SewaneeLetters.com

April Alvarez forwarded this fantastic meditation on fiction writing by Robert Jackson Bennett. I particularly liked this confession:

I can say that the more I learn about stories, the less I know what they are. The narrative construct is one of our greatest and most mysterious tools, and I often doubt if we wield it as much as it wields us.

April has also promised to send in photos of John Grammer sledding. Stay tuned.

Check out this from the Chicago Tribune, whose reviewers were invited to recommend only two “favorite books of 2009.”  Critic Julia Keller picks  “Girl Trouble” by our new faculty member Holly Goddard Jones. It’s just the most recent endorsement of a book that has gotten a lot of attention since appearing at the end of the summer.

Just wanted to share this awesome rejection letter with all you brave writers. I wish I could say I earned it myself, but it was actually forwarded to me by a friend. You can see more fine rejections here.

April Alvarez pointed out this great update on Padgett Powell in the most recent Times Magazine.
Which made me think of Christine Doza, whose copy of Edisto I have apparently lost, which reminded me of  NaNoWriMo. Anybody participating this November?

Kirsten Skrinde’s story “Clown Alley” has been published in the Southeast Review and is now posted online. This is a proud day for the SofL. We are celebrating with you Kirsten!

Huge congratulations are due to Mary Ann O’Gorman on several recent publications! In addition to organizing our yoga class, she has been busy submitting her work…

You can find her short story, Descant, in the Spring 2009 issue of The Coe Review and her poem Separation, will be published in an upcoming issue of The Bellingham Review. Check out Life in This House, from Finishing Line Press. Go Mary Ann!

Lindsey Harding reports that a story she wrote and edited for workshop two summers ago was just accepted for publication to the online literary magazine Wanderings. The story is called “Morning Routine” and you can read it here. Congratulations Lindsey!

I heard there’s another published author in our ranks… Some of you might remember Kirsten Skrinde’s short story “Clown Alley” from last summer’s workshop. The story was recently accepted by The Southeast Review, a national literary journal out of Florida State. Congratulations Kirsten! I think you’re officially a southerner now.

Congratulations to Hank Haines! His short story “Bodies at Rest” appears in the latest issue of The Gettysburg Review. (At times like these, I miss being within walking distance from the periodicals section of the DuPont Library.) Check out his story and raise at glass in Hank’s honor!