Proved on the Pulses: On the Essay and its Literary Cousins

Style is the How of the What: Sven Birkerts on Writer’s Block

Susan Olding — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:14:28 +0000

“Style, I’ll define here, for my selfish purposes, as the verbal/lexical confirmation that I’m in the right relation to my impulses, my so-called material. “The right words in the right order”: style is the outer face of the inner impulse, its realization. It is not a frippery, an adornment, an excess. Style is the how of the what.”

Read the whole essay at the LA Review of Books.

Guest Post at Canadian Bookshelf

Susan Olding — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:27:01 +0000

Today I’m the guest blogger at Canadian Bookshelf, the “the one-of-a-kind resource for discovering, discussing, and indulging in Canadian books.”

An excerpt:

Pity the essay—so undervalued that nobody recognizes it. We pass it by without a nod, or imagine we see it in a dozen other faces. “Ah, there you are! I’ve been looking for you! We must catch up,” we say, pumping a hand or slapping a rounded shoulder, all the while checking our watch in anticipation of our next appointment. Nobody wants to read the essay. Nobody wants to buy it. It’s so unpopular that in the 2012 Canada Reads—the first nonfiction edition ever—books of essays are explicitly ruled out.

Writers Who Care

Susan Olding — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:01:33 +0000

If you know someone who wants a critique of their writing and would also like to donate to a good cause, please send them to Writers Who Care, a project initiated by Kathy-Diane Leveille.

“Writers who CARE: The 50/50 Project” is a group of published authors donating their time and talent to raise funds for Somalian refugees. Anyone can make a donation to this cause whether you wish to receive a critique or not. Between October 1 and December 31, 2011, we will offer anyone making a $50 donation the opportunity to submit 50 double-spaced pages of a work-in-progress. Within 90 days of receipt, a published author will provide a 1-2 page critique. For specific details and rules on eligibility, submission requirements, and format of critiques visit our blog: http://writerswhocare.blogspot.com Anyone receiving a critique is not eligible for a tax receipt according to CCRA rules since a service is provided.

Our volunteer published Authors come from a wide range of literary and genre fiction: mainstream, romance, paranormal, mystery, thriller, young adult, historical and mainstream; along with literary non-fiction, biography, memoir and journalism. “

Virtual Voyages: Charlotte Gill’s Recommended Reading

Susan Olding — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:16:54 +0000

What an honour to find Pathologies on Charlotte Gill’s recommended reading list at Canadian Bookshelf. She calls it a “literary antidote” to the lately much-abused memoir. Can’t help but like that!

Charlotte’s most recent book is Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, which was recently shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize.

Review of The Made-Up Self: Impersonation in the Personal Essay

Susan Olding — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:33:48 +0000

A few months ago I quoted a short excerpt from Carl H. Klaus’s The Made-Up Self: Impersonation in the Personal Essay. Anyone interested in the essay’s history and vitality should pick up a copy of this thoughtful book. Read my review at the L.A. Review of Books, in the last of their Summer Shorts.

Kingston WritersFest: Auster and Coetzee

Susan Olding — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:27:19 +0000

What a magical night, and what an honour for Kingston. At our International Marquee, J.M. Coetzee and Paul Auster read from their correspondence, sharing their reflections on friendship and writing. It was a rich and fascinating discussion, but what made it feel so intimate and at the same time dramatic, was the epistolary form. It made me think again how close the essay is to the letter; how the best essays often feel like letters from a thoughtful friend. Both men are, of course, accomplished essayists and translators themselves, which probably helps—but there was something very moving in the leisurely pace of these letters. These were not quick notes or business memos (or, for that matter, blog posts). These were real letters; the kind that cast new light on the subject, on the author, and on the recipient all at once. What a pleasure.

Kingston WritersFest

Susan Olding — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 01:29:32 +0000

Once again it’s time for Kingston WritersFest, and a brilliant festival it will be! As web content editor I got to write profiles of many of the artists who will be visiting us, and what a wonderful way to get a sense of the variety and excitement the festival will offer. I’m looking forward to so many of these events.

Several, in particular, should appeal to lovers of nonfiction, including In Praise of Older Women, with Lorna Crozier, Molly Peacock, and Merrily Weisbord; and Great Scots, with Richard Gwyn, Vincent Lam, and Ken McGoogan. There are still tickets to these events available, but several others are sold out, and it would be wise to order in advance rather than hoping to get seats at the door.

On Thursday, I’m delighted to be moderating a discussion between young adult writers Adwoa Badoe and Y.S. Lee. Adwoa’s Between Sisters is a gripping realistic account of a young girl caught by temptations that her background has ill prepared her for, while Ying Lee’s The Agency series is a gender bending mystery-romance set in Victorian London. But if you think these books have nothing in common, you are wrong. Join us at 10:45 a.m., Thursday, September 25, at Kingston’s Holiday Inn Waterfront, to find out what I mean.

I will also be hosting several other events during the festival and will be onsite most of the time. Really looking forward to it.

Writers Who Care

Susan Olding — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:28:03 +0000

When my friend Kathy-Diane Leveille invited me to participate in the 50/50 project, Writers Who CARE, I jumped at the chance. Slated to launch at CARE INTERNATIONAL on October 1st, 2011, the 50/50 project will allow anyone who makes a donation of $50.00 to submit 50 pages double-spaced of a work-in-progress for a 1-2 page critique by one of the participating authors. All proceeds will go to a CARE fund for Somali refugees.

Read about Kathy’s inspiration for this project here.

If you are an emerging writer who would like a critique of your work with the knowledge that that your donation is going to a good cause, please consider signing up when the project opens! And if you are a published writer who would like to participate, please contact Kathy to find out if she can add your name to her list.

Memorable Lines: Find a form that releases your best intelligence

Susan Olding — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:44:18 +0000

From an interview with David Shields at TriQuarterly Online:

TQO: What advice do you have for new writers?
DS: Don’t be afraid of how you actually think, and write how you actually think. If you have a chance to be an interesting writer, then you will try to find a form that releases your best intelligence. Don’t just add more driftwood to this already established pile of wood. You can write another memoir, and of course your memoir will have its own stamp because yours will be set in Omaha instead of Lincoln. You’ll have your own story to tell. But it’s really just one more relatively formulaic work that’s not advancing the art. If you have a chance to produce interesting work, it will be the direct result of your willingness to face the unusual nature of your own intelligence. Find a form that embodies that.

You Think You Know Me…

Susan Olding — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:35:07 +0000

But You Have No Idea.

A Reading and Discussion with Sarah Leavitt at Novel Idea Books, Kingston

Wednesday, July 20, 6 pm

FREE.

Most readers will confess to mining the details of their favourite novels for evidence of the writer’s life. Switch out one gender for another, add ten years and relocate a character to another province or territory and we’re all but certain that the writer is talking about his or her first love, a parent, an old boss, maybe a child.

What, though, of the non-fiction writer and the memoirist? What of the people we’ve come to know only through a very focused view of their world? Do we take for granted that we know something about them? Do we as readers in a sense fictionalize non-fiction writers, creating heroes and, in some cases, villains? What do we really know of the non-fiction writer?

Please join Sarah and me as we read from our respective works and chat candidly about the figure of the nonfiction writer.