08-07-09: Squaw Valley Community of Writers Conference Panel : Narrative Voice
Dorothy Allison, Alan Cheuse, Rhoda Huffy, Jane Vandenburgh, Gerald Haslam
[Al Young arrived after the photo was taken.]
I was waiting for someone to utter, but never heard, my first thought upon seeing this as a subject for a panel. Fortunately, I've already done this bit of research, and that makes it easy for me to look up. I only have to look in my own archives.
Talk about nebulous but essential — when it comes to writing anything, the narrative voice is your first and last stop, yet everything in-between is impossible to pin down. Is it word choice? Is it grammar, point-of-view, flow, or perhaps, style? But we're already defining the nebulous with the unclear, and as far as getting closer to what "narrative voice" is, well, we're playing the Strunk & White edition of Whack-A-Mole. And here's where the above mentioned research pays off, because I already know it was Associate Justice Potter Stewart of the great Earl Warren Supreme Court, who penned the following: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it..."
We all know narrative voice when we see it, or rather shortly after we "see" it and actually read it. It's an essential part of writing that we enjoy reading. It's when you get the feel that someone is talking to you, not writing at you. There's an intimacy, to my mind, created by narrative voice between the writer and the reader. It's when the relationship becomes personal.
It's also got to be a part of any writing workshop, and generally, it's not going to be an easy session. Because writers who have narrative voice, often seem to have it for the same reason they have brown eyes or blonde hair. It's genetically programmed. Or can it be taught? It's not like they have classes, even in beauty school, about "Being Blonde." So a panel discussion of Narrative Voice might seem to be like a movie about an invisible protagonist — doomed to failure. But as Harvey (and The Invisible Man) teach us, this is not the case. Alan Cheuse moderated a panel with Dorothy Allison, Gerald Haslam, Rhoda Huffey, Jane Vandenburgh, and Al Young about Narrative Voice and did a nice job putting a pin in an invisible butterfly. Here's a link to the MP3 audio file.
Lisa Alvarez
08-06-09: A 2009 Interview With Lisa Alvarez
"I began to see art as a kind of activism" — Lisa Alvarez
In order to get a better idea of how the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Conference was organized — and why — I spoke with Lisa Alvarez, who, along with Louis B. Jones, directs the Fiction Workshops.
There's a reason they call it the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Lisa Alvarez told me that she had spent the 1980's as a Community Organizer, and that she was certain that the skills that she had developed in that role were integral in her roles as a Director of Fiction (what a great title!) for the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Not surprisingly, she's highly articulate and what she has to say applies beyond the workshop itself. We talked about writing, fiction and the feedback loops that form in a workshop environment such as this. You can hear her thoughts by following this link to an MP3 audio file.
The Community of Writers at Squaw Valley Celebrates 40 Years "Of the making of books there is no end." — Ecclesiastes 12:12
Dorothy Allison reading Toi Dericotte’s “In Knowledge of Young Boys”
Max Byrd reading from J.S. Holliday’s The World Rushed In
Michael Carlisle reading from Mary Lee Settle
Gene Corr reading Robert Hass’ “Meditation at Lagunitas”
Leslie Daniels reading from Alice Sebold’s Lucky
Gill Dennis reading from Richard Ford’s My Mother, in Memory
Janet Fitch reading from Li-Young Lee’s The Winged Seed
Lynn Freed reading from Max Steele’s “The Hat of My Mother” and Cyra McFadden
Diana Fuller reading from Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Molly Giles reading from Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes
Sands Hall reading Sharon Olds’ “Topography”
Rhoda Huffey reading from Carolyn Doty’s Whisper
Michael Jaime-Becerra reading Philip Levine’s “Fear and Fame”
Joy Johannessen reading from Rhoda Huffey’s The Hallelujah Side
Michael Pietsch reading from Robert Stone’s The Dog Soldiers
Judith Rascoe reading from Elizabeth Tallent’s “No One’s a Mystery”
Tom Rickman reading from Oakley Hall’s Warlock
Lisa Rosenberg reading Galway Kinnell’s “Blackberry Eating”
Jay Schaefer reading from Alice Adams
Jack Shoemaker reading from Ted Solotaroff’s “Writing in the Cold”
Gary Short reading Donald Justice’s “Bus Stop”
Greg Spatz reading from Leonard Michaels’ “Cryptology”
Michael Urban reading from Colin Higgins’ Harold and Maude
Rick Wartzman reading from Gerald Haslam
Jane Vandenburgh reading from Gina Berriault’s The Tea Ceremony
Al Young reading Yusef Komunyakaa’s "Tu Do Street"
A Writers' Tribute to James D. Houston
(1933—2009)
"All music is what awakes from you
When you are reminded by the instruments." — Walt Whitman, "A Song for Occupations"
Continental Drift — Alan Cheuse & Camille Thomasson
Farewell to Manzanar — Andrew Tonkovich
Californians — Lisa Alvarez
“Watching Baghdad Burn” — Al Young
Snow Mountain Passage — Joy Johannessen
Bird of Another Heaven — Mark Childress
Tides of Fire — Carol Edgarian
Where Light Takes its Color from the Sea — Joanne Meschery
Three Songs for My Father — Gerald Haslam
James D. Houston
08-05-09: Squaw Valley Community of Writer's Conference : A Tribute to James D. Houston, 1933-2009
The culmination of the first evening of the 40th Anniversary of the Squaw Valley Writer's Conference was a unique reading experience. We were here to celebrate the life of James D. Houston, a good friend to us all. Listeners to this podcast know how generous he was with his time for The Agony Column. The folks at the Squaw Valley Writer's Conference came up with a wonderful way to honor his voice.
The idea was very simple. What happens when you have a writer with a powerful voice, a writing style that strikes through the page? That voice is heard, no matter who is reading the words. Every individual reader who picked up Houston's work read it in the most interior sense, in the utter aloneness of reading. But all his readers heard the same voice. To celebrate his life, the Squaw Valley Writer's Conference brought up a succession of readers, men, women, friends, writers, to read his work aloud. There were many voices this evening, but in a very real sense, only one voice, that of the late James D. Houston. Podcast Link.
Lisa Alvarez
08-04-09: Squaw Valley Community of Writer's Conference 40th Anniversary Celebration
"One small step for a man ..."
Legend has it that Oakley Hall was up at Squaw Valley forty years ago, looking at the moon while men walked upon it and imagining what it would be like to see them. Then he went and fired up the first Squaw Valley Community of Writer's Conference. If we'd put as much dedication into our ventures in space as Hall did into his conference, we'd be in a seriously different world.
Louis Jones
But then, because of the conference, we are in a seriously different world. Over the past four decades, so many important books and writers have come out of this conference that it's impossible to imagine the world without them. Onthe evening of the first day of this 40th Anniversary of the conference, Lisa Alvarez, Brett Hall Jones, Louis Jones put on a show worth of this legacy. I'll be getting the exact list of who read what and when a bit later in the day, so we may amend the post. But in the interim, I think it's a fine idea to simply immerse yourself in these voices and reading, to hear the cwords, know the change that followed in their wake.
Douglas Carlton Abrams
08-03-09: A 2009 Interview With Douglas Carlton Abrams : Look Deep into the 'Eye of the Whale'
I'm not sure you could call it work. I mean, I've never interviewed a writer who seemed to have set himself for so much fun researching a novel as did Doug Abrams when he decided to write 'Eye of the Whale.'
As much as I enjoyed reading 'Eye of the Whale,' I also was looking forward to talking with Doug Abrams about his research for the novel which was extensive and mostly because it just sounded like so much fun. There are so many interesting places and people in the novel, and I was curious just how much of it sprang forth from the forehead of Zeus, so to speak, and how much of it actually existed. Turns out that Abrams practices what he preaches when he talks about fact-based fiction. And his adventures creating the novel run pretty close to those within, as you can hear when you follow the link to the action-packed MP3 audio file for a few suggestions on adventure vacationing.
New to the Agony Column
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheus : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
07-20-10: Commentary : Adam Elenbaas is Caught by 'Fishers of Men' : The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, July 10, 2010 : Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle : "There are certain phrases I'm leery of using; one's "the creative process" and the other is "inspiration." ” Peter S. Beagle "Habit is the best thing for you if you're trying to write prose." ” Alan Cheuse
07-19-10: Commentary : Phil Cousineau is the 'Wordcatcher' : A Selectionary for Curious Mind
07-09-10: Commentary : Harlan Ellison's 'Deathbird Stories' : Back from the Dead and Ready to Party
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Everything by Kevin Canty, The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Glorious by Bernice McFadden
07-07-10: Commentary : Kitchen Testing 'The New Vegetarian Epicure' and 'Get Cooking' : Lentil Power
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part Two : "'You should really write a cookbook,' and I thought, 'Yeah, that's a good idea...'"
07-06-10: Commentary : Anna Thomas Cooks Up 'Love Soup' : Recipes, Menus and Meals
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part One : Time to Get Cooking Because You Love Soup : "It makes a huge difference really, really, it does, to completely clean up when you're done."
07-05-10: Commentary : Abraham Verghese Will Not Be 'Cutting for Stone' : Stories of Spirit and Words of Comfort
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Abraham Verghese : "Literature has a wonderful ability to restore your imagination for the suffering of others."
07-02-10: Commentary : Sloane Crosley Asks 'How Did Get This Number' : Excellent Essays for the Short of Temper
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Live Interview With Sloane Crosley : We Did Not Mention the Title of Her Essay 'Fuck You, Columbus'
06-30-10: Commentary : Mark Charan Newton Enters 'City of Ruin' : Inspector Jeryd Rides Again
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Panel Discussion at SF in SF on June 12, 2010, with Seanan McGuire, Deborah Grabien and Terry Bisson : "Coke Black was just a horrible thing unleashed on an unsuspecting world."
06-29-10: Commentary : 'Twelve,' 'Thirteen,' Tongues of Serpents,' and 'The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack' : Historical SF & Horror Makes Rousing Summer Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Seanan McGuire Interviewed at SF in SF, June 12, 2010 : "If I have my unbreakables, I can set my conditionals."
06-28-10: Commentary : Jennifer Egan Gets 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' : Revisiting the Novel Genre
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Jennifer Egan : "The characters and the action led the way... I was led into the future not so much because I was thinking, 'I want to write about the future,' but more because I wanted to re-visit this particular person."
06-23-10: Commentary : Adam Langer Corrals 'The Thieves of Manhattan' : Lies, Balderdash and the Absolute, Unvarnished Truth
06-21-10: Commentary : Linda Greenlaw is 'Seaworthy' : Back to the Grand Banks in Not-So-Grand Style
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Linda Greenlaw : "Well, I call him up and tell him I'm going to the Grand Banks and he pretty much signs himself right up."
06-17-10: Commentary : Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud Lives 'A Life on Paper' : Translating the Ineffable
06-15-10: Commentary : Donald R. Burleson Whispers 'Wait for the Thunder' : Stories for a Stormy Night
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Lucyby Laurence Gonzalez, Spies of the Balkansby Alan Furst, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
06-14-10: Commentary : James P. Othmer Drinks the 'Holy Water' : Backing Into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Juliet Schor : "...We need to move to much more open, collaborative, sharing knowledge systems."
06-10-10: Commentary : Brett Easton Ellis Peers Inside 'Imperial Bedrooms' : Panic After the Year Zero
06-09-10: Commentary : Dan Dion and Paul Provenza Free the '!Satiristas!' : Bleeding the Comedians
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Paul Provenza and Dan Dion : "I was raised to respect the printed word so much, when I was in school, I couldn't highlight books..."
06-08-10: Commentary : China Miéville Unleashes 'Kraken' : Comedy of Tentacles
06-03-10: Commentary : Justin Cronin Enters 'The Passage' : A girl who saves the world
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, The Passage by Justin Cronin
06-02-10: Commentary : 'Animythical Tales' by Sarah Totton and 'Metrophilias' by Brendan Connell : Better Seeds
06-01-10: Commentary : The Return of The Agony Column : Logic, License and Habit
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "..these are common human foibles and failings, it's just that they get magnified in a combat, war situation..."
