Notes & News: March 2020
The bad news: I should have been writing this to you from #AWP20 (the Association of Writers & Writing Programs annual conference), but after the mayor of San Antonio declared a public health emergency due to the coronavirus, I decided to bail, and, it seems, so did most other writers planning to attend the conference. (If there is one group that doesn't want to risk getting sick, it's a bunch of freelance writers without health insurance.)
The good news: I had planned for my GORGEOUS NEW WEBSITE to go live during #AWP20 so if I handed out any business cards, people would see the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING NEW AND IMPROVED www.ebbartels.com which Sarah Pruski designed like the genius that she is. Sarah asked for my author aesthetic, and I said it was somewhere between Amelia's Notebook, the intro credits to Broad City, and AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com, and I think she 100% nailed it. Go check it out right now!!! I love it so much!
And the regular news: scroll down for the latest updates on what I am writing, reading, and teaching, some of the awesome things my cool friends are doing, and, of course, news about everyone's favorite tortoise, Terrence.
xoxo,
E.B.
Tortoise illustration by Miranda Sofroniou.
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Writing Notes & News:
In terms of updates on Good Grief: On Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter, I am still waiting on my editor, Naomi Gibbs, to finish working her way through the draft I turned in at the end of January. No small task, since I wildly overwrote my manuscript by 35k words. Godspeed, Naomi. Thank you for all the work you are doing to help make my book the best it can be!
But I have been keeping busy with a bunch of non-dead-pets writing! Well, actually, it's not quite non-dead-pets writing. A version of one of my dead pets stories appeared in the Endnotes section of the winter 2020 issue of Wellesley Magazine. I like to think of it as a eulogy for Wanda, the betta fish I had my first year at Wellesley (pictured above). Read it to get a taste of what my book will be like! Thanks to the whole Wellesley Magazine team -- Alice M. Hummer, Catherine Grace, and Lisa Scanlon Mogolov -- for including my story. And a special shout out to Lee Ung, the one who successfully diagnosed Wanda with dropsy. RIP.
Though I did also publish another essay that actually has nothing to do with dead pets, for a change! "Over-Insured" is an excerpt from my MFA thesis, and it appeared in the debut edition of Evocations: A Literary and Art Review. I'm honored to be included in this first issue. Thank you to Kim Coates for publishing me and to Alli Coates for telling me about her sister's new literary journal!
And, of course, I have the February 2020 Non-Fiction by Non-Men interview for you -- my conversation with Liz Scott, author of the memoir This Never Happened. If you are someone who has had a complicated relationship with a parent and/or are trying to write about that complicated relationship, this book is an excellent example of how to handle it masterfully.
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Reading Notes & News:
If you want more frequent updates on what I am reading, find me on GoodReads!
Once I turned in my manuscript draft, I was able to start to get back into a reading groove. This past month, I read a couple of books I had been meaning to read for a while, that totally lived up to the hype: Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (thanks for the rec, Jeanne Dooley) and Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (thanks for giving me the book when I quit Nobles in 2017, Michael Denning). I also read two advanced copies of books coming out this spring: Thin Places: Essays from In Between by Jordan Kisner (which came out this week, on 3/3!) and Let's Never Talk About This Again: A Memoir by Sara Faith Alterman (which comes out 6/28). I highly, highly recommend both. Plus, I read The Escape Artist, a memoir by a fellow Wellesley alumna, Helen Fremont, class of 1978. Stay turned for my review of that book in the spring issue of Wellesley Magazine!
In terms of non-books, I've been reading a lot about the reptiles in New York City -- the city parks' turtle problem and the sewers' legendary alligators. (Thanks, Janna Herman, for keeping me informed.) I've been reading about and am looking forward to both Martin McDonagh's upcoming film and Wes Anderson's new movie. May I also recommend this review of Grimes (both as a musician and a person), this comic about cooking while quarantined with the coronavirus, this terrifying report about how the Justice Department is going to start denaturalizing immigrants, and this personal essay about the magnificent Judy Blume. (Thanks, Rich Bartels, for that last one. You know I worship Judy.) Oh, and this dude developed 120-year-old cat photos he found in a time capsule! (Thanks, Marcy Yakalis for that delightful link.)
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Teaching Notes & News:
Here are the classes I have coming up next, both at GrubStreet and beyond!
On Saturday 3/14, from 10am-3pm, I will be teaching a class for the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. It is a five-hour online class about the essentials of memoir-writing called Memoir Generator. Registration closes 3/9, so sign up this weekend if you want in!
Coming up at GrubStreet, I have:
- Jumpstart Your Narrative Nonfiction Book: Online (BRAND NEW CLASS, six weeks, starting 4/15, no set times)
- Jumpstart Your Writing (Tuesdays, 5/5 through 6/9, 6pm-9pm)
- FREE Brown Bag Lunch Session (100% FREE CLASS, Wednesday 5/13, 12:30pm-1:15pm)
- Teen Writing Camp: Week of Creative Writing (daily, 7/27 through 7/31, 10:30am-3:30pm, for writers ages 13-18 years old)
NOTE: GrubStreet's move to the Narrative Arts Center in the Seaport will now happen in August, so all of the classes I will be teaching this spring and summer will still be on the 5th floor of the old Steinway piano building.
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Friend Notes & News:
Not to brag, but I know many badass people writing amazing things and making incredible art. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to see my regular enthusiastic posts about what they are up to, but here are a few people in particular I'd like to highlight this month:
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Terrence Notes & News:
Terrence voted for Bailey Warren on Super Tuesday. He is disappointed that Bailey has since dropped out of the race, but Terrence hopes one day we will see a Golden Retriever in the White House. #ReadyforBailey
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