by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 19, 2010 | craft of writing, shapes, stories, time |
15 stories in this slim volume from Amy Hempel published in 1985. Only 3 of the 15 written in third; the rest, in first. My clear favorite is the first-person story “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried.” It’s nicely developed and goes deeper...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 14, 2010 | journeys, Pam Houston, place, provincetown |
In 2006, I went to Provincetown for the first time to take a workshop with Pam Houston at the Fine Arts Work Center. Each morning a twenty-minute walk to class took me parallel with the ocean on a cobblestone sidewalk, past art gallery after art gallery and shop...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 11, 2010 | stories |
“Naked Chinese People” is the first story in the collection California Transit by Diane Lefer, my adviser this semester at Vermont College of Fine Arts. I thought if I was going to be working with her, I should read some of her writing. California Transit...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 8, 2010 | Columbus GA, time |
It looks like spring here in Georgia. The daffodils are pushing out of the ground. The cherry blossoms are blooming. And it sounds like spring. I’m going to betray my ignorance here, but on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday a flock–as in 50 or more–very...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Mar 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 Miciah Bay Gault. 4:45 My...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 28, 2010 | continuous life, Dani Shapiro, life |
Devotion, the new memoir by Dani Shapiro, is divided into 102 sections. Number 54 is one of my favorites. In it, Dani writes about two subjects that have intrigued me for some time. The first one not surprisingly has to do with memory. She writes: “Why do we...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 25, 2010 | accumulation, reading |
One of my friends refers to me as “the scribe” because I like to write stuff down. And one of the things I write down is how many books I read a year. As my tower of unread books grows taller and spawns little towers, it’s a way to prove to myself...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 22, 2010 | reading, the day |
I haven’t had a morning in a while where I’ve allowed myself to drift from one thing to the next without accountability. When I was practicing law, I used to have to account for every six minutes. This morning I was trying to locate a Virginia Woolf quote...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 20, 2010 | craft of writing |
It’s true. I’m somewhere else. When I was home on Thursday for about fifteen hours, my husband said,”Glad you could stop by.” I didn’t plan to go on two trips in one week. It’s just that one was already planned when the opportunity...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 16, 2010 | journeys, place |
Silver Moon is the name of the 19-foot Airstream Bambi trailer where I’m staying at a writing/spa retreat in the hills above Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ten Thousand Waves is the name of this Japanese-style spa where they leave a chocolate fortune-telling Buddha on...
