Jessica Brokaw: Archive

“You can know people!” —

Jen Michalski of the journal jmww at a panel of publishers and editors at the Chesapeake Writers Conference earlier this month.

She was responding to a question posed to the panel members - something about how to “break in” to publishing. To paraphrase, she said that people are always saying, “But it’s who you know!” To which she would reply that it’s true to some extent but that “You can know people!”

I made sure to talk with her for a few minutes after the panel so that I could find out how I too could know people. She was very generous in explaining how she went about engaging with the literary community when she first started to write, and she made suggestions about how I can begin doing the same.

So despite my previous post about my anxiety over being old and boring, I’m still hopeful about succeeding in being a writer out in the world.

I can know people!

Jul 30, 20124 notes

#jen michalski #jmww #WRITING CAREER #Literary Community

“Like in high school, whether we knew it or not, whether we were aware of it or not, or whether we actually received the advice directly or not, there was an underlying understanding that boys wouldn’t like girls who were pensive and smart or who looked serious and intellectual, or worse yet, somber, gloomy, reclusive, or a snob (i.e. shy). Back then, I got labeled “the sad girl.” Is this like that? The bubbly, effervescent girls will succeed as writers too?” —

Cris Mazza in this essay on The Nervous Breakdown. The essay was published several months back. I got the link from this post about age discrimination in publishing by Mazza on VIDA’s Her Kind blog.

Two of my anxieties when it comes to the PR aspect of existing in the world as a literary fiction writer - 1) being “old” (a woman over thirty) and 2) not having a fun/quirky/not boring persona.

Jul 30, 20126 notes

#WRITING CAREER #cris mazza #lit #writing #VIDA #The Nervous Breakdown

Jul 30, 20128 notes

#advice #being an artist

Jul 30, 20127 notes

#colson whitehead #writing #lit

Jul 29, 2012

#The Great Gatsby #New Jersey #plays

Jul 29, 2012

#what I'm reading #matt burgess #books

Jul 22, 2012

#what I'm reading #yuvi zalkow #lit #books

Jul 22, 20122 notes

#what I'm reading #sheila heti #books #lit

“New Jersey’s lack of defining character traits – its facelessness, its rootlessness, its lukewarmness – make it an ideal portal to get inside the soul of a nation that becomes more faceless, rootless and generic – more soulless – by the day, a nation where regional signifiers have been sanded smooth by interstate highways, franchise restaurants, big box stores, shopping malls, subdivisions, all the strangling, interchangeable links of the corporate chains. In contemporary America, anomie is a moveable feast, and its template was exported from New Jersey.” —

Bill Morris on the great novels of the garden state. (via millionsmillions)

The tone of this article really annoys me. And something tells me that Bill Morris would gleefully accept that reaction from a Jersey girl.

I think he should add Superfudge by Judy Blume to the list because that family moves to New Jersey from Manhattan because (quoted from memory) “Pennsylvania is too far and Connecticut is too expensive,” and the main character has a hard time adjusting to the awfulness of the Jerz. I think the dad is even writing a book or something. The ending is happy because they decide to move back to NYC.

Jul 10, 201226 notes

#lit #new jersey #Judy Blume

wwnorton:

The spread of the Welsh virus continues unabated…

patronsaintof-rabbitholes:

Irvine Welsh is slowly becoming my favourite author. I love his writing style, it’s so hard-hitting but it’s so real as well. It shows humanity in a new light, compared to many of the other authors I’ve sampled. His characters are messed up individuals whom are still capable of goodness, but don’t always choose to show that.

Everyone should read his novels, I’m currently reading The Acid House which is a collection of short stories complete with a novella named “A Smart Cunt”. It’s hard-hitting, brutally written, tongue in cheek at times and has moments of true poetry.

An example of this is below, a short story named “Lots Of Laughter And Sex”:

You said, when we embarked on this great adventure together, that lots of laughter was essential in a relationship.
     I agreed.
     You also made the point that a great deal of sex was of equal importance.
     Again, I agreed. Wholeheartedly.
     In fact I remember your exact words: laughter and sex are the barometers of a relationship. This was the statement you made, if I remember correctly.
     Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t agree more. But no at the same time, ya fucking cow.

I agree. The Acid House is excellent.

Jul 10, 201219 notes

#lit #Irvine Welsh

“The choice to train to be an artist of any kind is a risky one. Art’s a vocation, and often pays little for years and years — or never.
Kids who want to be dancers, musicians, painters, writers, need more than dreams. They need a serious commitment to learning how to do what they want to do, and working at it through failure and discouragement. Dreams are lovely, but passion is what an artist needs — a passion for the work. That’s all that can carry you through the hard times.
So I guess my advice to the young writer is a warning, and a wish: You’ve chosen a really, really hard job that probably won’t pay you beans — so get yourself some kind of salable skill to live on! And may you find the reward of your work in the work itself. May it bring you joy.” —

Ursula K. Le Guin (via amandaonwriting)

I would add, “Sometimes you will feel like performing your salable skill is killing you, though food, shelter, and new shoes now and then are pretty great.”

Jul 7, 201237 notes

#writing advice

Jul 6, 20121 note

#90s #pointless ruminations on what if

Jul 4, 201267,425 notes

#the 90s

“I’m an experienced practitioner of the art of falling apart on the inside while appearing catatonic. It’s one of my proudest adult skills.” —

Scott Hutchins, A Working Theory of Love

(Enter to win an advance reader’s copy of this much buzzed-about novel on Goodreads.)

Jul 3, 201298 notes

Jul 2, 20123 notes

#books #elizabeth crane #lit #what I'm reading