EventsI've been a mentor and an advisor at the Vermont College MFA in Writing Program for fourteen years, loving (nearly) every minute of it. Right now, we're celebrating our transformation to the Vermont College of the Fine Arts, which was years in the making and marks our independance from academic oversight by large institutions with little stake in the arts. As if to mark this transformation, our visiting fiction writers this year were among the most exciting we've ever had: Evan Fallenburg, who graduated from Vermont College in 2001, came back as our visiting alumni translator and novelist, to read from his critcally acclaimed translations as well as from his elegant new novel, LIGHT FELL, and David Truer, our visiting fiction writer, read from his stunning, recently completed novel called, I think, Neverland. People should keep their eyes open for both these books. I enjoyed screening novels for one of the big competitions recently; it was interesting to read so many manuscripts without having been given any advance notice as to what they were about, or as to who their authors were, or as to when and where the stories were supposed to take place. Readers generally know a lot more about novels before they start reading them - via reviews, jacket copy, word of mouth, familiarity with the author, etc.- than they realize they know. In this case, I came to the manuscripts blind. One of the questions I brought to my screening was to ask myself exactly how the authors managed, or didn't manage, to situate me in their evolving worlds. The books that didn't do that in fairly short order, I put aside; the ones that taught me something about themselves up front, I stuck with a good while longer. Generally I don't read this way - I don't mind taking time finding my way into the world of a novel, but that's in large part due, I realize, to my already having some inkling as to what that world includes. When I read for this contest, I found myself looking for context before I started looking at anything else. I'll be judging shortly for Dogwood Magazine's short story contest and look forward to the challenge. Good news from a new little press called Firestarter - they will be issuing my story Two Straight Women Talking in broadside form. Oh, and my essay Blue Shirt from Brivity will be included in Dzanc Books first annual Best of the Web anthology. Have you visited Dzanc Books website? They're a smart new press out of Ann Arbor,Michigan. |
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