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...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 27, 2010 | Columbus GA, mfa, the day |
So this morning, at the suggestion of a reader, I took myself outside before I did anything else. Up and out my driveway for a walk–to wake the mind and the body at the same time. Seventy-four degrees in Columbus, Georgia, with a light breeze. Wonderful in the...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 22, 2010 | reading |
Well I’m going to momentarily halt my attempt to reduce the number of books in my to-be-read piles and reread The Maytrees. Because I want to, she sings from the rooftops. In the comments to my first post on the novel, I admitted that when I began reading it, I...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | May 18, 2010 | catching moments, Dani Shapiro, the day |
I was going to write a bit more about The Maytrees, but yesterday I read a post by Alexander Chee in which he wrote about, in addition to many other wonderful things including the connection between novels and the news, his pre-writing rituals and the need to adapt....
