Ben Fama
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Where I Write: With John Louis Krug
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Graduates, Poetry, MFA / April 13, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Join John Louis Krug, second year MFA in Poetry for literary promises in the morning and fragment catching in the afternoon.
Where do you write?
I live in a tenement building, circa 1890, located in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan. The apartment is what you call a “railroad flat” as it is a floor through apartment with several rooms, all of them small. I am fortunate to have a 6x10 foot room with a west-facing window that over the years has become my writing room.
Stand, sit or other?
I sit and sit and sit, even though I know sitting is the new smoking.
What is your writing practice?
I am a slow writer in that I am unable to dump words on the page for any length of time. I edit as I go, so if I can get a paragraph written I generally go back through it and do a loose edit before I move on. I suspect that way of working is informed by my training as a poet, as I can sit for hours — days looking at one stanza, line or one word in a poem I am working on. Or, it could be that I am such a horrendous speller and grammarian that I can’t ignore all the squiggly red and blue lines infecting the page. I always try to have a notebook with me to jot down fragments that float by wherever I am. And I promise myself each night before I fall asleep that, if I awake with a thought, word or line in my head that could be used in a current or future poem, I will get up, go to my desk and write it down in a notebook I leave open just for that purpose. My mornings are littered with broken promises.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
In these semi-cloistered days I tend to get up from my desk, go to the kitchen, make a coffee or a cup of tea, and stand and listen to whatever WNYC radio has to offer. If I am really stuck I’ll mask-up and go for a walk in the neighborhood, forget about what needs to be put on the page, and relax into the bits of nature I find on my amble.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
I constantly read poetry, new collections and the expanded canon. I am sustained and made more human by Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
Realizing that making plans is a privilege.
What is your dream writing space?
Actually my current writing room is my dream space, because I never saw myself living in New York City, and I never thought I would complete my BA, let alone an MFA and become a writer. Life is a wonder.
John Louis Krug is a second year MFA creative writing student with a concentration in poetry at The New School.
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Where I Write: with Hannah Sawyerr
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Graduates, Fiction, Poetry, MFA / April 6, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Dream a little with first year MFA in poetry Hannah Sawyerr and attain the unattainable.
Where do you write?
I write at a tiny desk (no concert, it’s just that small!) in my apartment in Brooklyn. My friend’s joke that I somehow managed to turn my desk into an office. I keep a BRITA for water and an electric kettle for tea because when I’m really into it I don’t want to move! I then light a candle, (or turn on my wax warmer) allow myself to dream a little and then get to work.
Stand, sit or other?
Oh, I definitely sit. I didn’t even know standing desks were a thing until fairly recently. They seem pretty criminal to me! If I’m working on a longer project, especially one with a narrative arc, I absolutely need to be sitting at a desk (preferably my desk) but if I’m not at home, I can write at a regular table. Shorter projects, including poems, essays, blog posts, or anything I’m certain I will not share can be written anywhere for me. I tend to just use my laptop in bed.
What is your writing practice?
For poetry, I can write anywhere. I have literally pulled over my car while driving to write a poem that came to me. I can write in the doctor’s office, in my notes app during a walk, and I’ve even been guilty of writing poems during class a time or two. (sorry professors!)
For fiction, my process is a bit more organized. I think my fiction tends to be more character driven so I use post it notes for a very loose outline, but my characters are profiled really heavily. I like to let my characters tell me the story, so I develop them as much as I can and then I listen. I also tend to get a lot of writing done in churches. I don’t attend anymore, but when I’m home I attend out of respect for my parents and my roots, or when my friend got baptised I went to show my support for her. I actually think I write some of my best work in churches.
I don’t write quickly, but I do spend quite a lot of time with my work. I usually start and finish my day with a couple of hours of writing. I don’t set hard expectations, but for me it’s fun to set an “unattainable goal” If I make it, I toast with a glass of wine, if I don’t I might still toast with a glass of wine.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
My favorite procrastination is also what tends to keep me the most focused. I love zoom writing sprints with friends. (Which I’m hoping will turn into in-person sprints soon!) Usually we set talk timers, but I can be a talker (and a lot of my friends can be talkers too!) so we’ll set a talk timer but sometimes the poor thing will go off and be ignored. Next thing you know, a conversation about a dilemma regarding food in a scene has turned into a conversation about the time one of us got food poisoning and vomited on the schoolbus in the 3rd grade, which turns into an hour long conversation about embarrassing childhood stories we’ve never shared.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
I love re-reading books. It provides me with the same comfort that rewatching a show does when you already know the ending. I will always return to works by Sandra Cisneros, Tiffany D. Jackson, Elizabeth Acevedo, Maya Angelou and Jesmyn Ward just to name a few.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
I got back into the guitar recently! I used to play in high school, but my mom shipped my guitar to my cousin in Sierra Leone when I moved for undergrad. (Those of us with immigrant parents understand how hilarious this is!) I recently purchased a new guitar and have been teaching myself how to play again.
What is your dream writing space?
I want to be one of those unicorns who can write anywhere. I think with my poetry, I’ve gotten to a point where I can write most places, but I will know I’ve flexed some serious literary muscles if I can take a fiction project anywhere and still continue to write!
For now my dream location is a coffee shop! Because I haven’t written in one in so long. I just got my first COVID vaccine, so hopefully this will be a reality very soon!
Hannah V. Sawyerr is a Sierra Leonean-American writer. She was recognized as the Youth Poet Laureate of Baltimore and her spoken word poetry has been featured on the British Broadcasting Channel’s (BBC) “World Have Your Say” program and the National Education Association’s (NEA) “Do You Hear Us” Campaign. Her written work has been featured in several publications such as Poets.org, ROOKIE, and Sesi Magazine. For her literary work, she is represented by Joanna Volpe and Jordan Hill of New Leaf Literary & Media. Currently, she is earning her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at The New School. You can find her at hannahsawyerr.com.
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Where I Write: with John Kazanjian
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / March 28, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Join second year MFA in fiction John Kazanjian on a park bench to honor all the ways we love, feel, create, and blossom.
Where do you write?
I feel untethered in terms of creative spaces. I think that any place can become an arena for producing art. I’ve often felt most connected to my work on airplanes or park benches—and once at a gas station along Pacific Coast Highway, north of Los Angeles. However, I do keep a desk facing a window that overlooks the Queensboro Bridge. If I can’t be in transit, then it helps to look at perpetual motion.
Stand, sit or other?
My best ideas come from standing in the shower or walking outside. But I do sit to write.
What is your writing practice?
The most important part of my practice is a strong and varied engagement with the world. Getting out and being active is paramount. For me, writing means actively bridging the external and internal realms in meaningful ways, striving to create a single space for life and creativity. For producing new work, I find that I am most productive when I’m in an emotional state of mind. I tend to get there with music. I’ve got a playlist of my favorite sad songs and pieces. The trick is generating work before emotions become a touch too overwhelming. For revising, I think recreating the most likely setting in which the work will be read is important, removing music and other mood-altering elements.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
Since I consider pretty much any activity to be part of my writing practice, I don’t know that I’d call anything procrastination. But when I’m not putting words on a page, I’m usually composing and recording music, practicing an instrument, or listening to albums on vinyl. I’ll also stop whatever I’m doing at any moment if one of my cats wants to play. Paws before prose.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
I wish a book, or an author could have this effect on me! I connect more with single works than I do with authors as personalities or mentors-in-absentia. But once I’ve experienced a book, I rarely go back. For me, there are too many literary instances to explore in a tragically insufficient amount of time. And I’m comfortable being ungrounded. Although, I do often think back on Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke when I am feeling particularly lost. There’s a special line that he writes to the struggling poet and sometimes it helps to pretend that he’s writing to me. “I would like to beg of you, dear friend, as well as I can, to have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.”
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
I’ve learned to be gentle with myself. In essence, I think human beings are beautiful, and the harshness of this world will move us in unfavorable ways. But neither loss, nor struggle, nor existential dread should inspire us to side with that harshness. I’ve learned that honoring the ways we love, feel, and create will allow us to blossom, even in this philosophical winter.
What is your dream writing space?
Right now, I think I’d feel most inspired on a park bench somewhere, surrounded by sunshine and flowers. Maybe there could be a pond and a little bridge with a high arch. I’d like a place where I could take off my headphones and replace my music with the sound of rustling trees and the soft chatter of happy people.
John Kazanjian is a writer and book critic living in New York. His work has been published in Rain Taxi, The Brooklyn Rail, Entropy Magazine, PANK, The Rupture, JMWW, and elsewhere. Find him at: www.johnkazanjian.com
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Where I Write: with Elizabeth Kirkhorn
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Graduates, Nonfiction, MFA / March 22, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Find out what makes second year MFA in nonfiction Elizabeth Kirkhorn Tik and how to avoid toxic perfectionism from her igloo in Midtown.
Where do you write?
I have never been more thankful for the existence of igloos than I am this semester; I inhabit them like an urban penguin whenever I need to write. This is a picture of Blank Slate in Midtown East, my favorite igloo discovery and new “office” of sorts. I’m not the kind of person who can write in the confines of my apartment (I get sleepy just looking at my bed, let alone trying to write in it), so finding hideouts that have Wifi, heating, and space for my books has become just as big a part of my writing process as writing itself. Honorable mentions for this kind of nook include: Remi Flower & Coffee, Five Leaves, and Epistrophy.
Stand, sit or other?
Sitting absolutely, until I reward myself for meeting a minimum word count with a nice, brisk walk. You can definitely find me pacing 48th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues at least once a day between bursts of writing. Come visit!
What is your writing practice?
It begins with conceptualization; asking myself, what writing do I want to accomplish today? Once I’ve built the scaffolding for a new essay in my brain, or steeled myself to do some dreaded editing, I reward myself with a cup of coffee. Usually the idea gains a little bit more life while I wait in line or walk to the corner shop. By the time I’m back at the computer, I’ve emotionally braced myself to write. I like to spend an hour doing either writing or editing, take a break, and then spend another hour doing the opposite. Basically, this means rotating between brand new material, and dusting off something old (a practice that Luis Jaramillo recommended to me). I used to be debilitated by editing as I wrote, which fueled toxic perfectionism. Even in the first draft, my need to choose every word exactly became painstaking, and that made revision a major pain. I could never let go of anything! Now, I put my creative energy towards playing on the page, pounding out something new, and then putting it away without giving myself space to pick at it. Then, I switch the revision gears on to fix up a piece where I have distance or perspective. I am religious about following Hemingway’s advice on concluding a session: “when you’re going good, stop writing.” That cliche is sure to get a groan from the writers in the room, but I promise: it helps.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
I barely want to admit this but my favorite way to procrastinate writing is Tik Tok. I find that just watching a few quick, digestible clips jogs my brain, but doesn’t allow me to get sucked into an entirely new activity. If you’re familiar with “sides” of Tik Tok, I tend to linger on female empowerment tok, breakup tok, and relationship advice tok. I’m writing my thesis on womanhood, love, and dating. So, I can really get back in a groove just by opening Tik Tok and watching a 60 second clip of someone discussing her latest entanglement with a flashy investment banker named Todd. I think to myself, “I see her determination and youth, but also her vulnerability and loss. How can I bring that to my page the same way she does to her content?”
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
I always come home to my absolute favorite memoir in essays, Jill Talbot’s The Way We Weren’t when I need inspiration or a little bit of levity. I actually got to interview her as part of my critical thesis project, which was so fulfilling to me as a reader and writer. I also recently read Andre Aciman’s Homo Irrealis, composed of essays on time, art, and our infinite possibilities as humans. I’m a huge fan of his, so of course, this is a shameless plug to invest in his writing. Lastly, I’m about three quarters of the way through Saunders’ latest, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain. I traditionally can’t stand Saunders, nor do I like books about “how to be a writer,” so you know I don’t recommend this lightly. It’s worth the fact that it hasn’t come out in paperback.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
I actually learned how to cook real food for myself. No more lean cuisines and TV dinners for this girl. My current obsessions are roasting the perfect cauliflower and mastering very unexpected ways to prepare gnocchi (pumpkin ricotta, anyone?)
What is your dream writing space?
I want access to a space with breathtaking, can’t-get-this-anywhere-else kind of views. I would settle for the oceanfront if I had to, but I would so prefer mountains or just miles on miles of trees.
Elizabeth Kirkhorn is a Manhattan transplant by way of Washington D.C., and a second-year nonfiction student. She works at the Meredith Corporation as an Associate Editor. Elizabeth would like to thank lean cuisines, Yankee Candle, and her French press for their support throughout the MFA. Check out Elizabeth's portfolio here.
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Where I Write: With Gina Chung
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Current Students, Fiction, MFA / March 9, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Second year MFA in fiction Gina Chung gives her Brooklyn closet a magic nook makeover that transcends time and space.
Where do you write?
Like most New Yorkers, I live and work out of a small space, but I do have a relatively spacious closet. So in the fall of 2020, after binging a series of interior design videos on YouTube, I decided to take the plunge and turn my closet into a cozy nook. I bought a blue scalloped armchair, pink rug, side table, lamp, and twinkle lights and never looked back. Now my closet nook is where I sit to write (sometimes by hand, if the words are coming a bit slower than usual), read, or just relax with a drink. If whatever I have to get done that day requires more precise, detail-oriented attention like revision or proofing, I’ll write at my desk (which I covered in gold contact paper during the early stages of the pandemic), but I love drafting new work in my closet nook—maybe because there’s something about that space that feels a bit outside of time and space, which I find freeing.
Stand, sit or other?
I usually have to sit in order to write. I’ve experimented with standing desk setups in the past, but since I also like to listen to music when I write, I could never get over the weird feeling that I was DJ-ing for no one while I was standing and writing. Plus, when I stand, I find that I’m more tempted to stare outside and get distracted by imagining the lives of my neighbors or the emotional entanglements of the pigeons that congregate outside my window.
What is your writing practice?
As much as I’d love to be a daily writer, I find it challenging (and not always that productive for me personally) to write every day, unless I’m nearing the end of a particular stage of a project. I prefer to write at night, when I don’t have to worry so much about the pressures and to-dos of the upcoming day. I also like walking around outside and listening to podcasts or music while thinking about what I’m working on, especially if I’m stuck on a particular character or scene, which I think counts as writing too. I like to craft specific playlists for whatever it is I’m writing, especially if it’s something longer, and so I find that putting on that playlist helps signal to my brain that I am now entering the world of my characters, like I’m going incognito among them. I’m a big believer in sitting with a story and asking it for whatever it needs next.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
Putting things into online shopping carts and (usually) not buying them; trying to decide what to eat next; catching up on the latest literary gossip or goings-on on Twitter.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
One book I return to often is Chemistry by Weike Wang, which really changed my life and my ideas about what a book could do when I first read it a few years ago, and which I felt represented so much of my own experiences as an Asian American woman in a way I had never seen before. Two other writers I’ve come back to frequently during this time are Alice Munro and Shirley Jackson. Alice Munro’s knife is so sharp you don’t even realize she’s cut you until you’re bleeding, and Shirley Jackson’s perfectly impeccable and eerie prose comforts me. In a world as twisted and awry as ours can be at times, I find that I crave the work of writers who aren’t afraid to stare their worst fears in the eye and say, “So what?”—which both Alice and Shirley do, in very different ways.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
I don’t know if this qualifies as a skill, but prior to the pandemic, I hated the cold in all forms and rarely ventured outdoors for longer than it takes to get to the subway, walk to somewhere warm, or run a quick errand. But over the last year, my tolerance for the cold and for inclement weather has gone up exponentially, to the point where on a day when it’s below freezing, I’ll still willingly venture out and layer up to like, go stare at the ducks in the water at Prospect Park. I’ve become a total nature girl and I love it.
What is your dream writing space?
I love small nooks (see above re: my closet), but I also like the idea of having a writing space that is expansive and airy. I think my dream writing space would be something like this treehouse, where I’d be able to store all my books and notebooks, while being able to stare out at a view of treetops and distant mountains for inspiration. And while, like most writers, I prefer to write alone, I’d also want the space to feel warm and social in the off-hours when I’m not writing, so I’d love for it to feel like a cozy haven for friends who might want to drop by for a glass of wine or whiskey in the evenings.
Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in Brooklyn, New York. She is the communications manager at PEN America and an MFA candidate in fiction at The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Catapult, The Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, F(r)iction, Fugue, Wigleaf, Waxwing, Split Lip Magazine, Jellyfish Review, the VIDA Review, and LIT Magazine. Her stories have been recognized by the Black Warrior Review Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, the CRAFT Elements Contest, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest, as well as named Longform Fiction Pick of the Week. Find her at gina-chung.com.
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The AWP conference, March 3 - 7, is virtual this year. Instead of having to choose between the panels we can't miss and miss the panels we wish we could attend, the virtual cloud conference allows us to go to ALL our selected panels and not miss a thing.
View the schedule of events here and make sure to check out these panels and readings by The New School Creative Writing Faculty and Alumni:
Wednesday, March 3
8pm EST Hosted by TriQuarterly Books & Northwestern University Press: Yxta Maya Murray & Benjamin Hedin. Benjamin Hedin (fiction, 2004) will read from his first novel, Under the Spell. Learn more and register for this offsite event here.
Thursday, March 4
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST T130. A Reading & Conversation with Mira Jacob & Monique Truong, Sponsored by Kundiman. (Monique Truong, Mira Jacob (faculty), Crystal Hana Kim). Join Kundiman for a conversation with Monique Truong and Mira Jacob, two masterful multi- genre authors of lyrical and vital work. Each author will give a reading, followed by a moderated discussion about their work and its engagement with family, food, identity, and history. Kundiman's Kyle Lucia Wu (fiction, 2015) will introduce, and Crystal Hana Kim will moderate. Kundiman is a national nonprofit dedicated to nurturing generations of Asian American literature. Learn more about AWP and purchase AWP student discounted registration here. Pathable link to this event here.
Thursday, March 4
8:30 PM EST Hosted by TriQuarterly Books & Northwestern University Press Short & Sweet: A Poetry Reading with Ellen Hagen. Ellen Hagan (fiction, 2013) is the author of Blooming Fiascoes, Hemisphere, Crowned, Watch Us Rise, a YA collaboration with Renée Watson, and Reckless, Glorious, Girl, a middle grade novel in verse. Learn more and register for this offsite event here.
Friday, March 5
1:20 - 2:20 p.m. EST F124. In It for the Long Haul: Circulation Building for Literary Magazines, Sponsored by CLMP. (David Gibbs (poetry. 2012), Abigail Serfass, Dani Hedlund, Kellen Braddock) New subscriptions and renewals are key to increasing a magazine's readership and revenue. Learn innovative strategies for identifying potential readers, building a robust acquisition plan, and converting first-time subscribers into renewals. Learn more about AWP and student discounted registration here. Pathable link to the event here.
Saturday, March 6
11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. EST S105. Student Voice and the Creative Writing Workshop in the 21st Century. (Jameelah Lang, Barney Haney, Shonda Buchanan, Christopher J. Coake, Alexandra Kleeman [faculty]) This panel will focus on helping students respond to peers in the creative writing workshop by examining practices that ridgette workshops, empower students, and enhance teaching. Panelists will discuss different modes and levels of workshops, from graduate to introductory. We will draw upon a range of techniques, from traditional to innovative, and different response forms. We’ll share perspectives from small liberal-arts colleges to HBCUs to large state universities and points in between. Learn more about AWP and student discounted registration here. Pathable link to this event here.
12:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. EST S112. Embracing the Strange: The Power of Genre-Bending in Fiction. (Joy Baglio [fiction, 2013], Sarah Cody, Sequoia Nagamatsu, Lara Ehrlich, Matthew Lansburgh) Recent years have seen an increase in literary fiction that bends toward the fantastic and strange: Are literary fiction writers bored of realism? Or do “strange” and “magical” stories allow us to better express the raw truths of our lived experiences? In this panel, award-winning writers who explore strange and fantastic premises in their fiction will discuss what drew them to genre-bend, what challenges they faced, as well as how the surreal has enabled them to get at difficult truths. Learn more and purchase registration for this panel event here. Learn more about AWP and student discounted registration here. Pathable link to this event here.
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Where I Write: With Aekta Khubchandani
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / March 1, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Marcel Proust in bed, from Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Second year MFA student in poetry Aekta Khubchandani makes poems that float, flow, and spill a blue breath to the page.
Where do you write?
I believe in odd numbers so I have three writing spots in my apartment. My desk, Freddy and chair, Fernando are a great couple. And together, they’ve helped me churn out some good writing. They’re usually bathing in indirect sunlight and are by a big window.
The second spot is on the blue rug by the bedside. It’s also where I drink my morning coffee/chai and where I read the most. I can see the clouds clearly from here, moving and becoming another cloud. This is my favorite spot to write.
Thirdly, the bed. The mattress is so comfortable, it gives my vulnerability all the space it needs.
Stand, sit or other?
Oh, I’d choose dancing. Or movement. If I can move like how water moves-- every molecule free and flowing, that’ll be a good day to die.
What is your writing practice?
My current writing practice is to read a lot until I feel something immensely and then pour myself over the page or screen. I’ve been listening to a lot of Bill Evans and that’s making my poems float. I tune into Bill’s music even when I’m cooking. And oh my, the food is delicious! There’s also a 3 (yes, odd number I know!) hour sound healing meditation that I’ve been indulging in.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
I already feel guilty of procrastinating. I don’t think I procrastinate as much as I should? My coping mechanism involves productivity. But procrastinations-- walking by the waterfront, working out/dancing, watching dance videos (contemporary, hip-hop, ballet), films-- a lot of films this year and cleaning. I clean as if I’m cleaning my mind. It’s spotless, more breathing space, clear air, and finally the sound of good sleep.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
Aren’t we all a bit mad, which is why we’re here-- writing? Two of my most interesting reads this year have been: Crush by Richard Siken and Sea and Fog by Etel Adnan. How can writing/they be SO gorgeous.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
I founded Poetry Plant Project, over last summer when the pandemic hit us. I’m soon going to finish a year of teaching-- so that happened. The rest is the same-- cooking, eating, working out, you know how the list goes.
What is your dream writing space?
I couldn’t find a photograph. But here’s what it would feel like-- I want a water library-- blue books (all shades of blue and purple) that have water in them. Of course, genre no bar. It could be poetry, fiction, cnf, research papers, picture books, illustrations, photo books, everything under the sun, that you can think of.
And here’s a word bank for imagination:
water, space, light, blue, breath, books
Aekta Khubchandani is a writer, and poet from Bombay. She is the founder of Poetry Plant Project, a safe and inclusive space to nourish poems. She is matriculating her MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from The New School, New York. Her fiction “Love in Bengali Dialect”, the winner of Pigeon Pages Fiction contest, is nominated for Best American Short Fiction. Her poems were awarded the winner of honorable mention by Paul Violi Prize. Her work has been long-listed for Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) twice in 2017 & 2018. Her work is published in Epiphany, Jaggery Lit, VAYAVYA, The Aerogram and elsewhere. She has performed spoken word poetry in India, Bhutan, and New York. Her newsletter, The Clementine Letter, is now available through subscription. She lives with her plants Gulabo and Kit-Kat in Newport.
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Where I Write: With medina
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Nonfiction, Writing for Children and Young Adults, MFA / February 21, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Ben Franklin in a bathtub, from Marcel Proust in bed to Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? medina is a third year dual track MFA student in Writing For Children and Young Adults and Nonfiction. They dream of a more inclusive world.
Where do you write?
Where Intention lives.
Stand, sit or other?
Does the wind sit or stand?
What is your writing practice?
It's ever-changing. It's always in motion and always evolving. I nurture its growth. I speak my words into existence. I share meals with my characters. They join me in the park. I honor them. Have conversations with them. We play music together. Admire the night sky together. Sit in silence together. I am as gentle as I am with myself as I am with the people and communities I write about.
What are your favorite procrastinations?
I’m not someone who procrastinates. I’m someone who processes in the time that it is healthy for me.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
We absolutely do live in challenging times. I admire many authors, educators, scholars, activists and those working towards creating a more just and equitable world!
What I love to read are words from high school students I’m mentoring. What reminds me of the light and goodness in the world is interacting with educators who are committed to create safer and more inclusive environments for young learners. Being part of this and witnessing this brings me peace and makes me very happy to be alive.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic?
I’m someone who is interested in deepening myself. Deepening my heart.
What is your dream writing space?
Writing is a source of joy for me because I believe that as writers we have the social responsibility to write words that do not harm any person or community. How can I not feel joyful when I know that my words will interact with someone else and they could be impacted by them?
In order for me to take care of my own well-being and produce any type of work I must be in a space that is warm, accepting and non judgemental. That's an inward space. That's an inward experience. Expressing our words outwardly is an act of rebellion, an act that has the power to change the world!
This writing space is part of my mind, my emotions, the stories I inherit and carry with me. They're part of our communities. They're part of our world.
I dream of being part of worlds and activating and creating new worlds that are insistent on including all people who live on a continuum of all identities. Those honoring all people with all mental health illnesses. Those committed to advocating for and caring for all people with all disabilities.
You are your writing space.
medina (they/them) is a mixed Honduran nonbinary demisexual lesbian. They’re a dual MFA creative writing candidate with concentrations in Writing for Children and Young Adults and Nonfiction. They’re an Impact Entrepreneur Fellow, social impact entrepreneur and youth advocate. They’ve written for Self Magazine, HelloGiggles, Bustle, Them., and more. They're represented by Verve Talent LA and Avalon. Their debut queer contemporary middle-grade book, THE ONE WHO LOVES YOU THE MOST, comes out in the Spring of 2022.
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Where I Write: With Azka Anwar
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / February 16, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Ben Franklin in a bathtub, from Marcel Proust in bed to Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Second year MFA student in nonfiction Azka Anwar serves up slivers of memory, birdsong, and chocolate chip cookies.
Where do you write?
My greatest accomplishment of the last year was managing to squeeze a desk into my shoebox-sized bedroom. Once the pandemic hit and writing (or pretending to) in cute cafés was no longer an option, I realized pretty quickly that I needed a work space that wasn't my bed (writing in bed only ever ends in untimely naps for me). My desk is where I write now, and I've lined it with all the essentials for a productive writing day: brightly colored pens, a scented candle, and a jar of almonds (every Pakistani mom’s snack recommendation of choice).
Stand, sit or other?
Sit (or slouch, or sometimes, hunch over and cry…)
What is your writing practice?
Refuse to write until two days before a deadline. Just kidding. I don't like to know what a piece is going to be about until I've started writing it, so my essays usually begin with an image, or a phrase, or a sliver of a memory. Which means that I'm a very, very slow writer—the first draft is just the story discovering itself, and that process is always at least a little terrifying (but illuminating and rewarding, ultimately). I also need the right music to get into the writing headspace—'dark academia' playlists on YouTube work very well (and Taylor Swift's folklore is even better).
What are your favorite procrastinations ?
South Korean variety shows. Unearned breaks to bake Pillsbury's chocolate chip cookies. And one of the more productive ones is to read books by better writers than myself (ha). Nothing inspires me to write like reading great writing, naturally—right now I'm reading Rebecca Solnit's Recollections of my Nonexistence and hoping that by doing so I can absorb some of her talent. One dreams.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
Anything by Brian Doyle. He's perhaps the first writer who made me feel like the (small, seemingly mundane) subjects I gravitate towards could make for stirring, important nonfiction. His Epiphanies column in The American Scholar is where I go when I need to be reminded of the things that are most essential to me: paying attention, taking my time, letting myself be moved by language. (For the uninitiated, I recommend starting with Joyas Voladoras.)
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
Positioning my mask just so, so it won't fog up my glasses. Managing to somehow kill every houseplant I acquire, no matter how low maintenance. And one I'm quite proud of: learning to make a traditional Eid breakfast without my mother's (in person) supervision.
What is your dream writing space?
My own library with floor to ceiling bookshelves, because I never got over Belle's. With a fireplace, of course, and a hot chocolate-dispenser in some corner. Faint birdsong coming in from the gardens outside the window, and the presence of a muse who refuses to leave my side. Amen.
Azka Anwar is a second-year nonfiction student from Pakistan and an editorial fellow at Guernica and Teachers & Writers Magazine. She lives in Brooklyn with a dead cactus that she refuses to throw away.
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Where I Write: With Wilbert Turner III
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / January 27, 2021Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room to Ben Franklin in a bathtub, from Marcel Proust in bed to Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? Second year MFA student in fiction Wilbert Turner III invites us to pull up a storage tub and go mobile.
Where do you write?
Almost exclusively in my bedroom. Before the Pandemic this meant at a rickety black desk in Flushing, but now I’m back at home in South Philly. I don’t have a desk in my room, so I’ve stacked two bins and placed my laptop atop them. I enjoy the near absolute solitude of it. When I used to write in public or in a family room, someone invariable would start trying to strike up a conversation, and honestly, I can’t deal with the distraction. I should however give honorable mention to the notes app on my phone, where I jot down thoughts and sentences pretty much daily, and nobody ever bothers me while doing it. Probably because they assume I’m texting. Go figure.
Stand, sit or other?
I’m almost always sitting when the actual act of typing or writing is done. But I’ve found that the best way for me to overcome writer’s block is to go for walks (with my trusty notes app in hand!) When I lived in Queens I would head out of my apartment at all times of the night, ostensibly for snack runs but really because my brain works best when I can get my blood flowing. Now with the Pandemic and being in Philly, I’ve restricted myself to masked walks and only during the daytime. And now that it’s cold out, I’ve restricted myself even further to pacing in my room or hopping on my twenty-five year old stationary bike.
What is your writing practice?
It always starts with music. I have eleven playlists on Spotify designed specifically for me to listen to while writing (not to mention over 170 other playlists I’ve created over the years). Some of them are six years old, others are barely six months old. They range from movie soundtrack songs to hip-hop to some of the biggest pop hits of the past few decades. Maybe twenty percent of the songs are instrumentals, but usually I’m listening to a song with words while writing. Each playlist is a bit different and inspires a different set of moods while I’m writing. If I don’t have music, I’m probably not accomplishing much. Once I select my playlist, I usually open my novel-in-progress on Google Docs, and pick up where I last left off. For the most part I’m a chronological writer and reviser, unless I’m struck with writer’s block. Although I’ve often found that writer’s block in one section of the novel is writer’s block in every section, and I either need to go for one of my walks or consult the notes app. Now, I would be remiss not to mention at least a few foibles of my writing practice: I’m an incessant word count checker. I probably check my total word count every forty-five words written or deleted. I don’t really know why, but I suppose the ever shifting number comforts me somehow. I also tend to be heavy on the dialogue and light on the interiority, and while I’ve worked on achieving a sense of balance, I’ll always love a good zinger that can be felt by both the audience and other characters.
What are your favorite procrastinations ?
I’m actually obsessed with YouTube million dollar property tours done by either Architectural Digest or Ryan Serhant. I discovered both YouTube channels about a month before the Pandemic and they’ve truly carried me through it thus far. I could watch and rewatch either for a couple hours everyday (and often do). I’m also a big fan of a few writing podcasts like Between the Covers which is the official Tin House pod, or The Maris Review. Other than that you can probably find me watching Game of Thrones (only seasons 1-6), The Crown (Yes even the seasons without Princess Diana) or surfing the greatest social media app in existence: Twitter.
We live in interesting times, which book/author keeps you sane/grounded?
This was probably the most difficult question to answer. Back at the beginning of the Pandemic, it was undoubtedly Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado which I was actually fortunate enough to have borrowed from our inimitable classmate Kate Tooley. But I’ve since returned that book and had to find other literary worlds. If I had to pick just one author it would probably be James Baldwin and the book would probably be his first novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain. There are other works of Baldwin’s that are more well known by the general public (The Fire Next Time, Giovanni’s Room), but Go Tell It On The Mountain speaks to levels of profound hope and disillusionment that I really feel at the core of my being. Plus I love the ways in which it jumps between POV’s and how its a bildungsroman that gives its characters satisfying endings, even if they’re not happy ones.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdowns of the Pandemic
Well I’ve been learning the piano based on a phone app and some YouTube tutorials, but since I’ve only recently ascended to comfortably playing intermediate songs, I’m actually going to say the best skill I’ve learned is podcasting. Over the past couple of months, a fellow student (Jake Steinberg) and I have started up a pop culture podcast called Viewer Digression. We talk about all sorts of topics, from movies, to TV, to books (And in our upcoming episode I give a very special shoutout to Jane Austen and Pride & Prejudice). I think it’s undoubtedly helped me become a better writer, because I’m constantly analyzing why something works (or why it doesn’t). We’re also running social media accounts for the pod, so I’m learning a few things there as well.
What is your dream writing space?
Like I said I’m a mostly solitary writer so my dreaming writing space would be my own private library. I could have access to all my greatest inspirations, a nice view with a little sunlight, and I’d probably keep a stereo system in there for good measure. I’m not really one for vinyls, but if I’m being honest I’d probably have one of those just for the aesthetic. All that being said, I’d probably settle for a writing space with an actual desk for now.
Wilbert Turner III is a writer from South Philadelphia. You can find him tweeting @wil_to_win, podcasting at Viewer Digression or blogging at Halfheartedwisdoms.com
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Where I Write: with Chloe Colvard
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Current Students, Riggio Honors / December 1, 2020Writing spaces are as varied as the individuals who occupy them. The range of “space” we enter for our writing practice is a wide, wild field from tidy to random, from Maya Angelou in a sparse hotel room, Alexander Chee on a train, Ben Franklin in a bathtub, Marcel Proust in bed, Jane Austen at the kitchen table to you: what does your writing space look like? What role does “place” take with your writing practice? Riggio Honors Writing student and Editor in Chief for 12th Street Literary Journal Chloe Colvard invites us into her kitchen.
Where do you write?
I used to write in busy areas that are full of things to look at. It sounds counterproductive doesn’t it? Surprisingly, it helps me focus to know that I am a part of an atmosphere that has all sorts of different things going on, and that I am simply one of many people working on something. It feels motivating. It can also be very useful for writer’s block. Since the pandemic of course, this is not an option anymore. I have recently had to re-train my brain to focus while sitting at my kitchen island, which is a new world...isn’t everything right now though? I think I’m finally getting into the swing of it.
What is your writing practice?
I write while moving very quickly, and perhaps carelessly. When I first started writing, I went very slowly and carefully. I used to write as if someone was going to read it while basking in a dark corner behind me the whole time or something. I write a lot of nonfiction, and sometimes it does feel that way when you are so close to your own work. Once I came to the realization that a big part of writing is just spitting everything out, I was able to find a method to my madness, and I got spitting. I like to run through a piece, fairly quickly and in one go. Just get it out onto the page. Sometimes that’s the hardest part, but I always end up with more than I was expecting at the end. Then, I will subtract while I edit, and eventually go back in to add more, if need be.
What are your favorite procrastinations / binge shows?
My days in quarantine and levels of procrastination vary on such a sliding scale from day-to-day with ADHD, but I will say that the one constant guilty pleasure that I always go back to are podcasts. Even if I have a full schedule ahead of me, I listen to at least one podcast a day. I enjoy a lot of true crime and political podcasts, but I also treat myself to some more playful ones, such as the Everything Is Alive podcast. That podcast has actually inspired my writing, because it gives voices and personalities to inanimate objects.
What was the book that got you through the Pandemic?
Shut Up You’re Pretty by Téa Mutonji’ is a intertwining story collection that I stumbled upon at The Strand over a year ago. Despite its unusual name, it has been a book that I keep going back to for its disorienting beauty, and the masterful use of the passing of time with each section. I am also in the middle of the essay collection Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit, and it has been another great read so far. If you can’t tell, I like to read in forms that would fall into the essays, collections, and vignettes category.
What is your new skill learned during the Pandemic?
My new skill actually relates back to question one, which is to be able to write and to focus while spending so much time inside, particularly inside the same four walls. Literally, I live in a studio apartment. I also think that coping mechanisms and focusing on self-care are such valuable tools to hone-in on right now, and it’s not a skill in which it’s value ends once the pandemic does.
What is your dream writing space?
I chose a New York rooftop as my dream writing space, because I would love being able to access the fresh air while still feeling like I was within the city. I can totally picture listening to whatever sounds the city creates while writing there. Jazz from a park, sirens, cheers, any of that sounds wonderful.
Living in Brooklyn, Chloe is a third year Creative Writing student at The New School, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of 12th Street, The New School's literary magazine. She spends her time crafting, stalking Facebook Marketplace, and dodging slow walkers on the sidewalk. She is a part-time 4th grade student-teacher, and a full-time cat mom.
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Where I Write: With Kate Tooley
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, MFA / October 27, 2020Where I Write, a series of short interviews with current students, faculty, and alumni of the Creative Writing Program. It is a discussion of place in writing. What our writing spaces look like can be as varied as the physical spaces that exist (or don't!) in New York and beyond, and as varied as the mental and psychic spaces we occupy while we write. We are deeply grateful to Kate Tooley's generosity and bravery for being the first post up and inviting us all into her space.
What is your writing practice?
Improvisational. It definitely fluxuates. I’ve never been a creature of habit. I’m more like a cat that’s sleeping in your sweaters one week and on top of the kitchen cabinets the next.
What is your favorite procrastination or binge watch?
Twitter is a big one for me; I love reading whatever stories pop up on my feed in a given morning, and also threads from people who have really niche interests and expertise. Open world gaming is really relaxing for me too -- I’m super happy exploring a landscape and like, collecting mushrooms. I’m not a huge TV person, but I freely admit that my wife and I have watched the entirety of She-Ra twice since quarantine.
What was the book that got you through the Pandemic?
I've read so many incredible, game changing books this year, but as far as books that have gotten me through up til now... I keep going back to Marie-Helene Bertino’s Parakeet to remind myself what I love about language and writing. On a totally different note, the first two books of Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb Trilogy have helped me laugh a lot and get out of the world for a bit, both of which feel like very big things right now.
What is your new skill learned during the shutdown?
Focusing on one thing at a time and saying no. I’d like to tell you that I’d learned to play, you know, the dulcimer or speak another language or something, but really the biggest win has been not always doing ten percent more than I should realistically take on. Also my Spicy Old Fashioned game has gotten really strong.
What does your dream writing space look like?
I love writing in public places -- I’m aching for a crowded neighborhood coffee shop that’s as much a community meeting place where everyone knows each other as anything else. Lots of plants, warm afternoon light coming in the windows, and all the low buzz of coffee grinders and conversations. Somewhere with strong espresso and good pastries, or pie, pie would be even better. Alternately a half full subway car at an odd time of day: midafternoon or late at night; that weird quiet that hits sometimes and a single bottle rolling from one end of the car to the other; all the intense subway smells and people doing their thing and paying absolutely no attention to me.
Kate Tooley is a second year fiction student living in Brooklyn with her wife, fur-children, and what appears to be a small farm taking over her kitchen. Her writing can be found online in Pidegonholes, Longleaf Review, X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. katetooley.com
If interested in participating in a Where I Write profile, please email slivc631@newschool.edu.
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NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020 FINALISTS
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / October 15, 2020
Today we are excited to announce the titles on the 2020 National Book Awards Finalists including our own Kacen Callendar, Writing For Children and Young Adults MFA 2014. Congratulations Kacen!
For Fiction:
Rumaan Alam, “Leave the World Behind” Ecco / Harper Collins Lydia Millet, "A Children’s Bible" W. W. Norton & Company Deesha Philyaw, "The Secret Life of Church Ladies" West Virginia University Press Douglas Stuart, "Shuggie Bain" Grove Press / Grove Atlantic Charles Yu, "Interior Chinatown" Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
For Nonfiction:
Les Payne and Tamara Payne, "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X" Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company Claudio Saunt, "Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory" W. W. Norton & Company Jenn Shapland, "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" Tin House Books Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, "The Undocumented Americans" One World / Penguin Random House Jerald Walker, "How to Make a Slave and Other Essays" Mad Creek Books / The Ohio State University Press
For Poetry:
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, "A Treatise on Stars"
New Directions
Tommye Blount, "Fantasia for the Man in Blue"
Four Way Books
Don Mee Choi , "DMZ Colony"
Wave Books
Anthony Cody, "Borderland Apocrypha"
Omnidawn Publishing
Natalie Diaz, "Postcolonial Love Poem"
Graywolf PressFor Translated Literature:
Anja Kampmann, "High as the Waters Rise" Translated by Anne Posten Catapult Jonas Hassen Khemiri, "The Family Clause" Translated by Alice Menzies Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers Yu Miri, "Tokyo Ueno Station" Translated by Morgan Giles Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Pilar Quintana, "The Bitch" Translated by Lisa Dillman World Editions Adania Shibli, "Minor Detail" Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette New Directions
Young People's Literature:
Kacen Callender, "King and the Dragonflies" Scholastic Press / Scholastic Inc. Traci Chee, "We Are Not Free" Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Candice Iloh, "Every Body Looking" Dutton Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, "When Stars Are Scattered" Dial Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Gavriel Savit, "The Way Back" Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House
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The 2020 Virtual Brooklyn Book Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary of presenting free literary programming!
Register Here for 2020 Programs
An array of national and international literary stars and emerging authors will participate as part of the Virtual Festival including Lee Child, Salman Rushdie, Mia Couto, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Joyce Carol Oates, Adrian Tomine, Emily St. John Mandel, Claudia Rankine, Marie Lu, Colson Whitehead, plus independent publishers, literary magazines, and literary organizations will be showcased in the Virtual Literary Marketplace.
Look For Events With TNS Creative Writing Alums and Faculty on the Festival Day and During the Week of Bookend Events (all times listed are EST)
Marwa Helal, Nonfiction, 2011: A Reading Series of New York Taster, 9/28/20, 7:30pm Kerri Arsenault, Nonfiction, 2018: Reading and Writing the Environment 10/1/20, 7:30pm Janae Marks, WFCYA, 2010 - Facing Your Fears, 10/3/20, 12pm Kacen Callender, WFCYA, 2014: DTR (Defining the Relationship), 10/3/20, 3pm Stephan Lee, Fiction, 2018: Secrets & Lies, 10/3/20, 4pm Mark Bibbins, Faculty: The Past is Present, 10/4/20, 11am Sigrid Nunez , Faculty: Transcending Grief, 10/4/20, 12pm Marie-Helene Bertino, Faculty: Laughing Through Tears 10/4/20, 12pm Sarah Gerard, Fiction, 2012: Laughing Through Tears, 10/4/20, 12pm
Are you a New School faculty member or alum participating in a BBF event? Please email writingprogram@newschool.edu to have your event listed.
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Five Questions with Virginia Valenzuela
By Nicole Drayton / in TNS Lit Scene / September 28, 2020
Virginia Valenzuela is a poet, essayist, and yogi originally from Manhattan. She holds BA degrees in creative writing, literary studies, and women’s studies, and a minor in film studies. She completed her MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction at The New School. She is a writer at The Warblr, curator of The New School After Hours reading series, and Prose Editor of LIT. Virginia’s poetry has appeared on the Best American Poetry Blog.
1. Who is your favorite villain, and who is your favorite protagonist in literature?
My favorite protagonist in literature is either Jo March from Alcott’s Little Women or Gregor Samsa from Kafka’s Metamorphosis. One is about harnessing the power of the mind over the (gendered) body, one is about the fall of the intellectual human being. Both stories are about the struggle between your duty to your family, and your duty to yourself, the world of the individual who does not fit in, who wants and needs to break free.
My favorite villain is society. The way it shifts, the way it moves, the way it destroys. I love the tension that is created when you know that there is no solution to the problem at hand, the character was doomed from the start, and only a miracle will save them. Either the miracle comes right at the end, or the miracle comes not at all, but the characters who achieve their dreams by the end have been able to overcome the obstacles thrown their way. I like books that remind me that nothing about life is easy, but that there can be a reward for those you persevere with their moral compass intact.
2. When did you know you were a writer?
I was in Kindergarten. We were tasked with writing an original story about farm animals. I wrote mine with ease, and at the end of the period I had written an entire page (not bad for a writer the age of 5). My story had impressed the teachers so much that they read it to the class, put shiny stickers on it, and pinned it to the bulletin board. I remember the feeling I had when I saw how different it looked from the other kids’ work, the feeling I had when my teacher looked at me in surprise and said, “you wrote this?”
After that, I wrote, illustrated, and bound my first book, and have been looking for an agent ever since.
3. What are you currently working on?
I am attempting to write a novel for the first time. It’s about what it’s like to be young in America in the 21st century, to have your entire life ahead of you while simultaneously worrying about the running out of time. It tackles student debt and the employment crisis brought on by the fact that we have had three recessions just in the 21st century, which has impacted millennials more than any other generation. It’s written in the modernist style with stream-of-consciousness.
I am still adding essays to my nonfiction thesis that I finished in 2019, as well as submitting excerpts of my poetry thesis from 2018 to chapbook contests.
4. How has your writing process changed over the years?
I’ve become a lot better at planning the movement of the piece beforehand as well as learning how to give yourself enough distance to be able to look at a piece of writing clearly. The hardest thing I’ve encountered recently is wanting the draft to be perfect from page one, which is, of course, not the point of a first draft at all. I’ve been learning to let go of that search for perfection and to write through the parts of the story that are pulsing through me when I sit down to write, and worrying about connecting them or putting them in order later.
5. Describe your writing style in one sentence.
My style combines philosophy and poetry, dreams and reality, the personal and the political, while finding ways to see humor in tragedy, and hope in despair.
Five Questions, by Nicole L. Drayton. Nicole is a writer, screenwriter and independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts from The New School, and currently works for the university in the MFA in Creative Writing Program office.
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NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2020 LONGLIST
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene, Lit, National Book Foundation Long List / September 21, 2020
Today we are excited to announce the titles on the 2020 National Book Awards Longlist! Finalists to be announced October 6th.
For Fiction:
Rumaan Alam, “Leave the World Behind” Ecco / Harper Collins Christopher Beha, "The Index of Self-Destructive Acts" Tinhouse Books Brit Bennett, "The Vanishing Half" Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Randall Kenan, "If I Had Two Wings" W. W. Norton & Company Megha Majumdar, "A Burning" Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House Lydia Millet, "A Children’s Bible" W. W. Norton & Company Deesha Philyaw, "The Secret Life of Church Ladies" West Virginia University Press Douglas Stuart, "Shuggie Bain" Grove Press / Grove Atlantic Vanessa Veselka, "The Great Offshore Grounds" Alfred A. Knopf / Penguin Random House Charles Yu, "Interior Chinatown" Pantheon Books / Penguin Random House
For Nonfiction:
Michelle Bowdler, "Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation, and a Manifesto" Flatiron Books / Macmillan Publishers Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, "The Undocumented Americans" One World / Penguin Random House Jill Lepore, "If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future" Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company Les Payne and Tamara Payne, "The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X" Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company Claudio Saunt, "Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory" W. W. Norton & Company Jenn Shapland, "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" Tin House Books Jonathan C. Slaght, "Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl" Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers Jerald Walker, "How to Make a Slave and Other Essays" Mad Creek Books / The Ohio State University Press Frank B. Wilderson III, "Afropessimism" Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company Isabel Wilkerson, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" Random House / Penguin Random House
For Poetry:
Rick Barot, "The Galleons" Milkweed Editions Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, "A Treatise on Stars" New Directions Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, "Travesty Generator" Noemi Press Tommye Blount, "Fantasia for the Man in Blue" Four Way Books Victoria Chang, "Obit" Copper Canyon Press Anthony Cody, "Borderland Apocrypha" Omnidawn Publishing Eduardo C. Corral , "Guillotine" Graywolf Press Natalie Diaz, "Postcolonial Love Poem" Graywolf Press Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, "The Age of Phillis" Wesleyan University Press Don Mee Choi , "DMZ Colony" Wave Books
For Translated Literature:
Shokoofeh Azar, "The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree" Europa Editions Rachel Willson-Broyles, "The Helios Disaster" World Editions Jonas Hassen Khemiri, "The Family Clause" Translated by Alice Menzies Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan Publishers Anja Kampmann, "High as the Waters Rise" Translated by Anne Posten Catapult Fernanda Melchor, "Hurricane Season" Translated by Sophie Hughes New Directions Yu Miri, "Tokyo Ueno Station" Translated by Morgan Giles Riverhead Books / Penguin Random House Perumal Murugan, "The Story of a Goat" Translated by N. Kalyan Raman Black Cat / Grove Atlantic Cho Nam-Joo, "Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982" Translated by Jamie Chang Liveright / W. W. Norton & Company Pilar Quintana, "The Bitch" Translated by Lisa Dillman World Editions Adania Shibli, "Minor Detail" Translated by Elisabeth Jaquette New Directions
For Young People's Literature:
Kacen Callender, "King and the Dragonflies" Scholastic Press / Scholastic Inc. Traci Chee, "We Are Not Free" Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Evette Dionne, "Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box" Viking Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Eric Gansworth, "Apple (Skin to the Core)" Levine Querido Candice Iloh, "Every Body Looking" Dutton Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, "When Stars Are Scattered" Dial Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Marcella Pixley, "Trowbridge Road" Candlewick Press John Rocco, "How We Got to the Moon: The People, Technology, and Daring Feats of Science Behind Humanity’s Greatest Adventure" Crown Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Gavriel Savit, "The Way Back" Knopf Books for Young Readers / Penguin Random House Aiden Thomas, "Cemetery Boys" Swoon Reads / Macmillan Publishers
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Five Questions with Alex Vara
By Nicole Drayton / in TNS Lit Scene / September 21, 2020
Alex is a Fiction/Nonfiction dual MFA student at the New School, a WriteOn Teaching Fellow, public speaking teacher, and the host of TNS After Hours. She is currently sheltering-in-place in her Northern California hometown with her parents.
1. Who is your favorite villain, and who is your favorite protagonist in literature?
My favorite villains are all the evil stepmothers, witches, and hags in fairytales. Without them, we wouldn’t have stories.
My favorite protagonist as of late is Harry Potter. Not that I like him so much. He’s super annoying in The Order of the Phoenix. But I like that I can fully see him. The audiobooks read by Jim Dale are my soothing balm. I can’t count how many times I’ve listened to the series. I’m amazed by the new things I hear even now and how JK Rowling created another world I can escape to. I also grew up as the books came out. It might be just nostalgia. One day I will have a goldfish and name him Harry.
2. When did you know you were a writer?
Think the “I’m a writer” moment happened during my first semester of undergrad, or at least, the “I really like this and want to get better at it” moment. I went to Hampshire College and during my first semester took a class called ‘Writing About Sports’ taught by professor and fishing enthusiast Will Ryan. It was a nonfiction writing workshop where we wrote essays about our own experience with sports, any and all sports, fishing included, while reading books like The Best American Sports Writing of the Century and Friday Night Lights. It was the first time in my life I was asked to write about my own life besides my personal essay for my college application. My final paper for the class was on my grandfather. He was an amazing athlete and had passed away the week before I started Hampshire. I was already an avid journaler, not a word but should be, since I was in middle school. But this class made me think that maybe others would want to hear my stories, they didn’t have to only live in my notebooks, that I too could be a storyteller.
3. What are you currently working on?
I write mostly about my family. I don’t think I’ll ever stop but it would be nice to be done one day. I’m a dual fiction/nonfiction student so the project has two forms at the moment: a series of short stories based on my time living in my father’s small Florida Panhandle town and a collection of essays exploring my grandmother who was institutionalized for Hysteria in the early 1960s, a family story of how my Sicilian immigrate great grandfather killed an African American man to be accepted into White Southern Culture, and my own personal obsession with wanting to be a mother.
4. How has your writing process changed over the years?
My time at the New School has made me more rhythmic. I write every day even though most days it’s junk. I need external pressure and encouragement to write. I thrive off deadlines and cheerleaders. New School has given me both. Grateful to my writing buddies and professors.
5. Describe your writing style in one sentence.
Obsessive, a bit angsty with a thread of dark humor, always sifting in search of what I don’t know yet because I haven’t found it.
Five Questions, by Nicole L. Drayton. Nicole is a writer, screenwriter and independent filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts from The New School, and currently works for the university in the MFA in Creative Writing Program office.
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TNS After Hours Tonight! September 18, 7pm ET
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / September 18, 2020
The next TNS After Hours is tonight, Friday, September 18th from 7 - 8:30 pm ET. This month will be co-hosted by the fabulous Jessa Nagamoto (Fiction '21). Hope to see you all in the virtual Red Room!
Elizabeth Bluth (Fiction, 2020)
Chloe Gold (Fiction, 2018)
Sarah Leonhardt (Fiction, 2021)
Gwyn Mackenzie (Fiction, 2021)
Honor Moore (Nonfiction Faculty)
Jenny Ryan (Fiction, 2020)
Grace Shields (Nonfiction, 2022)
Jhon Valdes (Fiction, 2020)
Virginia Valenzuela (Poetry & Nonfiction, 2019)
Virtual doors open at 6:30 Join reading here
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Black Lives Matter
By Creative Writing at The New School / in TNS Lit Scene / June 3, 2020
Image courtesy of https://blacklivesmatter.com/ Dear Creative Writing Community,
I'm writing to check in with you during this heart wrenching time. I really appreciated President McBride's personal and powerful statement about the killing of George Floyd and its aftermath, and I was very glad to finally have someone like him in his position at The New School, writing about systemic and institutionalized racism, acknowledging that anger is an appropriate response to being terrorized.
This next year is not going to be "normal," in any way, but in spite of, or because of everything going on, I feel a kind of urgent hope. In this moment of pain, there's also clarity, with brutal reminders all around us that as bell hooks writes, we live in a "imperialist white supremicist capitalist patriarchy." The old normal hasn't worked. We've all been hurt by this system. We don't need to rush back to the old ways of doing things. We have a chance to write and teach and live in ways that make real change possible. What we do in the coming months can be better--more equitable, more full of love--than what we did before.
My dad recently retired after a very long career as a labor and civil rights lawyer. He's also deeply religious, and so I was kind of shocked when he told me that after all he'd seen, he didn't think that it was possible to change anyone else's mind. "If you want people to change their behavior, get a consent decree," he said, a much more cynical view than I imagined he had. But what he also meant is that the only person you can really change is yourself. We're not lawyers, not most of us anyway, and consent decrees may be out of our reach, but we do know how to work hyper-locally, on the page and in our hearts and heads. This is not to discount the political work that so many of you are engaged with.
I'm glad that we'll be working together over this next year to build an even better program, a stronger community.
Strength and Courage,
Luis Jaramillo
Director, Creative Writing Program