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NEWSLETTER

October 2020, VOL. 14
October Thoughts

From Danielle Trussoni
As it is October, and as my novels have sometimes been said to pair well with Halloween, I would like to take a moment to think about fear in fiction.

We know what fear feels like in real life (I’ve felt it every day for the past four years when I’ve read the news), but what purpose does it serve in literature?

My first reaction to this question is that fear is a big emotion, and the need to examine it, flee it, or even just to experience it vicariously through narrative accounts for why so many people read scary novels. In some of the best frightening stories, the reader both wants to flee and to keep reading, and this mixture creates a tension that makes the novel exhilarating.

Take a ghost story that almost everyone knows, like Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Ok, it isn’t a terrifying story, but I remember reading it as a child and feeling a mixture of dread and wonder: could it be possible that a ghost might show someone their past, the present and future? Could someone change their life after such an encounter? It was eerie, but I was mesmerized, and I read it many times, despite knowing the story by heart, just for the pleasure of imagining the boundaries of reality and suspending disbelief.

Perhaps it could be said that not only fear, but all intense emotions – love, faith, loneliness , wonder, the need for justice—all serve a purpose like fear in fiction, and that a strong emotional current in fiction can be used in literature to bring a reader deeper into the situation of your story.  

I’m just riffing on this, let’s think about emotions in terms of genre:

Fear = Horror

Faith = Memoir or Inspirational

Love= Romance

Loneliness/ curiosity about other people = Literary fiction

A need for answers = Mystery

Wonder=  Science Fiction/ Speculative Fiction/ Fantasy

A need for justice = Crime

This is starting to look a little reductive, and obviously these categories are reducing something huge and amorphous down to a few categories, but as a writer of fiction, it helps me to understand the emotional landscape I’m creating in my writing. It may account for why some writers  (and I include myself in that number) find it helpful to choose a genre and use the conventions of that genre as a guide: by choosing a genre, one chooses an emotional frequency, too.

I hope your writing is thriving and that you have a productive month.

Happy writing!
Danielle Trussoni
MFA MEETINGS

Saturday, October 17 at 12:30 PM EST
MFA Meeting to discuss January Residency
Meeting ID: 401 341 3182
Passcode: slampoetry

Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 PM EST
Mid-semester Conversation with Alden and Tim on "Using Material from Life in Your Writing."
 
Virtual office hours for graduate students
with President Kelli J. Armstrong
  • Wednesday, Oct. 28
  • Wednesday, Dec. 2
  • Wednesday, Feb. 3
  • Wednesday, March 3
  • Wednesday, March 31
  • Wednesday, April 28
All sessions will start at 5:30 p.m. EST and last one hour. Visit Eventbrite to register.
 
Sacred Objects, Sacred Spaces

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” –Cicero

Tom Cowen's writing spaces
"I write in many different spaces in my house. But lately, a little meditation followed by some putting to focus my mind and the writing."

          
Ann Hood
"This is where I work at home. Yes, this is my bed."
Cuba News
From Tim Weed

Given the situation in the world and the difficulties of travel in general, it probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that the decision has been made to postpone this year’s Newport MFA winter residency in Havana. Cuba is doing an admirable job of handling the challenge of COVID-19, and part of the reason is that the country made the decision early on to close its borders to most visitors. This has resulted in great economic hardship, but it has also, together with the country’s justifiably renowned medical system and disaster relief response, kept the pandemic relatively contained and limited on the island.

We’re currently evaluating whether offering Havana as a choice for the June 2021 residency is a possibility; if not, we fully expect to open up this wonderful opportunity again in January 2022, not only for currently enrolled Newport MFA students but also for alumni and members of our extended community of colleagues, friends, and family. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, if you want to do a little dreaming and/or preparing for a future Newport MFA residency in Havana, here are a few reading and viewing suggestions:

Fiction & Memoir
Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
Telex from Cuba, Rachel Kushner
Adios, Hemingway, Leonardo Padura
The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
“Pursuit as Happiness,” by Ernest Hemingway (The New Yorker, June 2020)

Nonfiction
One Day in December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution. Nancy Stout
Havana Dreams: A Story of a Cuban Family, Wendy Gimbel
Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life. Jon Lee Anderson
Our Man Down in Havana: The Story Behind Graham Greene’s Cold War Spy Novel, Christopher Hull
Havana Nocturne: How the Mob Owned Cuba and then Lost it to the Revolution. T.J. English.
Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, Tom Gjelten
Cuba: 400 Years of Architectural Heritage. Rachel Carly & Andrea Brizzi
Art Cuba: The New Generation. Holly Block

Articles (with links)

“The Man Who Saved Havana.” Smithsonian. May 2018

“‘My Dearest Fidel’: An ABC Journalist’s Liaison with Fidel Castro.” Politico. April 2018.

“The Yankee Comandante: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Betrayal.” The New Yorker. May 2012

“Chasing Hemingway’s Ghost in the City History Forgot.” The Millions. March 2017.

Recommended International Films

Buena Vista Social Club, Wim Wenders
Our Man in Havana (with Alec Guiness)

Recommended Cuban Films
(Some of these might be hard to get, but are excellent and very much worth a try!)

Strawberry & Chocolate (Fresa y Chocolate) Tomás Gutierrez Alea
Lucía, Humberto Solás
Clandestine, Fernando Pérez
Memories of Underdevelopment by Tomás Gutierrez Alea
I Am Cuba, Mikhail Kalatazov
Suite Havana, by Fernando Pérez
Tomorrow, by Alejandro Mora

 
Brag Sheet
A selection of The Newport MFA student publications over the past months.

Student Publications

Leah DeCesare's piece "The Last Loop" was featured in the New York Times Tiny Love Stories column on Tuesday, October 13. (Scroll down.)

Brooks Cobb's "Inheritance" will be featured in the October issue of Anti-Heroin Chic literary mag.

Tom Cowen's piece "The Man Who Stole Courage," appeared in The Good Man Project and he'll have a piece called Let Your Smile Change the World published in Daily Inspired Life in mid-November. Stay tuned for the link!
Bernadette's Book Reviews

Bernadette has two reviews to share this month. Below is her review of Paul Lynch’s haunting novel “Grace” for the literary journal, Reading Ireland because it's behind a paywall, we're sharing screen shots. Pinch and zoom to read.
 
She also reviewed Kristin Czarnecki’s memoir, “The First Kristin,” a story of being named for one’s dead sibling told through the lens of personal history and literary excavation for Tupelo Quarterly.
Conferences + Classes
October 10, 2020, 10 am - 5 pm
Taught by our own Tim Weed: Grub Street Novel Revision Series: Descriptive Writing and Image Systems,

October 16-18, 2020
Gotham Writers Conference on Zoom
 
Submissions
Deadline - November 1
Non-Fiction
Chautauqua is open for submissions. "We are especially seeking essays. They can be to 7000 words, but shorter essays are welcome! Our theme this year is water--but we treat themes in very slant ways. Our magazine has four sections: Life of the Spirit, Life Lessons, Life at Leisure, and Life in Art. We pay writers $50.00 and two copies of the issue."
Book Recommendations
Craft:
Danielle recommends and Raquel dittos:
Dreaming by the Book - Elaine Scary
 

* Please email your book and podcast recommendations fiction, non-fiction, poetry, craft to Leah or Raquel.
(Go ahead, send us an email right now while you're thinking of it!)
Thanks for sharing your favorite reads!
Editors: Leah DeCesare & Raquel Levitt
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