"The Rabbit" in Big Pulp Spring 2013

Big Pulp's Spring 2013 issue is now available in print, and the editors are slowly releasing the stories online. My short-short, "The Rabbit," is now available to read.

This is my third publication with Big Pulp, and I was happy to work with Bill Olver again.  He's top-rate.  They've even made an author page just for me.  Awesome. :)

The Rabbit (2013)

Palestine, IL (2010)

Every Good Girl Does Fine (2008)

Photographer on Focus: Anka Zhuravleva

photograph by (c) Anka Zhuravleva,
all rights reserved by photographer

It has mostly been my life experience to find soul-mates after they have died.  T.S. Eliot, for example.  I remember reading his work in college, falling head over his words, and then having to come to terms with the fact that he was, in fact, dead.  It happened again when I watched Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, and then continued to watch all of his films.  He had not died yet, but I could not think of what to write to him on a postcard.  But then he died, as people tend to do.

I don't know how I came across Anka Zhuravleva's photographs, but I did recently, and I think we have a similar vision of the world.  Or, at least, I recognize in her vision something of my own.  I suppose that's one sign of a great artist . . . making it sort of impossible for anyone not to see themselves in the vision.

In her bio, she notes the deaths of her parents, within two years of each other, when she was a young woman.  Perhaps, then, that's what I share with her.  Perhaps there's something that happens, when that happens, if it happens at just the right time in a persons's life, and that person already had tendencies to imagine herself away. . . Maybe that's what I see in her work that makes it seem to me that she has shown me a photograph she took of my nightmare last night, and of my dream by day.

Regardless, her work has a disjointedness about it that I enjoy.  The way she shows the impossibility of reality by showing what it can't do.  To show how impossibly grounded the world is by showing the wishes.  To show the limits of the body by showing images of the body in motion, the body outside of gravity, the body moved by the unseen that isn't. The photograph's attempt to capture the can't-be, as though it did catch it, like you will hear suddenly the voice of a long-dead friend saying your name, and you turn to it and find you'd heard the voice through your mind and not through your ear.  And then you remember why and see that you're still standing in the world, somehow, and on your way to whatever task you have.

I think one of the great things about Zhuravleva's work is that, unlike the typical visions we're given of impossible worlds (the romantic comedy, for example, or most anything on TV) is that she's asking us to ache for the can't-be rather than pretending that the can't-be can.  She provides longing for us, and lets us both feel it and think about it.  Her photographs don't say, Here is a fantasy for you to escape your life by living.  Her photographs don't say, Fantasy is better than reality, and so despise your reality now that it isn't like what you can imagine. Her photographs say, Look, look what I found for you, look at the impossibility of beauty through its impossibility.

photograph by (c) Anka Zhuravleva,
all rights reserved by photographer

This especially becomes interesting when even scrolling down her Facebook page, for there is a mix of the obviously fantastical photographs with straight-eyed head shots, or a woman sitting at a table and not, as in another photograph, floating into the room.  And so the bleed-over from the fantastical photographs onto the more realistic photographs begins a deeper narrative about the real.  For suddenly, I think, the viewer begins to see the woman floating while being trapped inside the gaze of a woman who stares out, daring us to look away, to float away, to leave as all people do eventually.

AWP is in session, 2013 Schedule

The big news in the United States literary-realism writing world is in Boston. The AWP (Associated of Writers & Writing Programs) Conference officially began yesterday, with today being the first full day of panels, discussions, and late afternoon revelry.

So, if you're there, or like me, wish you were there, then you might be interested in looking at the ongoing events.  From the official schedule, I've compiled an itinerary for each day of the conference so that you don't have to wrack your brain for what to go to next:

Today's AWP schedule, Thursday, March 7

AWP Schedule, Friday, March 8

AWP Schedule, Saturday, March 9

"The Missing Time" in Lake Effect literary journal

Just a quick announcement that my story "The Missing Time" will be published in Lake Effect, Volume 18 (Spring 2014).  This will be my third publication with the journal.  The most recent story, "Winter's Wooden Sparrows" is presently nominated for a Pushcart, and the first story they took was "Digging," one of the stories in The Floating Order.

Countdown to AWP 2013: If you were me on March 9

The annual AWP conference is less than a month away.  Here at What She Might Think, I'm highlighting the top events for each day of this year's conference, which will be in Boston.

We're on the third installment of the series, which brings us to Saturday, March 9, the last day of AWP.  The last day of any conference is tricky because attendees who have been thorough in their attendance begin to suffer fatigue and will be more inclined to spend the last day seeing the sights or making their way to airports because they have 60 papers to grade before Monday.  I tend to be one of these people, but if I were feeling especially focused, these are the Saturday events I'd most likely attend. (For the full schedule of Saturday events, click here.)

Saturday, March 9

9:00-10:15 A.M.

"Translating Slippery Dreamers:

French Surrealist Poetry in the Hands of American Authors"

Room 204, Level 2

Presenters: Marilyn Kallet, Mark Polizzotti, Nancy Kline, Bill Zavatsky, Darren Jackson

Summary: The presenters, who are both poets and translators, will talk about the peculiar difficulties in translating aspects of French surrealism into English, such as automatic writing. 

Why I would attend: Translation in and of itself has always interested me, especially in terms of what can't be conveyed. I'd be interested in what the particular experience is with surrealism since its expression is already an attempt to defy reality and often visual surrealism is difficult to describe, so I imagine the language of surrealism would be interesting to learn about.  Seems like a panel that would be inspiring.

10:30-11:45 A.M.

"Lower Your Standards:

William Stafford in the Workshop"

Room 107, Plaza Level

Presenters: James Armstrong, Philip Metres, Alissa Nutting, Jeff Gundy, Fred Marchant

Summary: The discussion will center on poetry workshop and the classroom experiences these instructors have had in using Stafford's teaching philosophy, and the benefits of integrating this view in the Creative Writing Classroom.

Why I would attend: Any discussion about changing the workshop experience, and hearing other instructors share advice, would be useful now that I'm finding myself on the other side of the desk these days. 

Conflict: George Saunders and others will be reading at this panel: "The Lake Effect: A Celebration of Fifty Years of Creative Writing at Syracuse." I've heard Saunders read before, enjoy his work, and would like to hear him read again. (Room 200, Level 2)

Noon-1:15 P.M.

"Carol Shields: 

Her Language and Craft"

Room 109, Plaza Level

Presenters: Eric Freeze, Aritha van Herk, Anne Shields Giardini, Genni Gunn

Summary: The work of Carol Shields will be discussed, with a special appearance by her daughter.

Why I would attend: Carol Shields is one of my favorite writers--of both short form and novels. Originally from northern Illinois, Carol Shields became a writer later in her life, and by that time was a full-fledged Canadian. Her work shares many Midwestern themes.  She died of cancer in the last decade. Oh, and she won the Pulitzer Prize.

1:30-2:45 P.M.

"Countering Stereotypes of Disability through Contemporary Fiction"

Room 107, Plaza Level

Presenters: Michael Northen, Jillian Weise, Anne Finger, Terry Tracy, Christine Stark

Summary: The writers will discuss what it is to write disabled characters, and read from their work.

Why I would attend: I would like to be part of the dialogue and listen to what other writers have encountered.

3:00-4:15 P.M.

It is more than likely that this would be a time to go tour the book fair, or have a sandwich, but in the event that neither seemed a worthwhile pursuit, then I would go to this:

"Salt: The Home of Beautiful Books

An International Reading"

Presenters: Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, Kimberly Blaeser, Victor Tapner, Shaindel Beers, Keith Tuma

Summary: England-based publisher will showcase readings by some of their writers who live across the globe.  And while there is no promise of this, perhaps there will be some discussion about Salt as a publisher since it's a small press and nearly went under a few years back.

Why I would attend: I've been interested in Salt for a while, and would like the opportunity to meet some of the writers. I have a special affinity for writers who aren't from the U.S.

4:30-5:45 P.M.

"Counterpoint Press Reading"

Room 309, Level 3

Presenters: Dan Smetanka, David McGlynn, Dana Johnson, Susan Sherman, Ilie Ruby

Summary: The writers published by Counterpoint Press in 2012 will read from their memoirs and novels. The press's editor will reflect on the aspects of each work that drew his attention, and the authors will then discuss what it is to be a Counterpoint author.

Why I would attend: Counterpoint is one of the presses that published Carole Maso, who is one of my favorite writers.  The press has a reputation for publishing innovative work, and so I would attend this panel in order to hear what it means to be innovative in Counterpoint's term in this newest of decades.

6:00 P.M. to 8:25 P.M.

As always, I would take this time to myself, but unlike the past two nights in which I scheduled myself nowhere, this night does have an event that I would want to attend:

8:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.

"Academy of American Poets Presents 

Lucie Brock-Broido and Anne Carson"

Hynes Ballroom, Level 3

Summary: Self-explanatory

Why I would attend: Anne Carson is one of my favorite poets.  I am always pleased to run across her work, and I would be pleased to listen to her read and converse.  She is a brilliant, interesting voice.  I don't think she could be a writer who would disappoint in person, or irrevocably change my opinion.

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What events would you most want to attend on Saturday?