New live-remote classes for writers with novels-in-progress
March 20, 2020 § Leave a comment
Working on a novel? Not too late to join me for these live-remote classes, part of Grub Street’s acclaimed Novel Revision Series!
March 21, 2020. Genre, Concept, Premise, Theme – in which we’ll come up with answers to an essential question: What’s your novel-in-progress “about”?
April 18, 2020. Dramatic Structure & Narrative Drive – in which we’ll explore the hidden structures common to all good novels and the secrets to creating a page-turning read.
Keep tabs on all my upcoming classes and events here.
The Spirit of Wilderness in a Fallen World: Winslow Homer & Eric Aho’s “River Line”
February 8, 2020 § Leave a comment
“A vibrating current of electricity dwells just behind everything in nature and the encounter with the painting, like the encounter with the trout, links you to that current, if only for a fleeting instant. A connection is made between you and something larger. Something important and true. Winslow Homer knew this. Eric Aho knows it too.”
Wrote this essay for the catalog accompanying an exhibition of my good friend Eric Aho’s recent work at the Tayloe Piggott Gallery in Jackson, Wyoming. Very happy to share it here. If you haven’t seen Eric’s work, well you really should.
“250 Writers and Poets of Excellence” at Brilliant Light Publishing
January 23, 2020 § Leave a comment
Pleased to note that I’ve been named to a list of “250 Writers and Poets of Excellence” at Brilliant Light Publishing, a new literary organization whose admirable mission is to “promote the work of poets and writers from the New England community who illuminate the inner and outer states of our natural and cultural environment.”
Honored to be included on this list along with many other New England writers whose work I admire. Click here or on the logo above to visit Brilliant Light and support their noble mission!
On surviving my first television interview
January 3, 2020 § 2 Comments
Actually, I very much enjoyed this recent televised conversation with Rick Cochran of Cape Cod Writers Center’s “Books and the World” program about fiction as an antidote to loneliness, setting as transportation, novels vs stories, travel and writing, what’s on the drawing board for me, and much more. The interview is slightly over 27 minutes long.
New novel longlisted for the 2019 CRAFT First Chapters Prize
December 4, 2019 § Leave a comment
THE HAVANA STANDARD has notched another distinction, a good omen, one dares to hope, for finding the novel a good home in this challenging publishing environment . . .
Visit CRAFT Literary, a beautifully curated and highly recommended source for new fiction, interviews, and essays on fiction writing technique.
Porto to Salamanca on a Douro River cruise
September 20, 2019 § 3 Comments
Excited to return to one of my favorite corners of the planet to embark on this new National Geographic program, my first in nearly a year.
In my capacity as featured expert I’ll be delivering a series of lectures on the long, colorful history of the Iberian peninsula, from the earliest clues about human life to the Romans and the Moors and the rise and fall of the Hapsburg dynasty—and possibly beyond that, if we have time, to Francisco de Goya and the Peninsular War.
If there’s enough interest, I’ll also be offering an ad hoc field-based creative writing workshop, and hopefully getting some of my own scribbling done too.
Also looking forward to visiting some of the fascinating sites we have on the itinerary, meeting everyone else on our river ship, the Scenic Azure, and of course sampling some delicious food, wine, and port!
New novel is a finalist for the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award
September 9, 2019 § 3 Comments
Just learned that my new novel, THE HAVANA STANDARD, has been selected as a finalist for the 2019 William Faulkner-WilliamWisdom Award for a Novel-in-Progress. The manuscript is currently being shopped around to acquiring editors, so fingers crossed . . .
