News Flash…

The semester comes to a close…

The semester has finally ended and now for tearful goodbyes

I had a lot of fun this semester with writing for Paperclips and researching new and exciting writers.  Another big plus was meeting with Tracy K. Smith, Joshua Beckman and Karen Russell at the Visiting Writers Series.  That was a  great and memorable opportunity.

I can’t wait for next year’s visiting writers (especially Sloane! so hopefully she’ll make it!), they are going to be even better.

Thanks to all the viewers! I really enjoyed keeping a literary blog, so look forward to more posts!!

On that note, I’ll end this entry with a little Joshua Beckman:

I wanted to stop writing

and the poem said

it’s a beautiful blue night

stop writing.

My attempt to a poet’s genius…

For class, we had to submit a creative exercise, six pages of poetry in response to the poets we read in class.  My favorite poets of the semester had to be Tracy K. Smith and Joshua Beckman, so in attempt to mirror their genius, here are some of my poems:

Repent

He came in at night

And left in the morning.

The sound of his truck

Was my alarm clock.

I grew up in his absence.

Sundays was our holy day

He would break the bread

That tasted like sacrifice.

I am 10.

My Father is old.

His years fly in weeks of work.

He comes in during the day

And leaves in the morning.

His booming voice

Is my wake-up call.

I’m growing up in his presence.

Every day is our holy day

He drinks the wine

That tastes like forgiveness.

I am 20.

My Father is young.

His years are lived by forgiveness.

Ink

My thoughts trickle down my neck

Warps around my arm

And cinches my wrist.

It spreads to my fingers

And spills onto paper.

It hops and gurgles

Blacking out the white

It settles, leaving a permanent place of smell.

Irreversible, only to the eyes

Once it stains, the author is dead.

They hop into your eyes that comb through them

Slithering its way through the crevices of your mind,

Triggering your own thoughts and parallels.

It strikes a note

It lights inside.

You are jolted by my beliefs

Linked to the hand

With my words.

My thoughts provoke yours

I win.

It’s okay to surrender,

I’m your weakness.

————————————————-

Beckman Influence:

Please don’t write another

love song.

Make one.

[The trees line the grass. The trees are dying…]

The trees line the grass. The trees are dying.

Baby dandelions. Crab grass crawls.

Wooden sticks. Spot the grass. Weeds wrap their vines.

The trees and the dandelions spot the grass. Crawling and

wrapping their way around the house. Decaying weeds and trees.

No water. The house stands alone. No dandelions, just weeds.

Wooden sticks form a house. Decaying nature with no water.

No one is home.

NEW WRITERS PICKED!!!

ATTENTION:
The new writers for next fall have been chosen!! And I’m pretty excited because the one writer that I presented was picked!!!

YES!

SO who is number 1?

BEN LERNER: Poet (who has already agreed to come to TCNJ!)

There was a tie for 1st, with Cate Marvin (who has also agreed to come to TCNJ!)

Number 3?

SLOANE CROSLEY!!!! Author of : “I Was Told There’d Be Cake”

Number 4

Claudia Rankine

I really hope the writers come, and if Sloane comes… I will definitely be there!!!

I presented Sloane and she is by far my favorite writer VISIT HER SITE: http://sloanecrosley.com/

Karen Russell Visits…

On Thursday, Karen Russell made an appearance on TCNJ’s campus, reading from her collection of short stories: St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. 

She was a fascinating reader, complete with different sound effects.  Her reading was funny and really entertaining.   It was really funny because there is a character in the story called Sister Josephine so it was kind of funny hearing my name! Random fact I know….

Well that was the last visiting writer of the year, and I feel like our class did a great job this year.  So thanks to everyone who came to the readings and also to the PR group who really pulled through this semester!!!

On a sad note, the new writers who our class voted for are coming next fall, but I’m graduating so I won’t be around….BUT I will be making an appearance….

Enjoy the holidays with a great book

TWILIGHT

There has been SO much rage about TWILIGHT, and I just couldn’t understand what was so great about these books.

That was until I started reading TWILIGHT. And let me tell you….WOW.

Just the way Meyer describes Edward and Bella and their relationship is just breathtaking. I myself feel as if I’m going to pull a Bella and pass out! Her writing isn’t difficult to read, but its the way she writes that is just mesmerizing. She truly captures the emotions of all the characters and I how she writes out Bella’s thoughts.

I would have never started this series if it wasn’t for my MOM (she loved the books!)and all my amazing Friends… you know who you are Here is the official trailer.

Happy Twilight!!

HAPPY DECEMBER 1ST!

The countdown to the holidays can finally start…and so can the WISH LISTS.

In light of the impending holidays, I wish to share with you what I plan to read over winter break.

I will finally have time to read ALL the books that I have been waiting to read:

1. TWILIGHT SERIES: yes I am a nerd.

2. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith: I bought the book over the summer…but I never got to read it. Its a classic.

3. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (translated by Natasha Wimmer): I first saw this book when I visited Farrar, Straus and Giroux during WC’s trip to NYC.  It looked really interesting and I’m dieing to see what its about.

4. The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling: Like a true Harry Potter fan, I HAVE to read this.

TWILIGHT

There has been SO much rage about TWILIGHT, and I just couldn’t understand what was so great about these books.

That was until I started reading TWILIGHT. And let me tell you….WOW.

Just the way Meyer describes Edward and Bella and their relationship is just breathtaking. I myself feel as if I’m going to pull a Bella and pass out! Her writing isn’t difficult to read, but its the way she writes that is just mesmerizing. She truly captures the emotions of all the characters and I how she writes out Bella’s thoughts.

I would have never started this series if it wasn’t for my MOM (she loved the books!) and all my amazing Friends… you know who you are

Here is the official trailer.

Happy Twilight!!

Round Three of Presentations

UPDATE on the Author Presentations:

My two authors were picked!!

• Thomas Heise
• Sloane Crosley

Our final picks will be chosen at the end of the semester! Keep checking back!

Sloane Crosley

Our last round of author presentations/voting is today, and I have picked my last author:

Check out her site: http://sloanecrosley.com/

Sloane Crosley 

Sloane Crosley’s essays have appeared in various publications including:

· Playboy

· Salon

· New York Times

· Village Voice

She is a frequent Village Voice contributor. She also wrote the cover story for the worst-selling issue of Maxim in that magazine’s history. She lives in New York City.

Her collection of essays, “I was told there’d be cake “was published by Riverhead books and released on April 1, 2008. It was a New York Times Best Seller, and since then, HBO has bought the rights to “I was told there’d be cake”

Reviews:

“Sloane Crosley channels David Sedaris—and Carrie Bradshaw—in a slightly cracked and often charming collection of essays recounting a suburban girl’s adventures in the big city.”
—Vogue

“This debut essay collection is full of sardonic wit and charm, and Crosley effortlessly transforms what could have been stereotypical tales of mid-20s life into a breezy series of vignettes with uproariously unpredictable outcomes….Fans of Sarah Vowell’s razor-sharp tongue will love this original new voice.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Excerpt from The Pony Problem:

This is the part I dread. This is the part where my mother would open the drawer beneath my sink only to discover by stash of plastic toy ponies. There are about seven of them in there. Correction: one’s a Pegasus, blue with ice skates. The rest vary in size, texture, and realism. Some are covered in brown felt, some have rhinestone eyes. Some come with their own grooming brushes; others with the price sticker still on their haunches. If they arrived in plastic and cardboard packaging, they remain unopened as if they will appreciate like Star Wars figurines. Perhaps they are not the dirtiest of dirty secrets, but they’re about as high as one can get on the oddity scale without a ringer like toenail clippings.