New Years Can Be Anytime
Featuring a grand opening, 2023 Most Anticipated Books Pt. 2, and hot links
Dear readers,
Thank you for sticking with Luster Not Polish through all its iterations. I am excited to launch into a new phase of this newsletter, inspired by the writing community I have found through social media. Along with the usual updates on literary zeitgeist and cultural flotsam, I also plan to facilitate and share more about the writing life and craft. In particular, as I tighten up my #currentlyreading, I want to get into how I read the books from a craft angle.
If you like reading about writing, there are lots of newsletters to explore. Here are some of my faves:
Matt Bell’s Newsletter on craft (skews speculative, but he authored Refuse to Be Done, one of the best craft books for novel-writing)
Brandon Taylor’s newsletter for opinions/musings on craft, literature, and culture
Nicole Zhu’s newsletter full of workshop-level craft discussions
The Practicing Writer from Erika Dreifus (tons of submission opps)
Lincoln Michel’s newsletter with tons of publishing advice
Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s newsletter is a bit like a craft class
But First, Writing
This month has been a VERY exciting one for me! First, my short story “All Fresh Starts but No Clean Slate” came out in The Denver Quarterly (you can order the full issue by emailing denverquarterly@gmail.com).
This story was written last year, June 2022, at the Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop. I agonized over it at the time, because I had to meet a deadline for an assignment I couldn’t seem to fulfill: to write a story that must be told backwards to make sense. Here is an example of such a story. I had one night to come up with something, and I could not magically muster a reverse plot. Instead, I thought of themes that could fit this prompt. I came up with: regret, loss, and the origin of a revenge. Revenge sounded cool.
If you read the story, you will notice it is not told backwards, exactly. The present action moves backwards, while the past moves forwards, in alternating paragraphs that are told precisely 1:1. They meet at the climax of the story, which is both the opening and closing. The meaning of this climax mutates as the backstory emerges. The effect is that all of time exists at once.
I was a really different writer back in June. I applied to Kenyon because I thought you were supposed to go to workshops if you wanted to become a somebody. The workshop changed my life, not because I became a somebody, but because I met my writing community. Throughout a slightly traumatic week (including an invasion of lax bros, having no power and little food for a week after a tornado ravaged campus, and a classmate getting covid), we talked about a “tiny, unshakeable voice” inside you that tells you to write, no matter what. My faculty mentor, Marie-Helene Bertino, had to shout this over the church bells that rang at 15 minute intervals, but I took her message to heart. AFSBNCS was rejected 17+ times before it found a home in one of my dream journals.
It’s hard to believe it has been less than a year since Kenyon. It’s also hard to believe that it took ALMOST a year to publish a short story! Time is like putty in the writing world.
I have some exciting news to share with you all about this summer. I am going to be in Portland, OR in July to attend the Tin House Summer Workshops for novel. Yep, I am writing a novel! Then in August, I will be joining the Bread Load Conference as the Katharine Bakeless Nason Contributor in Fiction. I cried real tears when I got this news, mostly because I am shocked they even want me there. As my friend Alex told me: I am doing it!! I am doing the writing thing!!!
Recently Read
Bad Behavior by Mary Gaitskill:
Mary Mary Mary! How have I never read her before? Mary Gaitskill has an uncanny ability to construct complex psychological portraitures on the page, and present stories with jagged teeth and wistful endings. I took a lot of notes in these pages while working on some new work of my own. Consider me influenced!
The 75th anniversary edition of The Paris Review has an Art of Fiction interview with Mary Gaitskill
The Laughter by Sonora Jha:
I posted about the book here. Jha has accomplished a feat: to write an entire novel in the voice of someone detestable and dangerous. This was a story that hit incredibly close to home, was disturbing and upsetting, and executed thoughtfully. There were a couple of moments the main character’s dialogue read like a satire, but it was easy to look past it, because this book is SO so real.
A sensitive and astute review of The Laughter
You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith:
Oh my word, Maggie did THAT. This woman can WRITE! And she converted me into a memoir girlie (maybe)!!! For my full thoughts on the book, check out my IG post on it.
You can read an excerpt from the memoir here.
Link Roulette: Of Monsters and Mommies
This month, I offer a fun little internet jumble of conversations around monstrous mommies on TV, in literature, and in real life.
The Redemption of the Bad Mother: A review of two books on mothers pushed to the brink
The Feminine Urge to Murder: on angry women
I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness rejects the cliches of motherhood novels
Mother, Writer, Monster, Maid: the profound “unfreeness” of being a mother
What Capitalism gains from the Devaluation of Care Work
Not really about mommies, but a lovely short story free online
A very fun bit on the toddler as CEO trope: