Gargoyle 55

K, the (as yet) unanswered e-mail has gone from Mount Everest to Popocatepetl to... um, Ixtazihuatl. Still quite a hill. But I just had to take a break from it all to mention the outstanding new issue of Gargoyle. Love the cover! Andy Rumball's "Aoife Mannix".) Just a few of the contributors: Sherman Alexie, Kate Braverman (one of my favorite short story writers), Moira Egan, J.D. Smith, and --- drum roll--- Lyn Lifshin. Lucinda Ebersole and Richard Peabody, you rock. Nita Congress, you too. More anon.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Writers Conference

I won't be there, alas, but for all writers (and beginning writers) in the Mid-Atlantic region, I recommend the 14th Annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference in Rockville, MD on Saturday October 17th (7:30am-6:15pm). Award Honoree this year is Julia Alvarez. Richard Peabody (who judged the short story contest) writes:

"This is a great one-day conference and you should sign up. Other panelists and presenters this year include: Henry Allen, Cathy Alter, Khris Baxter, Ellen Braaf, Keith Donohue, H. G. Carillo, Olga Grushin, Dave Housley, Susan Muaddi-Darraj, Azar Nafisi, Kim Roberts, and Tim Wendel."

All info here: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/potomacreview/fscott/

La Sombra del Sabino, September 6th & Why Attend a Bookstore Reading?

I'll be reading from and signing The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire on September 6, 2009 at the ever-luscious La Sombra del Sabino in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico (reading in English, Q & A in Spanglish)--- apropos of which I (finally!) posted this little "roundabout," "Why Attend a Bookstore Reading?" with answers provided by varios amigos, among them, Sandra Gulland, Solveig Eggerz, Leslie Pietrzyk, Richard Peabody, Richard Beban, Kathleen Alcala, Tony Cohan, Daniel Olivas, and more.

Hasta pronto.

Gravity Dancers: Even More Fiction by Washington Area Women, edited by Richard Peabody

Viva Richard! Richard Peabody's latest anthology of Washington DC women writers, Gravity Dancers, has just been published and was launched with a standing-room only reading / celebration at Politics & Prose last Sunday. Check out the fiction by Maud Casey, Dylan Landis, Katharine Davis, Helen Hooper, Elisavietta Ritchie, Lynn Stearns, Paula Whyman, Laura Zam, and many more. And is this not a bulls-eye of a cover? The painting is by Sheep Jones; book design by Nita Congress.

The other Peabody anthologies of Washington women writers are:
Grace and Gravity
Enhanced Gravity
Electric Grace

P.S. You can read "Manta Ray," my short story from Grace and Gravity, in its entirety here.

More anon.

Richard Peabody's Novel Writing Workshop

Madam Mayo recommends! Here's the news from Richard Peabody:

I'm dusting off my novel class for what may be the last hurrah. Peabody's Novel Class for Spring 2009. Critique Your Complete Novel, Not Just a Couple of Chapters:

Limited to 5 students. We meet every two weeks on Wednesday nights (except the last one) 7:30 until 10pm at my house in Arlington, Virginia. Four to five blocks from Virginia Square Metro station.

1. March 4
2. March 18
3. April 1
4. April 15
5. April 29
6. May 13
7. May 19

Cost is $500 to be paid before the first night. Due to people dropping the class at the last minute and forcing me to cancel the entire session I now require that $125 of this fee be non-refundable and paid before the class begins. Every participant turns in their complete novel and synopsis the first night along with 5 copies for everybody else and me. That way you get handwritten notes on everything from everybody. And you should feel free to recommend cuts, improvements, make suggestions, mark the manuscripts up at will. That's what this class is all about. By meeting every two weeks each participant should have plenty of time to complete their critiques. If you can't attend every meeting (which I demand save for unforeseeable illness or death in the family as it's a question of fairness and honor) please don't bother signing up.

Why do I teach this class? Because you can go to your favorite bookshop and lift any number of contemporary novels off the shelf and read a few chapters only to discover that they fall apart at chapter four. Why? I've found that most MFA programs only critique the first three chapters of your manuscript. Plus, I've learned from the hands-on experience of teaching this course that a complete reading and critique is absolutely the best way (dare I say only way) to go. What's the advantage of a small class like this one? There's nothing quite like having five people discuss your characters as though they were living people for 2 1/2 hours. What sorts of novels are eligible? Generally I handle serious literary fiction (both realism and experimental works), but the class has included YA , Sci-Fi, Mystery, Horror, Thriller, and Romance novels. If you are interested do please email me a chapter and a synopsis. I'm only considering completed novels in the 250-350 dbl. spaced page range. (That's one-sided, double spaced, 12pt. in Courier font.) Anything longer than that is pretty much wishful thinking right now due to grim market economics and politics. Most first novels are 300 dbl. spaced pages which equals 200pp. in book form. Simply a fact of the biz. Second novels are frequently a different story.

Alumni from Peabody's 22 years of university, Writer's Center, and private classes with filmed screenplays, books in print (or forthcoming) include: Mark Baechtel, Doreen Baingana, Toby Barlow, Maggie Bartley, Jodi Bloom, Sean Brijbasi, Peter Brown, Robert Cullen, Priscilla Cummings, Katherine Davis, Lucinda Ebersole, Sandy Florian, Cara Haycak, Dave Housley, Catherine Kimrey, Rachel King, Adam Kulakow, Nathan Leslie, Redge Mahaffey, Charlotte Manning, James Mathews, Meena Nayak, Matthew Olshan, William Orem, Mary Over ton, Saideh Pakravan, Carolyn Parkhurst, Sally Pfoutz, Nani Power, Carey Roberts, Lisa Schamess, Brenda Seabrooke, Julia Slavin, David Taylor, Lisa M. Tillman, Sharlie West, and Yolanda Young.

My address is 3819 North 13th Street, Arlington, VA 22201. My house is 2 blocks from Quincy Park and the Central Library on Quincy Street. We are 3 doors from Washington-Lee High School where Quincy crosses 13th Street. My phone number is (703) 525-9296. My cell is (703) 380-4893

Richard Peabody wears many literary hats. He is editor of Gargoyle Magazine (founded in 1976), has published a novella, two books of short stories, six books of poems, plus an e-book, and edited or co-edited nineteen anthologies including: Mondo Barbie, Mondo Elvis, Mondo Marilyn, Mondo James Dean, Coming to Terms: A Literary Response to Abortion, Conversations with Gore Vidal, A Different Beat: Writings by Women of the Beat Generation, Grace and Gravity: Fiction by Washington Area Women, Alice Redux: New Stories of Alice, Lewis, and Wonderland, Sex & Chocolate: Tasty Morsels for Mind and Body, Enhanced Gravity: More Fiction by Washington Area Women, Kiss the Sky: Fiction and Poetry Starring Jimi Hendrix, Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women, and Stress City: A Big Book of Fiction by Fifty DC Guys. Gravity Dancers, a fourth volume of fiction by Washington area women writers, is forthcoming in May 2009. Peabody teaches fiction writing for the Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Program and the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland.. You can find out more at www.wikipedia.com and/or www.gargoylemagazine.com

Yummy Bits Anon

Thanks for checking in. Otherwise engaged for a few days. More, and about Richard Peabody's Stress City, Gabriel Zaid's The Secret of Fame, and Werner Herzog's documentary on the South Pole, anon.

The Amazon.com Carousel Widget, That Embeddable Chunk o' Code

Madam Mayo has discovered widgets. You might have noticed the Pug-A-Day widget over on my sidebar. New on the sidebar is the amazon.com widget featuring my books as well as a few anthologies (by Lee Gutkind, Monica De la Torre and Michael Wiegers, Dinty W. Moore, Richard Peabody, Andrei Codrescu and Laura Rosenthal, and Robert L. Giron) that include my stories, essays, poems, and / or translations. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this blog and you'll find the widget for pug books. I was amazed at how easy it was to do these.

The Real Deal, War Stories & More: Peabody's Electric Grace with Rose Solari and Washington DC Women Writers, December 5th

My amigo Richard Peabody's felicitous invitation to all & sundry!

Electric Grace: Still More Fiction by Washington Area Women will launch at Politics & Prose on Wednesday December 5th at 7pm. Rose Solari (poet, essayist, teacher, whose fiction was featured in Enhanced Gravity, the 2nd volume in the trilogy) will MC a panel of contributors: Michelle Brafman, Merle Collins, T. Greenwood, Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Faye Moskowitz, Barbara Mujica, Jessica Neely, Amy Stolls, Hananah Zaheer, and Christy J. Zink. These ten will read a paragraph from their work as a warm-up and then Rose will guide the panel via her own questions and audience questions re. their writing experiences in DC area and beyond. A great opportunity to hear the real deal about the writing/publishing biz, writing with kids, spouses, et al., realistic expectations, women’s roles (now and then), and war stories. The panel is a combo of established writers and relative newcomers. If it’s anything like the past two launches this should be a blast. Everybody should have ample time to vent, rant, share, laugh, and tell choice anecdotes. It’s like a literary reunion and a gathering of the tribes. Hope you can make it.
Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, WDC 20008
(202) 364-1919
www.politics-prose.comBook lists for $18.95 and features 42 women writers. 435pp. Copies will be available at the launch, from our site, and via Amazon.com and the Writer’s Center.

Yours Truly MC'ed the last of Richard Peabody's Washington Women Writers anthologies, Enhanced Gravity, and has a short story in the first one, Grace and Gravity. Read my blog post about them here. More anon.

DCist or, Zip, Zop

Yours Truly is interviewed today in the DCist--- about the DC literary community; (what is the literary community?); Candida's World of Books; Richard Peabody; Miraculous Air & more--- by Shawn Westfall. (Read about Westfall's very cool improv workshop here and here.) More anon.

Richard Peabody's Novel Class

If you're in the Washington DC area and have a novel that needs work, don't miss this one. Richard Peabody's novel class is limited to 5 students. He writes:

"We meet every two weeks on Wednesday day nights 7:30 until 10pm at my house in Arlington, Virginia. Four to five blocks from Virginia Square Metro station. June 27; July 11; July 25; August 8; August 22; September 5; September 11 [Tuesday]. Cost is $500 to be paid before the first night....Why do I teach this class? Because you can go to your favorite bookshop and lift any number of contemporary novels off the shelf and read a few chapters only to discover that they fall apart at chapter four. Why? I’ve found that most MFA programs only critique the first three chapters of your manuscript. Plus, I’ve learned from the hands-on experience of teaching this course that a complete reading and critique is absolutely the best way (dare I say only way) to go. What’s the advantage of a small class like this one? There’s nothing quite like having five people discuss your characters as though they were living people for 2 ½ hours...."

Alumni from Peabody’s 22 years of university, Writer’s Center, and private classes with filmed screenplays, books in print (or forthcoming)include: Mark Baechtel, Doreen Baingana, Toby Barlow, Maggie Bartley, Jodi Bloom, Sean Brijbasi, Peter Brown, Robert Cullen, Priscilla Cummings, Katherine Davis, Lucinda Ebersole, Sandy Florian, Cara Haycak, Dave Housley, Catherine Kimrey, Adam Kulakow, Nathan Leslie, Redge Mahaffey, Charlotte Manning, Meena Nayak,Matthew Olshan, William Orem, Mary Overton, Saideh Pakravan, Carolyn Parkhurst, Sally Pfoutz, Nani Power, Carey Roberts, Lisa Schamess, Brenda Seabrooke, Julia Slavin, David Taylor, Lisa M. Tillman, Sharlie West, and Yolanda Young.

Read more about this workshop and all about Richard at www.gargoylemagazine.com.

Washington Women Writers: The List Grows Longer

Apropos of the lists of Washington Women Writers (the embryonic and the Kim Roberts-expanded), Richard Peabody writes:

"Hey Gals: Well, all of the blurbers on the anthologies I've done are folks who used to live here in the area. So if you really want to expand the list you have to immediately add:

Randy Sue Coburn
Elizabeth Hand
Elizabeth Oness
Nicole Louise Reid
Aurelie Sheehan
Mollie Best Tinsley

Other historical literary women and some contemporaries would include:

Ann Aikman
Louisa May Alcott
Mrs. Larz Anderson
Temple Bailey
Joanne Bario
Ann Beattie
Rebecca Brown
Rita Mae Brown
Zenith Brown
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mary Cahill
Tracy Chevalier
Eleanor Clark
Carmen Delzell
Anna Dorsey
Ann Downer
Thulani Davis
Katharine Dunlap
Matilde Eiker
Kate Field
Katherine W. Fulton
Margarita Spalding Gerry
Elinor Glyn
Joanne Greenberg
Grace Greenwood
Martha Grimes
Doris Grumbach
Mildred Haun
Clair W. Hayes
Ann Hood
Forestine C. Hooker
Julia Ward Howe
Deborah Insel
Frances Parkinson Keyes
Elinor Lane
Martin Leimbach
Natalie Sumner Lincoln
Anne Lindbergh
Grace Denio Litchfield
Clare Booth Luce
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Sara MacAulay
Julia Markus
Harriet Martineau
Gardner McFall
Mrs. Lowell Melliett
Olga Moore
Toni Morrison
Gloria Oden
Katharine Paterson
Mary Plum
Katharine Anne Porter
Barbara Raskin
Marjorie Kinan Rawlings
Tova Reich
Joyce Renwick
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Caryl Rivers
Doris Rochlin
Anne Royall
Muriel Rukeyser
Joanna Scott
Lionel Shriver
Molly Sewell
Alice Sheldon (a. k. a. James Tiptree)
Harriet Prescott Spofford
Christina Stead
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Phyllis Theroux
Caroline Thompson
Inez Sheldon Tyler
Joyce Warren
Helen Whitney
Kathleen Winsor
Elinor Wylie

Folks who live here right now not even counting the other 75+ women in Grace & Gravity or Enhanced Gravity:

Teresa Bevin
Margaret Blair
Connie Brisco
Beth Brophy
Laura Brylawski-Miller
Maxine Clair
Brenda W. Clough
Merle Collins
Laura Costas
Marcy Heidish Dolan
Laura Fargas
Candida Fraze
Barbara Goldberg
Marita Golden
Eloise Greenfield
Tammy Greenwood
Virginia Hartman
Ellen Herbert
Esther Iverem
Lynn Kanter
Kyi May Kaung
Catherine Kimrey
Annette Curtis Klause
Jane Leavy
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Barbara Lefcowitz
Beverly Lowry
Sarah Grace McCandless
Barbara Mujica
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Diane Orenstein
Michelle Parkerson
Lauren Rabb
Elisavietta Ritchie
Kwelismith
Susan Sonde
Elisabeth Sullam
Mary L. Tabor
Rangeley Wallace
Riggin Waugh
Joyce Winslow
Anna Ziegler

And of course there are tons more. I haven't even begun to list poets only poets who also write fiction. At least that I'm aware of today... Plus I have another 42 women (some listed above) soon to appear in Electric Grace: Even More Fiction By Washington Area Women. (Pub date will be in 11/2007 with a launch at Politics and Prose).
Cheers, Richard Peabodywww.gargoylemagazine.com

Women Writers of Washington DC --- Kim Roberts's List

The other day I posted a little something about Women Writers of Washington DC. Poet and Beltway editor Kim Roberts writes:
"I love this list on your blog! Can I suggest other names?
Betty Parry
Zora Neale Hurston
May Miller
Toni Morrison
Angelina Weld Grimke
Carolyn Forche
Marita Golden
Alice McDermott
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
Kim Addonizio
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Reetika Vazirani
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Hilary Tham
Elizabeth Alexander
Elinor Wylie
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Grace Cavalieri
Gloria C. Oden
Sarah Browning
Myra Sklarew
Dolores Kendrick
Naomi Ayala
Teri Ellen Cross
Esther Iverem
Reb Livingston
Belle Waring
Sandra Alcosser
Cheryl Clarke
Saskia Hamilton

Gwendolyn Bennett
Clarissa Scott Delaney"

To view the (embryonic) list I published, plus links to Richard Peabody's magnificent twin anthologies, click here.

P.S. Kim Roberts guest-blogged here on the stupendous swag at Book Expo America last May.

Women Writers of Washington DC

Let us begin with Frances Hodgson Burnett. E.D.E.N Southworth. Katherine Ann Porter. Clare Boothe Luce. Alors: thanks to the efforts of Sarah Blake, Mary Kay Zuravleff and Susan Shreve, here's an embryonic Who's Who of Women Writers in today's Washington DC:

Emily Bazelon
Kate Blackwell www.kateblackwell.com
Sarah Blake
Maud Casey
Lisa Coutuier www.lisacouturier.com
Katharine Davis www.katharinedavis.com
Olga Grushin www.olgagrushin.com
E.J. Levy
Wendi Kaufman www.thehappybooker.net
Ann McLaughlin
C.M. Mayo www.cmmayo.com
Kyoko Mori
Faye Moskowitz
Jennifer Oko
Carolyn Parkhurst www.carolynparkhurst.com
Linda Pastan
Erica Perl www.ericaperl.com
Leslie Pietrzyk www.lesliepietrzyk.com
Susan Shreve www.susanshreve.com
Jane Shore

Julia Slavin
Amy Stolls
Mary Kay Zuravleff www.mkzuravleff.com

Two recent very fine anthologies, Grace and Gravity and Enhanced Gravity, both by Richard Peabody, offer an even longer list. More anon.

Update: see latest list from Richard Peabody.

The End of the CD? Nah.

Just back from AWP where the "Beyond the Book" panel with Yours Truly, Richard Beban, Joseph Bednarik, Urayoan Noel, Richard Peabody, and Nancy Zafris brought up about 7,000 fascinating questions. One of the subjects was CDs--- Peabody's audio CD, "31 Arlington Poets" was my inspiration to do "The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou's Mexico City". Peabody said he expected that in the future audio would be downloaded off the 'Net--- itunes and podcasts and the like. (Here's an article that argues the same.) And all of this seems commonsensical... but.... it also seems to me that there is always going to be a need, if a drastically reduced one, for the physical object. The graphic design and "jewel case" of the CD is a kind of wrapping. A gift comes wrapped in paper and tied with a bow. A book, too, has a wrapping-- the cover, the dust jacket. People don't have to, but they do wear clothes. Tea could be dispensed out of a vat, but it also comes in bottles. I have hope. I would expect that CDs themselves may shrink, perhaps down to the size of a coin. But the CD case itself is a good size. It fits in the palm. It can be beautifully designed: a work of art in itself. So: I'm going to do another one. And isn't the CD Baby logo cute? And DVDs! I've just been watching Urayoan Noel's way-out wacky Kool Logic Sessions. More anon.