is not a pleasant story, but it's a fantastic piece of storytelling.
Next on my list was The Handmaid's Tale, which I finished today. I'm not sure how I went this long without ever reading this (or anything else by Margaret Atwood). It's rather eery that it was written in 1985 and is perhaps more relevant now than it was then. Atwood has an incredible imagination that is nonetheless thoroughly grounded in the reality of American culture. I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.
As far as my own work, I wrote and submitted something - to a real, paying publication - and was quickly rejected. I wrote for my college newspaper and was published in a school lit mag (it didn't hurt that I was friends with the poetry editor) but this was my first attempt at getting paid for my writing. I can't lie, it made me feel shitty. I know that rejection is a part of every writer's life and that I'm going to have to get used to it if I'm going to make a go of this, but it's very hard for me. It's the main reason I stopped trying to begin with, not wanting to face it. And frankly I'm not really sure where to go from here. I suppose I should focus more on writing than trying to publish, though if I published something - anything, even just a poem - I think writing would come more easily to me.
I do at least have some writerly plans for 2007 that should help me get focused and stay that way. I'm going to go to a Women Writing for (a) Change retreat in April and a workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in June or July. I also want to get involved with Women Who Write.
I'd like to promise another entry soon, but school starts tomorrow (Gender & the Law and Minorities & Medicine) so who knows what's going to become of me in the coming months. I will try though!
I finished Zadie Smith's On Beauty. It's been a while since I did so I can't really get as specific as I'd like, but I enjoyed it very much. I picked up her first novel, White Teeth, but haven't had a chance to start it yet. I just found out that Smith is only five years older than me, which makes On Beauty all the more amazing, considering how much she dealt with the inner lives of middle-aged people. I'm looking forward to reading White Teeth and The Autograph Man and seeing how she's evolved.
After On Beauty I read Push by Sapphire. I had actually listened to it as an audiobook some years before; I was going on a road trip with my parents and then-boyfriend Jo (we were teenagers) and I had been assigned the task of choosing audiobooks from the library. God knows why I selected that one, but suffice it to say that it made for some uncomfortable moments in the car. The story made quite an impression on me though, and it stuck with me, even though the title and author did not. Not too long ago I stumbled across it online somewhere, recognizing the synopsis, and decided to read it. It deals very, very graphically with incest and is not a pleasant story, but it's a fantastic piece of storytelling.
Next on my list was The Handmaid's Tale, which I finished today. I'm not sure how I went this long without ever reading this (or anything else by Margaret Atwood). It's rather eery that it was written in 1985 and is perhaps more relevant now than it was then. Atwood has an incredible imagination that is nonetheless thoroughly grounded in the reality of American culture. I am really looking forward to reading more of her work.
As far as my own work, I wrote and submitted something - to a real, paying publication - and was quickly rejected. I wrote for my college newspaper and was published in a school lit mag (it didn't hurt that I was friends with the poetry editor) but this was my first attempt at getting paid for my writing. I can't lie, it made me feel shitty. I know that rejection is a part of every writer's life and that I'm going to have to get used to it if I'm going to make a go of this, but it's very hard for me. It's the main reason I stopped trying to begin with, not wanting to face it. And frankly I'm not really sure where to go from here. I suppose I should focus more on writing than trying to publish, though if I published something - anything, even just a poem - I think writing would come more easily to me.
I do at least have some writerly plans for 2007 that should help me get focused and stay that way. I'm going to go to a Women Writing for (a) Change retreat in April and a workshop at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in June or July. I also want to get involved with Women Who Write.
I'd like to promise another entry soon, but school starts tomorrow (Gender & the Law and Minorities & Medicine) so who knows what's going to become of me in the coming months. I will try though!
