I have to say, I am still thinking about your essay about workshopping! And also thinking that there is a definite MFA “taint” out there so please be careful before you rip apart your manuscript. Feedback is great, but you also need to protect your art. It’s a tough balance but it’s necessary. Too much stuff out there sounds the same. And I think it’s great that you submitted the same work to two different writing retreats, you will learn so much by looking at whether different people are saying the same thing, or whether they disagree.
I hope you have a fabulous time at Bread Loaf! Vermont in August is so pretty, and since you got so much out of the Sewanee landscape I think you will feel similarly inspired by your surroundings at Middlebury! Yes, beware the gatekeepers, they are everywhere, and I'm so, so glad that you know yourself well enough to ignore toxic advice. That kind of thing crushes so many writers.
I agree with you about genre fiction, too! And anything that refuses to be categorized!
I really appreciate your comments because it’s hard to trust yourself in the face of a group of people are all saying the same thing. In the case of Sewanee this time one of the pieces of advice I think was a game changer for me but the other I happily will set aside. I really try to keep in mind the books that I like to read. I’m really looking forward to this being finished although I did sign up for one last workshop. I had a bad blow regarding my writing late last year and so on a whim I signed up for workshops just to try to get back in the saddle again and bread loaf is the third and the last one is the Key West Workshop which I’ve heard really great things about it’s completely devoted to literary matters there are no agents and there’s no really business panels that I have noticed so far.
Speaking of the beat, I just finished a book by Ellen Bryant Voigt (who will be at Bread Loaf) called Syntax--I liked it very much but then I remembered another book I have called The Flexible Lyric--was that a book you might have recommended to me? And if so, what were we talking about?
Have you ever read anything by Victoria Chang? I am slowly making my way through The Trees Witness Everything. "Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called 'wakas,' each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name - with reverence, economy and whimsy - the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light."
I'm so glad that, overall, Sewanee turned out to be a good experience. And it's not the worst thing to have the same ms critiqued at Bread Loaf. It will be interesting to see if you get the same response.
Thanks, Barb!!! I am re-reading Jess Row's magnificent novel The New Earth now... he was my first choice and so I am pretty excited. I am also reading Tania James' Loot--she was another faculty that I wanted to study with. Loot is fantastic!!
I have to say, I am still thinking about your essay about workshopping! And also thinking that there is a definite MFA “taint” out there so please be careful before you rip apart your manuscript. Feedback is great, but you also need to protect your art. It’s a tough balance but it’s necessary. Too much stuff out there sounds the same. And I think it’s great that you submitted the same work to two different writing retreats, you will learn so much by looking at whether different people are saying the same thing, or whether they disagree.
I hope you have a fabulous time at Bread Loaf! Vermont in August is so pretty, and since you got so much out of the Sewanee landscape I think you will feel similarly inspired by your surroundings at Middlebury! Yes, beware the gatekeepers, they are everywhere, and I'm so, so glad that you know yourself well enough to ignore toxic advice. That kind of thing crushes so many writers.
I agree with you about genre fiction, too! And anything that refuses to be categorized!
I really appreciate your comments because it’s hard to trust yourself in the face of a group of people are all saying the same thing. In the case of Sewanee this time one of the pieces of advice I think was a game changer for me but the other I happily will set aside. I really try to keep in mind the books that I like to read. I’m really looking forward to this being finished although I did sign up for one last workshop. I had a bad blow regarding my writing late last year and so on a whim I signed up for workshops just to try to get back in the saddle again and bread loaf is the third and the last one is the Key West Workshop which I’ve heard really great things about it’s completely devoted to literary matters there are no agents and there’s no really business panels that I have noticed so far.
And the beat goes on!
Speaking of the beat, I just finished a book by Ellen Bryant Voigt (who will be at Bread Loaf) called Syntax--I liked it very much but then I remembered another book I have called The Flexible Lyric--was that a book you might have recommended to me? And if so, what were we talking about?
Hmm, I know of Ellen Bryant Voigt. Don't know The Flexible Lyric. Interesting title!
Someone must have recommended it to me but I wonder why and who?? :)
Mystery person!
Have you ever read anything by Victoria Chang? I am slowly making my way through The Trees Witness Everything. "Largely composed in various Japanese syllabic forms called 'wakas,' each poem is shaped by pattern and count. This highly original work innovates inside the lineage of great poets including W.S. Merwin, whose poem titles are repurposed as frames and mirrors for the text, stitching past and present in complex dialogue. Chang depicts the smooth, melancholic isolation of the mind while reaching outward to name - with reverence, economy and whimsy - the ache of wanting, the hawk and its shadow, our human urge to hide the minute beneath the light."
Sounds glorious!
I must get to the bottom of this!
Yes, by all means!
Cool. I'll check out those books.
I'm so glad that, overall, Sewanee turned out to be a good experience. And it's not the worst thing to have the same ms critiqued at Bread Loaf. It will be interesting to see if you get the same response.
Thanks, Barb!!! I am re-reading Jess Row's magnificent novel The New Earth now... he was my first choice and so I am pretty excited. I am also reading Tania James' Loot--she was another faculty that I wanted to study with. Loot is fantastic!!