by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 24, 2010 | catching moments, my writing, shapes |
I’ve always wanted to like yoga. I tried Pilates–for two years. I wanted to be more connected to my body. Surely this would make me a better writer. Today I’m going to CORE, a studio in the recently renovated and very cool White Provisions Building...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 22, 2010 | Columbus GA, poetry |
Several years ago in a used bookstore in Columbus, Georgia, called “Beetlebinders” that now no longer exists, I found a very old book called Day Dreams. It took me a minute to figure out that the formless white shape on the cover was a genie being released...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 20, 2010 | catching moments, Columbus GA, poetry, the day, time |
I was in my study on the phone wishing my father a happy day when I glanced out the window to see what my father thought, from my description, was a hawk on the roof of the old swing set, and I called to my son, home from college, who came in and took this photo....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 16, 2010 | novels |
I’ve never read Ulysses. I’ve wanted to. There it is on my to-be-read shelf. But the time has just never been right. However, there’s nothing like a passionate Irish voice to spur me forward. In this case, that of Frank Delaney. He loves this book....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 14, 2010 | place, stories, time |
Nine stories make up New Orleans’ writer Barb Johnson’s wonderful debut collection of linked stories, More of This World or Maybe Another. In the first and title story, Delia is the narrator and we meet her boyfriend Calvin and his sister Charlene, who goes by...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 11, 2010 | poetry |
I have a folder where I put poems I’ve printed or been given or copied out of books. Maybe someday I’ll put them in a notebook so I’ll think to look in it more often. Three poems were mentioned in connection with the manuscripts we discussed in my...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 8, 2010 | catching moments, continuous life, journeys, memory |
The summer I was thirteen I flew by myself to Vermont for seven weeks of camp. Somebody in our cabin had brought a record player, and it was there in the woods that I first heard the music of James Taylor and Carole King. After I got back home, I bought their albums....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jun 1, 2010 | How We Spend Our Days |
Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” Today, please welcome writer Lucia Orth: While at work on...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 30, 2010 | life, provincetown |
Annie Dillard’s novel The Maytrees [spoiler alert], begins with a short prologue from a storyteller narrator who is hereafter rarely noticed. Its first sentence interestingly begins with the couple not the individuals: “The Maytrees were young long ago.” Although it’s...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 28, 2010 | craft of writing, reading |
On my second read of The Maytrees in four weeks, I’m slowly ingesting the writing. Here are six things I learned, or was reminded of, by reading Annie Dillard [spoiler alert]: 1) To add telling to showing with an unexpected sentence: “Their...
