Grub Street Rag, 4/5/2010

"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work."

— Mary Oliver

Grub Street News

Welcome to the latest installment of the Grub Street Rag, a newsletter of the Boston literary scene sent out every Monday by the last man standing in that brutal Easter egg hunt at Grub Street's world headquarters. As always, if you are receiving this e-mail in horror, please advance to the bottom of the page to unsubscribe yourself.

There's still time to sign up: Spring classes begin next week

Go West, Ye Grubbies

The AWP conference is this weekend! If you plan to attend the conference, be sure to swing by our table at the BookFair, where we will be featuring friendly Grubbie faces, some info on our organization, and, every day from 2:30-3:00, free artisanal cookies and milk. Yup, it’s just like that after-school snack you used to get in grade school, except more delicious.

The Grubbie Guide to AWP

Attending AWP? In between cookie breaks, you should also sit in on the many panels featuring Grub instructors, board members and friends. Here is a chronological guide to those panels that feature Grubbies as presenters. Full descriptions can be found here: www.awpwriter.org/conference/2010awpconf.php.

The P.S.: The first evening of seminars from our new Spring schedule are taking place next Wednesday, April 7th. If you want to write erotica, make your characters come alive on the page, or learn how to start a blog, don't miss out on these great classes! Details below.

Grub Events

In addition to our ongoing workshops, Grub Street offers numerous writing-related events around town. See our website for a long-term view of all we do. Ready to sign up? Call us at 617.695.0075 and we'll get you on the list.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, April 7th, 7-10pm, Go Deeper, Baby: Writing Meaningful Erotica
Instructor: Sue Williams
Do you find sexy stories liberating and fun? If so, why not try writing them yourself?
In this one-night seminar, we'll celebrate erotic fiction looking at why it's both emotionally valuable and increasingly popular. Drawing on well-respected authors such as Anais Nin, Susie Bright and Steve Almond, we'll explore what makes a sexy story sexy, while also tapping the transformational qualities of the genre. Come along with a willingness to be open about feelings and sensations, and you'll leave with a short, sexy story of your own. All sexualities warmly welcomed. Led by an instructor who regularly publishes erotica and views it as some of her most meaningful work.
*ONE SPOT LEFT!* $65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, April 7th, 7-10pm, The Body on the Page
Instructor: Gregory Mone
Part of the challenge of creating real, convincing characters lies in describing them physically. Using examples from great and abysmal books, we’ll discuss how to choose the right details, deliver these details within the flow of the story, and use them to reveal more about both the individuals being observed and the narrator or character observing them. We’ll examine the merits of citing a few well-chosen features versus the page-long catalog of physical distinctions, review some of the science of facial appearance (a real field!), and debate the real function of describing a character’s looks – are we trying to conjure an image in the reader’s head or unveil something about the individual’s inner life? We’ll engage in a number of exercises, too. Working off slides, participants will compose descriptions of individuals in photos, then compare our versions and discuss the differences. The overall goal: Bringing your characters to life.
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

SEMINAR: Wednesday, April 7th, 7-10pm, Workshop Your Website or Blog
Instructor: Amy Marcott
Do you have a website and/or blog but want to learn ways to enhance the design and content? Looking to broaden your reach or boost your professional appeal? This class will offer a venue for receiving feedback on your online presence. Along the way, you’ll learn strategies for more effective design, navigation, usability, search engine optimization, and content. We’ll also do some writing exercises to help your work stand out. Note: this course is only for those who already have a designed website or active blog. Submit the URL(s) of your website and/or blog to Grub Street when you register. If you have a blog, also submit links to two of your best posts that could be discussed in class. Amy Marcott is a web writer and editor at MIT who also assists with web redesigns and incorporating new technologies into online strategies.
$65/$50 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: April 17th - April 18th, 9-4pm each day, Writing For Radio
Instructor: Jennifer Mattson
One of our most popular weekend workshops is back! Description: Public radio is a writer's dream come true. From commentaries to personal essays, memoir to satire, it's a perfect place to pitch your wackiest ideas. But writing for broadcast is nothing like print. It's a beast all its own. Whether it's the distinct voice of This American Life or the fast-paced daily news of All Things Considered, NPR is one of the most exciting places for today's storytellers to air their work. Problem is most people don't know enough about broadcast to navigate their way through the NPR system, no less a radio script. In the first day of this intensive two-day seminar, you will learn the basics of how to write for the ear, the critical differences between print and broadcast, how to read your copy on air, and how to pitch your stories. On the second day, participants will begin writing a radio script so that by weekend's end each student will have some version, finished or not, of their ideal radio piece. There will be an opportunity for you to receive feedback as well as share your thoughts with others. Taught by an instructor who is a former producer for NPR's nationally syndicated program "The Connection” and a six-year producer for CNN.
$220/$195 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

WEEKEND WORKSHOP: April 17th - April 18th, 9-4pm each day, Writing the Hard Truths
Instructor: Kathleen Willis Morton
Exploring ways to approach difficult topics in memoir and narrative non-fiction, artfully and with compassion, we’ll write about the things most people don’t want to talk about: death, traumatic events, and taboo subjects in ways that will be digestible to the reader although the subject matter is a hard dose to swallow. We will not be writing with intent on psychotherapeutic results, though this is often the byproduct when difficult experiences and situations are the subject matter we plumb for story. Craft comes first; crisis is merely the setting for our narratives.
$220/$195 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

ONE-DAY WEEKEND WORKSHOP: Saturday, April 17th, 9-4pm, Recipes and Remembrances: Personal Essays About Food
Instructor: Clara Silverstein
Registration Deadline: April 13th
Food can be the starting point for compelling personal essays, from a remembrance of a beloved grandparent to a humorous account of a cooking disaster. Writers including Ruth Reichl, Patricia Volk, and R.W. Apple have made this kind of essay an established part of the literary landscape. The challenge is to use a favorite recipe or a memorable meal in an essay that also relays a larger truth about the human condition. In this class, we will read published essays, brainstorm about topics, and do in-class writing exercises designed to help you convey your experiences with food in a way that will resonate with readers.
$115/$95 members, Grub Street HQ, 160 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

Be sure to check out our events calendar for a comprehensive view of upcoming events.

Special Thanks to Our Muse Presenters and Sponsors

Each week until the Muse and the Marketplace conference on May 1st and 2nd, we'll be spotlighting one (or two!) of the authors, editors or agents who will be leading a workshop, as well as one of our fabulous sponsors. This week, a look at authors Carey Goldberg and Beth Jones, who will be leading a workshop called “From Journalism to Memoir: The Authors of Three Wishes” on Sunday afternoon at the Muse. You can also check out a YouTube video they put together about their book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnHNQoyTRIY.

Carey Goldberg grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and decided in tenth grade that someday, she wanted to be a foreign correspondent in Moscow. She went to Yale and Harvard and eventually lived out her dream for six years, covering the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Associated Press and then The Los Angeles Times. In 1995, she came home to work for The New York Times and “get a life.” She quickly rose to be Boston bureau chief of the Times, but discovered that lives can be hard to get. When she turned 39, still unwed, she decided to become a single mother, and launched the chain of events described in this book. With the help of a year-long fellowship at MIT, she made the transition from general reporting to science journalism, and worked as a part-time health and science reporter at The Boston Globe for several years, covering brains and other organs. The Globe laid her off amid a sweeping cut of part-timers in early 2009 and she now happily writes books at home in the Brookline, Mass., house that she shares with her family. (But it would be giving too much away to say who the members of her family are.)

From an early age, Beth Jones wanted to be a writer. She would buy blank books and fill them with her own stories. A rebel by age 13, she preferred to write than go to school. She was a student at Bennington College during the 1980’s literary heyday with Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, Jill Eisenstadt, and Jonathan Lethem.
After college, she hopped between jobs, moved to Europe with a boyfriend to try the expatriate lifestyle, and when she returned, was admitted to Boston University’s graduate creative writing program. She’s been in Boston ever since, and is finally fulfilling her life’s ambition of publishing a book. Jones is a freelance writer and educator. She has written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and various magazines and websites. She taught writing and literature at Boston University, Emerson College, and in several Massachusetts prisons. She spent seven years running The Education Initiative, a school based behavioral medicine program, under the auspices of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. She taught stress resiliency skills to educators and students from pre-school through college, primarily at inner city schools in Los Angeles, Boston, and Newark, NJ. In addition, she is an occasional contributor to National Public Radio. Currently, she lives in Brookline, MA with her husband and son.

Whether you are a New York Times best-selling author or want to self-publish your debut book, Kelley & Hall Book Publicity will assist you with the difficult demands of book promotion and book publicity. Kelley & Hall is a literary publicity company that is dedicated to helping authors and publishers with their promotion, marketing, and media relations. They create effective book buzz as well as author recognition that will increase book sales. They help writers build their author brand. Book marketing and book promotion are the cornerstones of Kelley & Hall. Check them out at www.kelleyandhall.com.

Spreading the Love

Grub Street wants to promote YOU! Please send events for consideration to whitney@grubstreet.org. Our apologies in advance if we cannot fit you in. Please note that we do the best we can to evaluate requests, and do privilege requests from members, but can not be held responsible for the quality of these events and programs or the legitimacy of contests. We expect that readers will do their own due diligence before sending their work or their money to any individual or organization.

--READING: TONIGHT, Monday, April 5th, 7:00pm, Helen Vendler, Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill
http://www.harvard.com/events/press_release.php?id=2494
Harvard Book Store is delighted to welcome Helen Vendler, Harvard's Arthur Kingsley Porter University Prefessor and a leading poetry critic, for a conversation about her newest book, Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill. In Last Looks, Last Books, Helen Vendler examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death alike.
Free, Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge.

--POETRY READING: Wednesday, April 7th, 12 - 1:00pm, Poetry at Noon featuring Jenny Desai
Grub member Jenny Desai studied Classics and Medieval Latin at Harvard College before earning a master’s degree in fine arts at the University of Michigan, where she was a recipient of the Hopwood Award in Poetry. After completing a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, she worked in a variety of capacities in publishing, including a brief tenure as a literary agent and translation-rights broker, and a stint as the managing editor of the now-defunct San Jose Magazine. She has published articles on a variety of topics, including the impact of cochlear implants on deaf culture, and the intersection of biology and violence. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, including The Birmingham Review, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The MacGuffin, The Harvard Quarterly, Ascent, and Plainsongs. She is currently—and perennially—at work on a collection of poems.
This event is open to the public and there is no fee. Reservations are not required.
FREE, The Boston Athenaeum, 10 1/2 Beacon Street, Boston.

--READING: Wednesday, April 7, 6-8 PM, Katherine Howe, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Connie Goodwin should be spending her summer doing research for her Ph.D. dissertation in American History. But when her mother asks her to handle the sale of Connie's grandmother's abandoned home near Salem, she's compelled to help. It's not long before the time she's set aside for research is instead spent sorting through her grandmother's ancient possessions, discovering a woman she barely knew. One day, while exploring the dusty bookshelves in the study, Connie discovers a key hidden within an old bible. And within the key is a brittle slip of paper with two words written on it: Deliverance Dane. Written by an author completing a Ph.D. in New England Studies, and whose ancestors were accused witches in Salem, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane travels seamlessly between the trials in the 1690s and a modern woman's story of mystery and discovery.
FREE, The Spirit of '76 Bookstore, 107 Pleasant Street, Marblehead, MA.

--READING: Thursday, April 1st, 7pm, Maxine Hong Kingston
Winner of the National Book Award, Maxine Hong Kingston is the author of The Woman Warrior, China Men, and The Fifth Book of Peace, among others. She is also the editor of Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, and the recipient of the National Book Foundation's 2008 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
FREE, Suffolk University Poetry Center, Sawyer Library, 3rd Floor, 73 Tremont St., Boston, MA.

Welcome to the end of the e-mail, where, like spring clothes with winter wrinkles, we offer you the chance to win a prize. In Carlos Ruiz Zafon's Shadow of the Wind, why does Julian Carax's father have a room in their apartment filled with crucifixes? Winner receives ice cream from J.P. Licks.

Last week's answer: No one got this last week, so we're trying it one more time.