Re-blogging this. Love the comment about ‘white male’ fiction being a genre. I wrote a story based on Shirley Jackson, I find her life and her work fascinating. https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=LIT6638550199 Welcome to Lit Century: 100 Years, 100 Books. Combining literary analysis with an in-depth look at historical context, hosts Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols choose one … Continue reading Can We Stop Underrating Shirley Jackson Now? — Literary Hub
Author: Jack Morris
Running v writing v crochet
In first lockdown, all those years ago in the UK, I decided to learn to crochet. I’m a 51 year old woman, it’s allowed. It’s practically mandatory. To start with every square took a long time, many mis-steps and looked liked a deformed dishcloth. Then, when I read the instructions and concentrated really hard, I … Continue reading Running v writing v crochet
New Year’s Eve 2020
It gets a bit much, this writing malarkey. The weight of my own expectations. The need for validation. Blame my childhood. Blame my hormones. Something. When I get like this I retreat into books. The Artist’s Way tells me it’s imperative to have an Artist’s Date with myself. Quite tricky in lockdown, but there’s always … Continue reading New Year’s Eve 2020
Ever wondered how a fox would sound if it could speak? – Fox 8 by George Saunders — SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES
Look, I found another blog post about George Saunders. I am still deep in the throws of infatuation. Half way through Pastoralia, which I will no doubt want to discuss. In the meantime, please enjoy someone else’s views on Fox 8. Fox 8 – A Story, by George Saunders (Hardcover: publisher: Random House; First Edition … Continue reading Ever wondered how a fox would sound if it could speak? – Fox 8 by George Saunders — SEVEN CIRCUMSTANCES
Campfires of the Dead – Peter Christopher
Came across a reference to Peter Christopher in Consider This by Palahnuik. Christopher taught Palahnuik to write in first person but ‘submerge the I.’ Sounds like great life advice, never mind writing.
Somehow Christopher’s slipped away, out of print. This link/reblog contains a Christopher short story called Flight. I would love to read more.
This book is probably the best example of these unfairly forgotten books and of a great writer few knew and who is no longer with us to share his words and sentences.
Peter Christopher was a Lish student from the Columbia U days (along with Amy Hempel, Christopher Coe and Anderson Ferrell), whose collection,Campfires of the Dead (1989) is as fine a first volume of short stories as any of the best being released today via the Flannery O’Connor Award, the AWP Awards, Drue Heinz, Juniper, Dzanc, or the Iowa Short Fiction Award. The fifteen stories were developed in Lish’s class and published in either The Quarterly or a special issue of StoryQuarterly that Lish edited. We remember well, in 1989, finding this book in a Los Angeles store and getting giddy when reading it. Where did this whacky gfeat fun stuff come from? They are quirky stories about…
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Review: Hack Wednesday
The New Yorker subscription is proving to be a sound investment. They’ve put some old stories online for the holiday season. Hack Wednesday is by Margaret Atwood, from 1990. Superficially, nothing much happens - the narrator goes to her newspaper office, has lunch with a younger colleague, comes home to her husband of many years. … Continue reading Review: Hack Wednesday
Christmas Eve 2020
Well, that was a year etc. I mean, it was though, wasn’t it? We jangled our bells at 6pm*, I’m a glass of champagne down, the kids had some too for the first time. Can you hear that clock, tick tick ticking faster and faster? I can honestly say this is the first day it … Continue reading Christmas Eve 2020
Let George Saunders read you a bedtime story about the true meaning of Christmas. — Literary Hub
https://www.youtube.com/embed/l0CedlPRsng?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent You may not know this, but George Saunders is a holiday writer: he writes about trying to bring joy to people you love and messing it up. In “My Flamboyant Grandson,” a grandfather risks governmental discipline to smuggle his grandson into the musical extravaganza “Babar Sings”; in the personal essay “Chicago Christmas, 1984,” a young…Let … Continue reading Let George Saunders read you a bedtime story about the true meaning of Christmas. — Literary Hub
Review: The Author Blog
Well, isn't this delightfully self referential. I've reviewed a book about blogging on Good Reads that I am now re-blogging on my own blog. A Tutor on the Open University MA recommended it. It was cheap on Kindle. It's proven to be very helpful. The Author Blog: Easy Blogging for Busy Authors by Anne R. … Continue reading Review: The Author Blog
My continuing obsession with George Saunders
Photo: The Paris Review (see article link below) Turns out I'm not the only one. Every infatuation I ever had began with me thinking only I could see their innate specialness and then finding out everyone else could too. Damn. Still, at least now I have an answer to the 'who would you invite to … Continue reading My continuing obsession with George Saunders









