StoryStudio student Anne Laughlin is published again (the woman’s a publishing machine!), this time in Best Lesbian Love Stories 2009. Anne’s story is called “On Retreat,” and seeing as how she workshopped it in the Advanced Writer’s Workshop, I think she’d agree that she couldn’t have done it without us! Let’s hope she’ll show her gratitude by bringing us cookies. Cookies, Anne, cookies!
Seriously, we’re ever so proud of her, and excited to hear that she’s finished her second novel, which is now being shopped around to publishers. You go, girl!
Wednesday, November 19
Poetry and Contratiempo magazines present a bilingual reading featuring the poetry of Roberto Bolaño (introduced and read by Jorge Frisancho), short fiction by Raul Dorantes, and poems by Leila Wilson and Jorge Sánchez
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Café Efebos
1640 s Blue Island Ave.
(in Pilsen, between 16th & 18th)
admission and magazines are free
Thursday November 20
Playwright Mickle Maher and Adam Rosenberg and Amy Stern, students from the MFA in Writing program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, will read at 7pm at Powell’s Bookstore, located at 2850 N. Lincoln. Call (773) 248-1444
Mickle Maher is a co-founder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck and the author of numerous plays, including An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening, and The Hunchback Variations. Recent plays include Spirits to Enforce (Theater Oobleck), Cyrano (translator) and The Cabinet (Redmoon Theater), and Lady Madeline (Steppenwolf). His children’s book, Master Stitchum and the Moon, is published by Bollix Books. His plays are published by Hope and Nonthings. He is currently working on a libretto about Don Quixote.
Starting last Friday
Cut to the Quick: Splayed Verbiage (A festival of 10-minute plays with no time to waste! ) The show runs Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm November 16 - December 21.
FEATURING
Yes to Everything by Philip Dawkins, directed by Lavina Jadhwani
78 by Laurel Haines, directed by Gina LoPiccolo
The New Lonely by Andrew Hinderaker, directed by Vance Smith
Space by Laura Jacqmin, directed by Megan Schuchman
One Lucky Duck by Matthew Swaye, directed by Gina LoPiccolo
The Best Christmas Ever by Amy Whittenberger, directed by Kyra Lewandowski
Not That (But Something Else) by Brian Golden, directed by Chelsea Marcantel
Agony in the Garden by Crystal Skillman, directed by Dan Foss
O’Dark Thirty by Aaron Carter, directed by Daniel Caffrey
Ethnic Cleansing Day by Brett Neveu, directed by Eric Ziegenhagen
Slave Day by Wilderness Sarchild, directed by Mignon McPherson-Nance
Black and White by Mark Young, directed by Anna C. Bahow
Click here for more information.
Saturday, November 22
The first Illinois statewide write-in meet up will be from 1-4pm. Information on the location can be found here.
Sandwiches and chips will be available starting at 12:15. It’s a chance to chat before the write-in starts. You can find more information and RSVP here.
Also Saturday, November 22
Green Lantern Press will be holding it’s first ever fundraiser from noon until 1am. The event features a silent auction, crepe breakfast (noon until 1:30pm, cocktail hour (6-9pm, and live music (9pm until1am) with Joan of Arc, The Lanterns, and Lowland.
Sunday, November 25th
Come join the School of the Art Institute’s Text Off the Page class on from 12-1 at MC 118 for a free lunch. This will be an opportunity to see the work to be shown at the Sullivan Galleries and potentially respond in a reading/performance event. For more information, see the school’s website
I’ve been hearing about Twitter a lot lately. I haven’t gone to the site yet, but I understand that it’s a way to do a mini-blog. If it didn’t sound like a supercharged procrastination tool, I’d go there; I’d look; I’d Twitter about my novel. My progress over the last two weeks would look something like this:
Oh no, THIS is the chapter I have to revise?
The point of view is so jacked up. Why did I choose to write in omniscient POV?
I’ll reread it first, then start writing.
I reread the chapter, then washed the dishes.
And my revision went on like that for about four days. I finally revised my chapter, lamenting the whole time about having an omniscient narrator. The problem I’m finding with the all-knowing point of view, is that she knows too much. If each chapter is written through the long distance lens of an omniscient narrator, then the reader can get into any character’s head the narrator chooses. If I choose all the minds, all the voices at once, the work gets confusing. The focus dims. So I’ve been sharpening the narrative focus, one chapter at a time.
So, I’m letting one character’s perspective lead each chapter, which seems to work. I’ve been working that way for months now, and I’m ready to attempt the narrator’s voice again, to write sections or chapters fully from her point of view. However, I haven’t entered the narrator’s perspective in so long, I’m struggling to regain the voice she started with. My challenge this week is to find my narrator.
From SSC Student Anne-Marie Kennedy:
I’m setting TiVo to tape It’s Thanksgiving Charlie Brown and thinking about gifts: getting them, giving them, good gifts, bad gifts, and the little twists of fate that are gifts-in-disguise, for which I’m most thankful of all.
Last spring, my husband celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by sending me away. To another state. He’d asked me for gift ideas (we gave up trying to surprise each other long ago and now rely on blunt instructions: get me this. It’s not romantic, but it saves time in the shopping and cuts down on the returning) and I told him there was something he could get me. I wanted to attend Story Studio’s annual writer’s retreat, a weekend in New Buffalo, MI. Done.
At the retreat, I met Jill. I’d taken two courses at SSC, but didn’t really know her except by name, and that SSC was her creation. It was a rare treat, to be holed up in a comfortable cabin for 48 hours with a dozen other smart, supportive writers– like camp, minus the bugs. When the group wasn’t writing, or listening, or reading, eating or workshopping, we happily traded stories about our day jobs, families and friends. I commiserated with other freelancers about the ups and downs of self-employment.
A few weeks later, before class, Jill handed me a post-it note with a name and phone number. “This woman is looking for someone to do some copywriting and editing. I thought you might be interested.” Of course I was. (Did I mention the ups and downs of freelancing?)
The woman, having no connection to SSC, but figuring she’d find a writer there, worked for the Chicago Architecture Foundation (you know, the architectural boat tours, Devil in the White City tours, and now, segue tours). They needed help with the very exciting project of “jazzing up” the annual report. No problem. Not the most exciting assignment, but who looks a gift-horse in the mouth?
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is a nonprofit, dedicated to advancing public interest in architecture and design, specifically Chicago’s architecture and design. They are the go-to organization Mayor Daley relies on to showcase our city when members of the International Olympic Committee come to town. An army of docents lead 150,000 tours each year. These folks are passionate about architecture and design, and so devoted to the art form and its role in our city, they happily train via a specially-designed program that requires hundreds of hours of course- and field-work before they’re considered qualified to educate the public on what is arguably one of the world’s finest living museums. Which they do for free, as volunteers.
Like my new writer-friends from the retreat, these folks could talk for hours about their beloved art form, discussing the latest contributions, arguing their passions.
I didn’t expect inspiration to come from editing the CAF’s annual report, but one late night as I was consulting my “Elements of Style”, an image popped into my head. I saw the ghosts of Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan, sitting in back row on the upper deck of a boat tour, listening to a CAF docent educate her tour group:
“Wright is known to have said,” the docent tells her charges, “’A doctor can bury his mistakes, but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines.’ “
“Hogwash, I never said such a thing,” says Wright, turning indignantly to Sullivan.
“You most certainly did,” says Sullivan, “I remember distinctly—“
“Hrfmph,” mutters Wright, folding his arms, and turning his critical gaze to consider the new Trump tower as their boat glides by the building on its way down the river.
I didn’t know where this little scene was going, but I knew enough to write it down, to let it meander and flow like the river tour.
We get these little gifts all the time, but rarely call it that. I forget, most of the time, that the really good gifts are usually not the ones tied up in a neat bow. My husband gave me a gift; my fellow-writer Jill gave me a gift by passing on that phone number, which led to a job, which led to a new friend and the observance of passion, which led maybe to the makings of a new story. You never know where the gifts are going to come from, but I’ve decided to try hard to pass them on…
Next Wednesday, November 19, StoryStudio’s own Jenene Ravesloot will be reading from her first book of poetry, “Loot: Stolen Memories & Tales Out of School.” There will be an author signing after. Head down to Taste of Heaven and get a chance to hear and support a fellow StoryStudio member!
Taste of Heaven
5401 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60625
Reading begins at 7:30 in the evening, Wednesday, November 19.
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