A Bunch of Dynamos
These two recently published profiles of very popular commercial authors intrigued me: "Real Romance" in The New Yorker about Nora Roberts, and "Pulp Princess" in Elle about Miasha. I haven't yet read books by these writers, but their professional stories were interesting--especially in terms of their writing work ethic, determination to succeed, and strenuous, successful efforts to market and promote their work. Their sales are kind of staggering to read about.
Have I mentioned that teaching in the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference was great? The workshop participants were serious, focused, hardworking, and sweet, and they produced like crazy and supported each other. A teacher's dream.
Now I'm back at my desk, revising scholarly articles for submission, planning my fall graduate course in women's transatlantic modernism, and still plugging happily away on my novel.
Here in Lincoln, where the actual temperature of 97 degrees feels, or so weather.com tells me, like 109, and the UV index is 9, it seems like a wise day to be indoors anyway. In our apartment with all of the blinds drawn, I feel like one of the mole-people. Stay cool! Stay hydrated! Slather on the sunscreen, folks.
The graduate course is really exciting for me: Gertrude Stein, Nella Larsen, Katherine Mansfield, Zora Neale Hurston, Meridel Le Sueur, Jean Rhys, Margery Latimer, and Virginia Woolf all jostling around in one highly contested little period--and I had to cut so many! (Stevie Smith, I miss you. Djuna Barnes. Dorothy Richardson. Oh, my shame. And this is just prose--we're not even doing poetry.)
My goal is for every graduate student (18 are registered) to get a solid, submittable (is that a word?) journal article out of the experience. We'll see.
Have I mentioned that teaching in the Nebraska Summer Writers' Conference was great? The workshop participants were serious, focused, hardworking, and sweet, and they produced like crazy and supported each other. A teacher's dream.
Now I'm back at my desk, revising scholarly articles for submission, planning my fall graduate course in women's transatlantic modernism, and still plugging happily away on my novel.
Here in Lincoln, where the actual temperature of 97 degrees feels, or so weather.com tells me, like 109, and the UV index is 9, it seems like a wise day to be indoors anyway. In our apartment with all of the blinds drawn, I feel like one of the mole-people. Stay cool! Stay hydrated! Slather on the sunscreen, folks.
The graduate course is really exciting for me: Gertrude Stein, Nella Larsen, Katherine Mansfield, Zora Neale Hurston, Meridel Le Sueur, Jean Rhys, Margery Latimer, and Virginia Woolf all jostling around in one highly contested little period--and I had to cut so many! (Stevie Smith, I miss you. Djuna Barnes. Dorothy Richardson. Oh, my shame. And this is just prose--we're not even doing poetry.)
My goal is for every graduate student (18 are registered) to get a solid, submittable (is that a word?) journal article out of the experience. We'll see.
Leave a Comment: