March 2022 Reads

February went quick and March went quicker, although cold temps and snow flurries kept this March lion from turning lamb. Just before the calendar turns and you children and co-workers unleash April fool's jokes on you, (please not anther variant), here's the March 2022 reads.

Books

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

I bought this book for my intermediate creative writing class in January of 1995 when I was an undergraduate at DePaul. I know this because I still use the receipt as bookmark. Our teacher, Anne Calcagno made this book part of our class, and since there were maybe fifteen people in the class, the bookstore didn’t get it in time and yadda yadda yadda I’m boring you in the first paragraph of the post which doesn’t bode well. Back to the book! 

Bird by Bird is a book about writing and, frankly, it is one of the best. The title comes from a story Lamott tells about her brother, who put off his school project about birds until the last moment and was overwhelmed by the task ahead. Her father’s sage advice: “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.” Simply put, do it a step at a time. Chapter 3, “Shitty First Drafts,” is my favorite advice.  All good writers write them. This chapter I have read a least a half dozen times, especially if I am agonizing over something I am writing (I have become terrible at finishing my own shitty first drafts). The book is a great read for anyone interested in writing, and I won’t wait more than twenty-five years to read it again. For you Ted Lasso fans, Coach Lasso snuck in a “Bird by Bird” reference in the second episode of season 1 after Richmond lost their first game with him as a coach:

              Coach Beard: I hate losing.

              Ted Lasso: Bird by Bird, coach.

Also, for the next two plus years at DePaul, Ryan Maconochie and I would frequently sing song “Bird. By bird,” to each other whenever we were writing. I don’t think anyone outside of our creative writing class understood where that came from.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

I should have read this book already. Chicago writer, acclaimed book, the stories set in Chicago, like one of my favorite writers, Stuart Dybek. I really have no excuse for waiting this long to read this book. Fortunately, my oldest was assigned this as part of his freshman lit class, so once he was done with it, I stole it from him and read it (and got to read his highlights and comments, too). Cisneros wrote some fantastic and very short stories about growing up in a Chicago that most people didn’t see at a time when there were not many places for such short works.

Deadheading & Other Stories by Beth Gilstrap

“A dress with pockets is a reason to celebrate on its own.”

My wife has always complained about dresses not having pockets, or women’s pants not having
pockets and that’s why I picked up on that line from the title story of this collection. There isn’t much else to celebrate in that story, but it is one of many powerful stories in this book full of fantastically crafted stories about complicated, world-weary women working through life, love, death, bad decisions, bad husbands, bad boyfriends, bad girlfriends, absent parents set in the modern south. Gilstrap is a fantastic writer (I feel remiss at omitting mention of her piece titled “A Monstrous Silence from the Jan/Feb issue of Poets & Writers I read in January), and I can't wait to read more from her. Seriously, you should go buy this book and start reading it right now.

For the Kids

A Boy Called Bat by Elena K. Arnold, Illustrated by Charles Santoso

My youngest boy’s school chose A Boy Called Bat as the One Book One School selection this year. Every student received a copy of the book and each night, the students listened to one of the school’s teachers reading a chapter. Ben and I read a couple chapters together, but he looked forward to seeing and hearing his favorite teachers read as well.  The story revolved around a boy called Bat who is autistic, who ends up helping his mother, a veterinarian, care for a baby skunk. Bat (his nickname) and his sister also navigate living in the separate homes of their divorced parents, and as the story progresses, Bat becomes friends with another boy in glass who is also interested in the baby skunk.

 

A Very Large Expanse of the Sea by Tahereh Mafi

My daughter just finished this YA book, centered on Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl, who, shortly after September 11, 2001, moves to a new school and fights against stereotypes, rude stares, and degrading comments from both students and teachers. She meets a boy, Ocean, her biology partner, who wants to get to know her for her, not just the stereotypes so many others see.  Abby rated this 4.5 stars out of 5 and it is now on my want to read list.

 

 

 I'm looking forward to April, when, hopefully, I have read several of the too many books I bought at AWP this year. Really, though, is there such thing as too many books?

 

Overhead at #AWP22 in Philadelphia

 It has been three years since I was able to immerse myself in all the gooey goodness, wonderful people, and stacks and stacks of new books that is the AWP conference. It was great to be back among my people, taking in panels, walking the bookfair, meeting up with old friends, making some new ones. I always love the conversations that happen. Here’s a sampling of some things overheard at AWP22.

 

“Do you have a book?”

“If I don’t have anything to say, I won’t sit down and write."

“Sometimes we can’t see our work.”

“How did Covid affect your writing?”

“Today is National Cheesesteak Day (March 24^th).”

“Is that Matt Bell?” (For the record, the first Matt Bell reference was dropped at 9pm on Tuesday night, which I think is a new record).

“Other people are cheating on their spouses. I’m cheating on my novel.”

“I’m fucking funny.”

“The time for my body to get acclimated to brown liquor has come and gone. I tried, but it is not happening.”

"City hall."

“I’m California sober.”

“Wait, you don’t have a tattoo?”

"I know how to be a periphery person."

“Agatha Christie did it. Why can't I do it?"

“Who’s story is it?”

“That’s what my therapist tells me.”

“I’m trying to get an A in therapy.”

"Are you?"

"I think so but my therapist doesn't"

“I’m gonna go outside and shotgun a beer. You wanna come?”

“Those cookies are awesome.”

“Have you been to the Barrelhouse table? You can spin for prizes.”

"Hey look, Matt Bell?

"Barbara Jeeps!"

 “Is that how you spell ‘approximately?’”

“Did you get today’s wordle? What about worldle? What about lewdle? Hiney? That’s not lewd!”

Writer standing in front of microphone:

“Can you hear me?”

Crowd:

“No.”

Writer moves infinitesimally closer to the microphone:

“How about now?"

Seriously, though, next year at AWP I'm doing a session on how to perform at a reading, which starts with proper microphone usage.

 

The Ben Tanzer

The Marriott Hotel Bar Manager at 3:45pm on Friday:

“I think we underestimated how busy we are going to be tonight.”

“I’ve been self-medicating the last two years.” 

“Where’s Tanzer?”

“Yellow is life.”

“Comics: were not just for kids anymore.”

“What’s your twitter handle.”

“(Insert famous writer) once said (insert general quote about writing).”

 

“You know Rebecca Makkai?”

"She won’t remember me but I’ll introduce you. I’m okay being embarrassed.”

“Please, yes, yes, yes.”

 

“Would you rather get $5 every morning in your pocket or twenty four hours with any person in history?”

“Have we met before?”

“I’m sorry about the weather.”

“I’m sorry I’m taking you through this part of the city.”

“I’m sorry about the rain.”

“Not everything is lost.”

Looking forward to #AWP23 in Seattle.