Snow, snow, and more snow means time indoors curled up with your next story. This month’s roundup features links to a local event where you can hear great authors read theirs, information on an upcoming online writing course so you can write yours, and details on in-person writing critique groups in order to revise.
The Stories Behind the Stories is a panel of authors moderated by Kim Suhr (Nothing To Lose) at NO Studios, a new creative hub near downtown Milwaukee. The panel includes authors Jennifer Trethewey (Tying the Scot) and Jessie Garcia (My Life with the Green and Gold), and more.
From the Event Page: “Share an afternoon with some of Milwaukee’s literary illuminati…. Laugh, ask questions, listen to excerpts, and find out more about their different paths to publication.”
When: Sunday, April 14th, 3-6pm. Where: NO Studios, 1037 W. McKinley Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. NO Studios members attend for free; nonmembers pay $10. Proceeds from the event will help provide financial aid for youth of the Creative Writing Camps and for writers of Red Oak Writing. RSVP online.
This 6-week writing-intensive course dives deeper into elements of flash nonfiction, such as voice and details, and specific elements of critique. We move through lessons and prompts quickly, so there’s no time to listen to that pesky inner editor.
You’ve listened to stories, you’ve signed up to write your own stories, you’re looking for a place to polish those stories for submissions. Red Oak Writing has a new batch of Roundtables perfect for gathering feedback from peers.
From Red Oak’s website: “Our experienced leaders are published writers who are also actively pursuing their own writing goals. They are committed to helping you reach your writing dreams — big project or small — fiction, nonfiction, plays or poetry.”
You can participate in-person or online. In person sessions run from March to April and May to June, Online schedule varies. Seats are limited here as well, so sign up soon!
When: Begins March 3rd. Where: In person at 11709 W. Cleveland Avenue, West Allis, Wisconsin or ONLINE. Sign up for two in-person sessions at once for a discounted fee!
“Poetry has gotten them into this and poetry will have to get them out.” ~ from “Right Place, Right Time” in Nothing To Lose
In the heart of Wisconsin right now, we are covered in white. Winter continues to show up with force, shutting down the city and leaving us staring at a monochrome image broken up only by a line of trees or the red tail lights of slow-moving traffic.
You might think, The midwest–all that cold and snow! How does anyone survive? But there’s more to living in Wisconsin.
There are the people and the places and the poetry of stories. Read anything by Michael Perry: Population 485 or Visiting Tom, both great books of nonfiction about captivating characters in real life.
Or, pick up Kim Suhr’s new collection of short stories, Nothing To Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018), which features an eclectic mix of fictional characters who hail from all over the state.
Sure, these may not be people you’d meet in the street, but as Albert Camus says, “Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.” So be prepared to wonder.
Suhr’s stories will ring familiar with things you know about the midwest, but they will also surprise you, keep you turning the page, and leave you considering if the bits and pieces of strange don’t ring true in one way or another.
I’m honored to host Kim Suhr and thrilled to offer a book giveaway. Click HERE to enter by Tuesday, February 19th, noon for a chance to win a copy of her new collection. Now welcome Kim Suhr!
Christi Craig (CC): In your book, you introduce us to so many different characters: a teacher turned poet looking for love, a mother desperate to save her drug-addicted son, two friends set on starting up a “Paintball for Jesus” business, and more. Where do your ideas for such diverse characters come from?
Kim Suhr (KS): Honestly, I wish I knew. On a global level, they all come from my desire to understand people who are different from me, what makes them tick, what they wish for and regret.
Some stories started with an image: A man standing in a doorway wearing night vision goggles; cross-dressing deer hunters (don’t ask); a video camera in a kid’s face. One started with an overheard conversation: “My friend decided to follow the advice on every Dove wrapper.” “Dry Spell,” about a paintball range for Jesus, came from a real advertisement I happened across. What could be the story behind that? I asked myself, and I was on my way…
CC: Your book is also filled with a wonderful mix of very different stories that constantly surprise the reader. I’m thinking in particular of the story “Brush Strokes,” which begins with the simple image of an artist painting on a canvas. Mid-way, the story—the artist—takes a dangerous turn, and there’s no way a reader will close the cover before reaching the end. As the writer, were you clear as to where each story was headed?
KS: That’s a great question and one that gives me pause. I think, subconsciously, I know what direction I want each story to take, but it isn’t until I’m in the thick of writing it that I realize where it needs to go. Everything is in service to the story. I may personally want a character to undergo a life-changing epiphany and live happily ever after—and I keep trying to write stories where that works—but often the stronger story demands something different: remaining in homeostasis, a change in vision, harsh consequences. Even my “happy” endings have room for ambiguity. Some of my darker stories, I think, have moments of humor and hope. That’s what I love about the short story form.
CC: Your book is published by Cornerstone Press, which is an independent publisher and teaching press housed at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. How was your experience working with up and coming editors, artists, and publishers?
KS: It was a true joy. You really can’t beat having a staff of over 20 people dedicated solely to your one book. The staff’s enthusiasm for the project was infectious, and they jumped into becoming “experts” very quickly—learning what they needed to know to fulfill their various roles and applying it punctually and professionally. They were as invested as I was in making this the best possible book it could be. Of course, none of this happens without the leadership of a skilled, dedicated person at the top, and that’s exactly what I found with the Publisher-in-Chief, Dr. Ross Tangedal. I would highly recommend Cornerstone Press.
CC: What are you reading these days?
KS: I just started A Gentleman in Moscow for my book club. Just finished The Stupendous Adventures of Mighty Marty Hayes (a fun novel for young readers by Milwaukee author, Lora Hyler) and a wonderful collection of short stories by Susanne Davis, The Appointed Hour, who also happened to publish with Cornerstone Press. Next on the list, The Gift of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate, by Milwaukee authors, Arno Michaelis and Pardeep Singh Kaleka.
CC: Favorite notebook for writing new stories: spiral? hardbound? Moleskin?….
KS: The good old Composition notebooks, college-ruled with a nice, glidey pen.Thank you so much for reading, Christi, and for your wonderful questions. It’s an honor to be among the many wonderful writers featured at your website!
Kim Suhr is author of the Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press, 2018), Maybe I’ll Learn: Snapshots of a Novice Mom (2012) and co-author of the as-told-to memoir, Ramon: An Immigrant’s Journey. She holds an MFA in fiction from the Solstice Program at Pine Manor College where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow in 2013. Her writing has appeared in various publications. Kim is Director of Red Oak Writing where she leads Writers’ Roundtable critique groups, provides manuscript critiques and coaching, and leads the summer Creative Writing Camps for youth. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys gardening, time outdoors with her family and being a fan-girl for her almost grown children in their various pursuits.
Don’t forget! Enter the giveaway by Tuesday, February 19th–noon sharp, for a chance to win a copy of Nothing To Lose.
This month I’ve rounded up links to books and an article for your reading pleasure, whether you’re looking to write more or simply settle in with a good story.
The Books
A while back, I interviewed Julia Stoops about her debut novel, Parts Per Million (Forest Avenue Press). At the same time, I wrote a review of her book. As in all things writing, publication can move slowly, whether you’re crafting your first novel, searching for a home for an essay, or submitting reviews.
I’m grateful to the editors at Necessary Fiction for posting my review of Stoops’ book, in part because it’s nice to get your work out there but also because, while this book was published back in April 2018, the story remains relevant today.
Browse over to Omnimundi.org for more on the book’s artwork and artist Gabriel Liston.
“…every novel carries significance for readers in either speaking to our past understanding or forcing us to consider our current state of mind.”
A more recent discovery in books is Beth Kephart‘s new work, Strike the Empty: Notes for Readers, Writers, and Teachers of Memoir. I’m barely into this one, but already I can tell I’ll be marking it up, tabbing pages, and referring back to it time and again. Kephart writes on the importance of story, on “refuge in true stories,” shares essays by authors of your favorite memoirs and calls to action for those of us doing our best to bring our own true stories to light.
“Establish agency, generate urgency, prize vulnerability, remain raw. Know the question. Don’t force the answer. . . . strike the empty–that meaningless phrase, that excessive detail, that tired trope, that obvious epiphany, that unmurdered little darling.“
Speaking of writing memoir and writing tight, I also re-read an essay by Barbara Hurd that I never tire of, “The Mind in Winter.”
“I keep my hat pulled low and my imagination on alert for what I’ll likely never hear again nor ever forget: mewing in mid-winter, deep in the den before there was any sign of life on the surface, any hint of thaw or—back on topic now—any start of a next sentence or line of a poem. What would it take, in other words, to dwell for a while in winter’s stillness and trust that down there, below the sometimes blank surfaces of our stymied minds, an idea or story could be stirring?”
Feeling stuck in any way? Go to Hurd’s essay, bookmark it. Winter, she says, can be “refuge, snow as insulation, silence as opportunity.”
