It is unsustainable, the forever writing. Fanny in chair, write till you drop – advice we were all given in our first year of literary apprenticeship. You must maintain your body or there will be no art. I’ve learned that the hard way. The fingers are tingling, the back stings hot under my scapula, there’s [...]
Category Archives: Writing
New York State Writers Institute – The Summer Workshops
I’m baaack. It was fabulous. I was in Rick Moody’s masters section — life changing. I’ll write more as I process it all.
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The Center Cannot Hold – Flarf in the WSJ
Sharon Mesmer, Flarf, The Wall Street Journal, Page One.
There really isn’t any more that I can say….Poetry makes the big time.
Click through for the evidence.
The Influential Books Game
Everyone’s making a list of ten books. Tyler Cowen started it. I caught up via Ross Douthat’s article NYT in the New York Times. The drill is: stream of consciousness, from the gut, no great research, off the top of your head, what ten books most influence your world view. Here’s my list…
myMFA – A two year writer’s development program
A few months ago a writing pal passed along a link to Dennis Cass’ post discussing his version of an idealized MFA program, an alternative MFA. Cass’ point of view was that traditional MFA curriculums were filed with blanks, specifically outside of craft development, as done through workshops, and outside (perhaps) literary criticism, as done through massive reading work.
This struck a cord with me, it sounded about right, so I went off and built one of my own, what I call myMFA, it’s outlined in detail, along with the schedule of how I implemented it in 2009 and 2010, after the jump…
Also posted in Best Of Tagged Development, DIYMFA, MFA, myMFA, NSSR, Productivity, The New School 2 Comments
Sharon Mesmer for Brooklyn Poet Laureate
Sharon Mesmer is on the short list for the next Brooklyn Poet Laureate to succeed Ken Siegelman.
It really isn’t a contest is it? She has to get the nod.
In a story Gene Kuntzman did for the The Brooklyn Paper he wrote:
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blockquote>”Mesmer will get the vote of anyone who likes a randy dame who’s not afraid to write poems with titles like “Annoying Diabetic Bitch” and “Holy Mother of Monkey Poo.”
“If anyone is suggesting me [as poet laureate], it must be because I slept around so much,” she said. But she’s being modest: Mesmer, who studied under Allen Ginsberg, teaches at the New School and, this fall, at Brooklyn College.
Also posted in Around Town, Best Of Tagged Alan Ginsberg, flarf, Gene Kuntzman, Poetry, Sharon Mesmer, The New School 1 Comment
