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Remington Roundup:
First Drafts, a Book Festival, & Forest Avenue Press

1960's photo of woman at Remington typewriterI’m fresh off of teaching my online course, Flash Nonfiction I, and spending four weeks with an awesome group of women writers, so this week I’m recalibrating, recalculating, & settling back into story ideas and studio time. And, I’ve curated a fresh collection of links for this month’s Remington Roundup on first drafts, your next book festival, and Forest Avenue Press.

First Drafts

It feels like ages since I’ve written anything entirely new and of worth. Even after leading a group of writers through writing prompts and first-draft exercises, the pull at the back of my throat when I consider the blank page brings pause as my pen hovers over my notebook.

So I am especially grateful to folks like Allison K. Williams, Brevity’s Social Media Editor who posts often on Brevity’s blog. I love every word she’s written lately, all of them wise: on getting down to the work, on celebrating tiny successes, and yesterday’s post on first drafts.

As a writer, no-one wants to let our weak sentences out into the world before we’ve muscled them up and trimmed them down. But there’s value in a a sloppy, disorganized, poorly written first draft. It’s not a failure, it’s a necessary first step. It’s barre exercises before ballet, scales before singing, charcoal on newsprint before oil on canvas.

I’ve never taken ballet and I’m not much of a singer (though I do like to torture my kids with a little operatic tune once in a while), but man do I know the sloppy, disorganized first draft. The key to remember is that these early pages are always perfect in their own right.

A Book Festival

For all you writers and readers and general literary world lovers, you will want to check out the UntitledTown Book and Author Festival in Green Bay happening April 19-22, 2018.

Sign up for their newsletter, because (while they haven’t posted the full schedule yet) you’re guaranteed a whole weekend of *free* gatherings and activities.

Last year they hosted Margaret Atwood and Sherman Alexie (left, with me!) for their big Saturday night event. I bought my VIP ticket as soon as I could–okay, the big event isn’t free but it’s well worth your money–and sat just two rows back from literary greatness. I can’t wait to see who they bring to Green Bay this year!

Plus, among the long list of anticipated workshops and readings, I’ll be teaching one on Flash Nonfiction: The Art of the Short Essay and participating on a panel about The worst writing advice I ever got. I’ve marked my calendar and booked my hotel. If you go, shoot me an email. I’d love to see you!

Forest Avenue Press

Today in particular is a big day if you’re a novel writer with a manuscript at-the-ready. Forest Avenue Press opens up for submissions from now until March 14th. They’re on the lookout for novels that “subvert the dominant paradigm.”

We are intrigued by genre mashups, especially those with magical elements; our fall 2018 title, The Alehouse at the End of the World by Stevan Allred is a comic epic set on the Isle of the Dead in the fifteenth century. That being said, it’s quite possible that we might fall in love with a contemporary, non-magical novel.

If you’re a long-time reader here, you will recognize some of the books Forest Avenue Press lists in their publications: Liz Prato’s edited anthology of short stories The Night, and the Rain, and the River, Ellen Urbani’s Landfall, Michael Shou-Yung Shum’s Queen of Spades. Their catalog continues to grow with stories that dig deep and impress, and I’m honored to participate on the committee of readers for them again this time around.

So click here, read more, and Submit!

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Why I Write: Then and Now

Why is she driven to tell the tale? Usually it’s to go back and recover some lost aspect of the past so it can be integrated into current identity. ~ Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir

THEN

In the late hours of the night while my husband, my son, and my daughter all sleep, I sit illuminated by the glow of a computer screen and type away, pour words into a document that marks my first real attempt at story: a novel about a young woman who is grieving the loss of her mother, searching for her in the waters of Lake Michigan, in the faces of strangers.

It is all fiction, of course, but not really. This book, complete in its first draft but tucked away in a file, is not for publication but is a work of confession by a young woman who suffered the loss of her mother too soon and who needed those late-night hours to process her place in relation to a son and a daughter.

NOW

In between work hours and dinner and the folding of clothes, after tucking my daughter and my son into bed—though both kids, one a teenager and the other almost, are beyond tucking-in…let’s call it herding them into bed—after all that, I write. In journals. On screen. In countless spiral notebooks.

I write.
To-do lists.
Essays in draft.
Outlines of story.

Moments of angst.
Visions of truth.
Conversations I do not want to forget.

I write, and every word I record reveals something about me in relation to you and the way we view the world.

The loons at midnight (how I feel most days).
If we could only page ahead in life (during those times I wish I was prophetic).
Where opposites attract (about the horseshoe counter at our local diner)

Each kernel of knowledge another piece to the puzzle of me.

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Q&A with Yvonne Stephens, author of The Salt Before It Shakes

This winter, I will haul out summer / from the chest freezer / tart cherries to suck on, to make pie. // You and I are omnivorous– / even bitter fruit, somehow, / sustains us.”
~ from “Give Me a Bushel of Tomatoes” in The Salt Before It Shakes

I fell in love with the poetry of Yvonne Stephens at first glance. I was skimming through submissions for Family Stories from the Attic, and her piece, “Syl,” stopped me short. A found poem, she turned lines in a letter from a Grandfather she did not know into a piece that stays with you. Her writing is intimate, it’s pure and sweet, heartbreaking and hopeful, all at once.

Her new chapbook, The Salt Before It Shakes, offers the same level of intimacy and strength and more. Poems like “As a Dignity” and “To Build a Sauna” (and “Give Me a Bushel of Tomatoes” quoted above)  center the reader, giving pause in the mix of uproar or discord or simple worry to show what matters in the moment. Other poems take a light-hearted look at coyotes and porcupines and even mops to build on the idea that poetry is for reflection both in earnest and in fun.

Rita Dove says “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” The poems in these pages are true to the form; they are good for the soul.

I’m honored to host Yvonne today to talk about her new chapbook, released by Hidden Timber Books last month. After the Q&A, CLICK HERE to enter the book giveaway for a chance to win a copy of The Salt Before It Shakes (courtesy of Hidden Timber Books).

Now, welcome Yvonne!

Christi Craig (CC): The Salt Before It Shakes is a lovely collection of poems, several of which couple the human experience with nature–from the outside looking in or the inside looking out. I’m thinking of “Tomato Hornworm, a Study” and “Imminent Rain” as two examples, the first a poem of relationships in a way; the second, one of mood. Nature and sense of self. I love this pairing. But which serves to inspire the poetry in you first, the introspection or the walk in the woods? 

Yvonne Stephens (YS): Mostly the walk in the woods first, which is a great exercise for getting me out of my head and being present. I think being clear headed and in the moment is an ideal, even idealized way to be ready to write a poem. But, my life is generally chaotic, so I’ve been learning how to write, and write well, in chaos, too. On my walks I am collecting images, fragments of lines that come to mind, or just getting my blood pumping (because I can be so sedentary).

My poems tend to be written late at night, when my family is asleep. If I’m working on something and I’m stuck, I’ll take a walk in the woods to mull it over.

“Tomato Hornworm”originated from a writing prompt, from an online poetry course that I took in 2013 with Holly Wren Spaulding–and also very much my backyard garden. “Imminent Rain” originated in an approaching storm.

CC: I have so many favorites in this collection, one being “Eleven Mops”…the language, the images, the play in lines like this, “As I work a mop around my feet, there it is: a microphone, the urge to sing.” I know this is a formal Q&A, but :D! Tell us a little more about those moments “Eleven Mops” came into form.

YS: “Eleven Mops” was written from an assignment from a class I took in 2009 (again, Holly Wren Spaulding), to emulate “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. I remember choosing to focus on mops. It was September, and I had just left from helping a friend do some cleaning. A mop is so simple, and just silly. Could I think about it in a multitude of ways? Why, yes! So it started from a place of play, of wanting to have fun. I especially like the last line because it incorporates a blackbird, a final connection to Stevens’ original poem.

CC: Speaking of play, last year you did #100daysofplay and #31daysofsnailmail projects.What did you love most about these projects, and what might be on the docket for 2018?

YS: What I loved most about these projects was the permission to prioritize things I love to do, and the accountability of posting about it in order to keep at it.

Play is essential to a thriving imagination, and letter writing is a way to slow down, reflect, connect with people I care about–all of these things enrich a life. They were so good for me. I was inspired to start this project by my friend, Jeannie Voller, who had done 100 days of dance, and invited others to do their own projects.

With “The Salt Before It Shakes” in print, I’m taking my first-ever book tour. I’m also working on a second book, with the working title, “These Hands Can” due out mid-2019 through Hidden Timber Books.

I enjoy collage work, sewing, and spotlighting the work of others. I might make these into projects I track on my blog in 2018–but no specific plans. Thanks for asking! You may have just started something.

CC: Which poets/books of poetry do you keep close at hand?

YS: Suzanne Buffam, Diane Seuss, Jane Kenyon, Fleda Brown. “Contemporary Greek Women Poets” translated by Eleni Fourtouni, Thelphini Press (1978).

~

Yvonne Stephens lives with her husband and two children in Northwest Lower Michigan. She has worked as an assistant in the fields of mycology, forestry, and neurology research, volunteered for two year in the AmeriCorps, and most recently was an Artist Residency Coordinator for the Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology. An award-winning poet, Yvonne was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2015, and her poems have appeared in the Dunes Review, the LAND Creative Writing Journal, and Family Stories from the Attic. Visit her blog at poetwith40eyes.com.

Don’t forget! Enter the book giveaway for a chance to win a copy
of The Salt Before It Shakes.