Indie Lit Secret Santa Gift Exchange

Today's your last chance to sign up for HTMLGIANT's second annual indie lit Secret Santa gift exchange! You can spend between $10- $20 on your favorite book or chapbook from a small/indie press, or send a subscription to a literary magazine. HTMLGIANT will email you the name and address of your recipient, and make sure to add your address as well--it's kind of essential to the whole "exchange" part. Spread the (indie) literary love.

Poetry Fix: Four Poems by Natalie Shapero

If you're looking for a quick poetry fix this Saturday morning, head over to failbetter.com for four short, hilarious, and poignant poems by Natalie Shapero. I've never read any of her work before, but I hope she keeps putting this good stuff out there. And if you need an example of spot-on last lines, make sure to read "Coconut" and "Our War." 

Best Books of 2009: A List of Lists

Every year around this time newspapers, magazines, blogs, radio stations, you name it post their "Best Books of 2009." For the past week or so I've been reading through many such lists, compiling my own lists of "to read" and "to gift." The amount of lists out there can get overwhelming (just try googling "best books of 2009" and you'll see what I mean). So, instead of adding yet another list of favorite books to the pile, I thought I'd gift you with a composition list (in no particular order) of my top "Best Books of 2009" articles:

1) The LA Times: "Favorites 2009: Fiction and poetry," and "Favorite nonfiction of 2009" (separate articles)

2) The New Yorker: "A Year's Reading"

3) The Christian Science Monitor: "Best books of 2009: fiction" and "Best books of 2009: nonfiction"

4) NPR: "Complete Holiday Book Recommendations 2009" (condensed version of many lists)

5) The New York Times: "The 10 Best Books of 2009" (or "100 Notable Books of 2009" for the ambitious readers out there)

6) GoodReads: "Best books of 2009" (a very democratic (and looong) list)

7) Publisher's Weekly: "Best Books of 2009"

8) The Economist: "Books of the Year: Page-turners" (lots of nonfiction sub-categories)

9) The Guardian: "Christmas Books" (various writers and "guests" pick one book they would gift from 2009)

10) Powell's Books' Puddly Award Winners and Nominees of 2009 (only 2 winners, but a list of 50 contenders!...plus you can fill your cart with goodies as you read) or Morrison's Gift Picks

These are just a few of many, so if you have any favorite lists you like to reference, please leave in the comments or email me!

Update: HTMLGIANT's Blake Butler ventured a "25 Important Books of the '00s" today--good stuff.

Opium Magazine's New Jiggly QuickFix App

Ever wished you could just shake your iPhone and magically have a piece of fiction appear before your eyes? Well kids, Christmas (or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, you name it) came early. Check out "Opium's QuickFix with Jiggle Technology" for iPhone. 

With each little jiggle you'll get an app-exclusive story along with access to all of OpiumMagazine.com's archives. The app is only $1.99 through iTunes, with all proceeds working towards Opium's print editions. Special for the launch, the app features a story by humor writer Jack Handey of Deep Thoughts fame. Jiggle on!

Update: The wonderful Kevin Sampsell (check out Future Tense Books) just informed me of another awesome iPhone story app called TripleQuick. This one brings you short-short stories that are all 333 words long--quick to upload, quick to read and enjoy. Not only can you upload new flash fiction with TripleQuick, you can also compose and submit your own juicy 333 word nuggets right on your iPhone. I'm getting excited.

Nonfiction Writing + Tricks for Your Noodle

Something about writing non-fiction has always felt a little icky to me. Whenever I start a prose piece that involves parts of my real life I tend to hide those bits with layers of fiction. It's not so much that I mind displaying my personal, uncomfortable moments (although that does play a role), but rather that it feels self-important to think that sharing my story would be interesting enough to captivate another human's attention, let alone mean something to them. 

And yet, so many non-fiction works have meant something to me. So when my writing class segued from fiction to non-fiction I sacked up and hit the keyboard. It wasn't easy. I should say it isn't easy...I'm still working to finish a piece I need to turn in on Monday. And I've probably started about six different stories. I thought about writing a braided essay about loss and the five steps of grief, but as I was putting important moments of my life into words it began to feel trite. I don't think it's that my stories lacked meaning, rather that my discomfort with writing about my own stories was coming through in my writing and mucking it all up. 

It happens. But after two weeks of self torture I've figured out a few tricks I thought I'd share that have helped me write personal non-fiction without gagging on my words:

1) I try to write without looking at the screen/page or paying attention to how and what exactly I'm writing. It may end up gobbly gook, but it's something to start with and then I can cut, cut, cut. I also try to do this with fiction as well but I find it's easier with non-fiction since I'm not creating the narrative or characters, just relating .

2) I try to picture the story in snapshots and write each part separately--whether it's atmosphere, character description, or dialogue--in whatever order they come out. Then I can rearrange them later so the narrative flows.

3) If I'm writing about something intensely personal, I sometimes write my first draft in third person. Distancing myself from the confessional "I" allows me to get out certain truths and opinions that I would otherwise choke back. Once I have the words down and I'm in revising mode it's easy to switch to first person and bring myself back into the story.

Wish me luck...time to get back to it!

Living in a Literary Mine Shaft

Yes, a mine shaft. Which is why I haven't posted in...oh...forever. Right now I'm interning both at a literary magazine and a non-profit dedicated to the literary arts (state book awards, literature fellowships, etc.). I say mine shaft because I'm so deeply entrenched that my vision's narrowed (quite literally--I read so much I need new glasses) and I rarely have time to come up for air and check out what else is going on. You'd think with this literary tunnel vision I'd be blogging about it more--sadly, I've neglected reporting from the front lines. I know it's not New Years yet, but I'm resolving to update here more with interesting insights from the inside (ohhhhh, way too much alliteration there). 

Until next time, here's a link to some From the Fishouse (an awesome resource) audio clips--both interviews and readings--by wonderful the Portland poet, Matthew Dickman, whose work I recently fell in love with. More on him soon!

Fathers and Sons by David Mason

An event almost as exciting as getting your own work published, is seeing a good friend or mentor's work getting the recognition it deserves. Such an event happened today when I came across one of my college writing professor's poems in the September 28th, 2009 New Yorker. Not only was I exuberant to see his work featured in such a notable publication, but I am thrilled with the poem itself--so brilliantly poignant and quietly beautiful. So, here's a link to David Mason's poem Fathers and Sons. 

Happy trails Dave, and thanks for everything.