by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 14, 2010 | poetry |
On October 28, 2002, a rainy night in Georgia, I drove from Columbus to Atlanta to hear the poet Lucille Clifton read at Georgia Tech. If I remember correctly, she opened by reciting the short poem, “Why Some People be Mad at Me Sometimes.” Lucille Clifton...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 10, 2010 | Dani Shapiro, journeys, life, memoir |
“Yogis use a beautiful Sanskrit word samskara, to describe the knots of energy that are locked in the hips, the heart, the jaw, the lungs. Each knot tells a story–a narrative rich with emotional detail. Release a samskara and you release the story. Release...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Feb 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 Alexander Chee: 7:00AM I...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 29, 2010 | craft of writing, details, journeys, stories, time |
Before I jump into the story, I’d just like to say that what follows are my notes–opinion not fact. And I hope to hear more opinions from you. Also, LONGEST POST EVER ALERT (I suggest a beverage of some sort, maybe a snack) and SPOILER ALERT:...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 27, 2010 | craft of writing, stories |
Many of the stories in the new Alice Munro collection, Too Much Happiness, were first published in The New Yorker and are still available online. “Dimensions,” the first story in the collection, will be the story I’ll take apart in the next post....
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 25, 2010 | craft of writing, stories |
In an essay entitled “Artful Stealing” by Steven Schwartz in the current issue of “The Writer’s Chronicle,” he writes, “…you break into your own material by finding the key to someone else’s.” Each time I take a...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 22, 2010 | craft of writing, mfa, reading, stories |
Like many of you, I feel that for some time now I’ve been reading like a writer. In other words, when I’m reading, I’m also noticing: tense shifts, point of view, use of time, distance between the narrator and the characters, the movement in and out...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 19, 2010 | craft of writing, reading, stories |
Here’s another one of those odd coincidences: It was January of last year that I did a post on James Salter who wrote one of my favorite novels, Light Years, and who in July of 2004 at the Tin House Writers Workshop told the audience: “I don’t read for pleasure...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 16, 2010 | accumulation, craft of writing, details, journeys, mfa, place, reading, the day |
Thank you to everyone who’s asked what it was like going to my first residency at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I think it’s taken so long for me to write this post because, in addition to catching up with life and not getting behind on my work, I was...
