A Writer without Her Community
Let’s suppose that you are one of those writers who falls outside of the literary loop. One of those writers who works outside of a university, in a full-time, Monday through Friday 8:30 to 5:00 PM job, and you no longer live anywhere near where you got your MFA. But you’re not done with writing. You tap away long after the rest of the family is asleep, or long before the rest of the family is awake, or you send them all on errands so you can get some alone time with your laptop. But you miss workshops, you miss going to readings and talking poetry, you miss the late-night disagreements over coffee or beer about who was the better writer: Hemingway or Welty.
Sure, if you were one of these people with boundless energy,
you could create a writing group, either online or in person, exchanging work
monthly. Which I absolutely recommend, but if you are that kind of motivated
person, you probably also wash your clothes before you completely run out of
socks. Good for you. You do exist. For the rest of us, we need to find ways to
maintain at least a tenuous connection with the literary world.
Facebook it.
The omnipresent Facebook. There are many
writing groups, MFA alumni groups, and pages for journals, writers, and
publishers. You can see what everyone else is publishing on a regular basis,
and offer encouragement by liking, heart-ing, and sharing. An easier way to create a more manageable, virtual writing group.
There’s an App for That
There are great writing and poetry apps out
there. Two of my favorites (both free) are Poetry Daily and Poetry (as in The Poetry
Foundation and Poetry Magazine). Poetry Daily, with its new poem every day,
keeps me in the habit of reading at least one new poem a day, and since it
always includes where the poem first appeared, I also find out about journals
and recently published books.
Poetry has a great archive of poems, so if I want
to read a favorite again, most likely it will be in the archives. It also has a
fun feature where you can “spin” to match two themes, and then the app produces
a list of poems which include these two themes, like “Humor & Youth” and
you’ll get hilarious poems such as, “Dear Amy Nehzooukammyatootill,” a
hilarious compilation of quotes from student letters to Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Podcasts & Lectures
Since we are allowed to work with
headphones in, I will often listen to lectures or podcasts about writing.
i-Tunes U (another app) includes offerings such as Open Yale courses. One of my
favorites is Dr. Amy Hungerford’s American Novel Since 1945. Lectures from
the course fulfill my aching appetite for a higher, analytical literary
discussion. Of the podcasts, one of my favorites is Poetry off the Shelf, also from The Poetry Foundation. Hosted by producer Curtis Fox, the episodes
include readings, discussions with poets and critics, and a constant awareness
of the politics of poetry.
Subscribe
Subscribing to literary journals and
magazines should be a requirement for every writer. Not only is this another
way to find the new writers and writings first, money is the greatest show of
appreciation in the United States, so we should show our appreciation of the
written word by paying for it. Journals are steadily moving to an online presence,
where there is less overhead and the ability to feature more work. The new
format is financially prudent and convenient, but if we want to keep the
printed journals around, we are going to have to pay for them. If you don’t
know where to start, hit your local library or bookstore—Barnes & Noble has
a literature section in their periodicals. Choose one to start with and order
the hard copy.
Cultivate the Conversation
She Can Get by with a Little Help from Her Friends
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