Author: Stacy Carlson
AWP 2014 (a miniscule sampler)
AWP 2014 (a miniscule sampler)
My head is still spinning from the inspirational and overwhelming writerly tsunami that is the Associated Writers and Writing Programs conference. Here are a handful of writers whose work I particularly enjoyed either during panel discussions or random encounters at the book fair or around the city.
Summer Wood. She had a lot of lovely things to offer during her Structuring the Novel panel. I look forward to reading Raising Wrecker.
Anca Szilagyi and Fairy Tale Review. During the New Fairy Tales from the North panel, Anca read an excerpt from her short story, “More Like Home Than Home.” This story features a girl trapping a raven in a very large jar of custard. I loved it, and now look forward to reading FTR’s new Emerald issue.
Rikki Ducornet. The Dickmare. ’nuff said.
Sara Loewen read a subtle and deeply moving excerpt from her book of essays, Gaining Daylight: Life on Two Islands. Loewen was born and raised in Alaska, and lives on Kodiak island, where she teaches and fishes. From the book’s synopsis:”Her personal essays integrate natural and island history with her experiences of fishing and family life, as well as the challenges of living at the northern edge of the Pacific.”
David Huddle. I attended a panel called “The Middle Matters,” about the middles of short stories. Huddle got up and blasted us with a spectacular presentation on Eudora Welty’s story, “Powerhouse.” Provocative, passionate, and stately, Huddle reminded me that Welty’s work is not only still relevant, but still edgy, and well worth revisiting.
Gretel Ehrlich. Even though she had a cold.
Barry Lopez. I read Arctic Dreams as a sixth grader and have never shaken it. He spoke with Gretel Ehrlich at AWP. I will post a link to their talk as soon as it’s live online.
Colin Dickey (most recently in The Believer). I had the good fortune to meet Colin in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Author of Cranioklepty and Afterlives of the Saints, he’s a frequent contributor to Lapham’s Quarterly, among other publications. He’s also the director of the Morbid Anatomy Museum in NYC.
Cari Luna.I am really looking forward to reading her book, which chronicles the lives of five squatters in the mid-nineties in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Sharma Shields was utterly charming during the Uncanny West panel discussion. Her book concerns a creature who may or may not be a sasquatch. Since she was born and raised in Spokane, Sharma’s work would be better characterized as unkanny. Anyone? Bueller?
It was a joy to see Debra Magpie Earling again. I’ve reread her novel, Perma Red, several times since it came out in 2002.
Oakland Magazine recommends Lit on the Lake Event
Oakland Magazine recommends Lit on the Lake Event
On Sunday, October 13, Stacy Carlson will read as part of Litquake 2013, the San Francisco Bay Area’s annual literary festival. Here’s what Oakland magazine has to say about it.
Join Stacy Carlson for Litquake 2013
Join Stacy Carlson for Litquake 2013
On Sunday, October 13, Stacy will read from Among the Wonderful as part of San Francisco’s annual Litquake Festival.
Join her for Lit on the Lake: A Plunge into the East Bay’s Literary Depths, which will take place at Oakland’s own Lake Chalet, on the shore of Lake Merritt. Cocktails and treats will be served. Other featured authors include Eli Brown, Amy Franklin-Willis, Joan Steinau-Lester, Renee Swindle, and Monica Wesolowska.
Spitsbergen Journals 2
Spitsbergen Journals 2
Please read the first installment of travel journal entries here.
Spitsbergen Journals 1
Spitsbergen Journals 1
Between June 14 and July 2 I participated in The Arctic Circle‘s expeditionary residency, an arts-and-science-driven voyage on a barkentine sailing ship up the west/northwest coast of Svalbard, Norway. During this trip I absorbed the landscape (sea, mountains, ice, river, sky) and worked on my novel-in-progress, which is largely set in Svalbard. Here is the first installment of selected journal entries that I made during the trip.
Grumant, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, the Sea
Grumant, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, the Sea
Tomorrow I fly to Oslo and the day after that to Longyearbyen, Svalbard. From there, along with my cohort of writers, artists and scientists, I will board the barkentine schooner Antigua for a 15-day-long sailing voyage up the west coast of Spitsbergen, the archipelago’s largest island, and perhaps even east along the island’s northern coast. In my mind I’ve been hearing the archipelago’s many names repeated like an echo: Grumant, used by the Russian Pomors; Spitsbergen, given by the Dutch navigator Willem Barents; and Svalbard, the late-period Viking name given by Norway once it won sovereignty in 1920. Grumant: Green Land. Spitsbergen: Sharp Peaks. Svalbard: Cold Edge. Green Land. Sharp Peaks. Cold Edge. Lichen, moss. Pinnacles, citadel ranges. Ice, ocean, and the senses sharpened by polar wind and joy.
Tomorrow I shed my usual rhythms of work and family and go north into perpetual daylight – the peculiar, transforming midnight sun – which will light the way into my next book, whose heart is already in Svalbard. This journey hasn’t yet even begun but I can feel its richness. I am leaning into it, hoping to open myself fully to whatever unfolds. Arctic fox, dryad, skua. Walrus. Ice bear. Moss campion. Bearded seal, beluga, guillemot. Lichen. Stones, ice. The sea illuminated by slanted light.
My aim is to stand at the rail with my eyes open for many hours per day. To walk the beaches and tundra ledges of Svalbard and invite the place to percolate into my being. To connect with others over meals and in the wild. To bask and explore, inquire and receive this place. My hope is that all of this feeds my soul in a way that provokes creative work and play and for me that means The Gyre. May it be so, and at the same time may my preconceptions fall away.
I will not have access to the Internet while I am journeying in Svalbard. After I return on July 2, I will post journal entries and photographs of the trip.
The Next Big Thing
The Next Big Thing
“The Next Big Thing” is a viral self-interview sent through the ether chain-letter-style by writers, to spotlight new or forthcoming projects. My friend, poet Mira Rosenthal, tagged me for the interview; you can read Mira’s interview here.