Update from MFA-land

Now into my second semester of San Diego State's MFA in creative writing, perhaps it's time for an update on classes, teaching and volunteer work, publication news, etc.:

I'm serving as a Teaching Assistant for English 220, Introduction to Literature.  This is not your mother's literature course (with a theme like Robotic, Erotic, Electric, you know it's not a review of dead white guy lit).  The lecture is taught by Professor Bill Nericcio, while twice a week I teach a "breakout" discussion class.  Professor Nericcio is all over the map with his high energy act--teaching students to understand literary concepts by analyzing everything from classics like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to the realist surrealist art of Magritte to contemporary film and music (click on the link above to get a taste).  I'm given pretty much complete freedom with it, so I'm trying to keep it fun--everything from playing a round of "exquisite corpse" while discussing how Magritte titled some of his paintings, to sharing clips of Pat Boone singing "Speedy Gonzales" during a discussion of Prof. Nericcio's chapter on the cartoon mouse (from his book Tex{t}-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America).

In addition to reading all the work for the Literature class (so I can try to speak intelligently about everything), I'm also taking three classes.  One is a "form and theory of fiction" course with Professor Stephen-Paul Martin.  I had him last year for a contemporary literature course.  Whereas last semester we mostly discussed the content or "story" of the books, this semester the focus is more on the approach and decisions of the authors--why did they choose this strategy over that in telling the story?  For a busy grad student, I appreciate that we spend two weeks covering each book, as opposed to last semester's "book-a-week."

My second class is a creative nonfiction class with Professor Hal Jaffe.  The focus is on the stories that society overlooks, ignores, or oppresses (for example, the mentally ill, the politically oppressed, outsider artists).  We're not just looking at ways of telling a story through words, but through other means (such as film).  I'm also doing something of an independent study with Prof. Jaffe.  Hopefully I'll be able to post later on the project that I hope will grow out of that, but my goal is a fairly heavy revision of a rough novel I wrote a few years back (something of a political satire, perhaps owing a debt to Vonnegut).

One of the reasons I wanted to attend SDSU was the opportunity to work with Fiction International, San Diego State's journal which they describe as "the only literary journal in the United States emphasizing formal innovation and progressive politics" (two areas right up my alley).  I started volunteering with them last semester and now I'm part of the staff, learning the ropes of the assistant editor position.

In publication news, I had a "Santa vs the cockroaches" apocalypse story in Jersey Devil Press's Holiday Half-Issue.  Also, my poem "Orange" was selected for the forthcoming San Diego Poetry Annual due out April 2011. This poem previously won "Best in Show" at the Del Norte County Fair but was never published.

All for now.

New story type thing at The Murky Fringe

I have a new story type thing up at The Murky Fringe.com.  I sent my piece over because they noted they like "Pieces created in joy and/or madness, pieces scribbled on the backs of hands, pieces fretted over into the wee hours without consideration for an audience, without that secret hope that “this piece will lead me to success."  And surely my piece will not lead me to success.


Check it out here, though please note that easily offended Christians my want to give it a pass (and yes, that may include a goodly portion of my family):
http://themurkyfringe.com/2010/10/an-early-draft-of-genesis/

Check out Duotrope's Digest

I don't believe I've mentioned this website before (and if I have, it's worth repeating), but for writers aspiring to publish, Duotrope's Digest should be one of your top bookmarks.   It's a virtual clearinghouse of information on journals and lit mags.  You can search by genres and subgenres (mystery, sci-fi, literary, etc.), styles (realist, experimental, humorous, etc.), payscale, medium (print, online, audio broadcast), submission type (print and/or email submissions accepted), and more.

So before submitting to the Missouri Review, you can learn that they accept less than .25% (and yes I mean that period there) of submissions (and also yes, I know this is a percentage of people who report it on Duotrope's Digest--it's possible that the percentage is much lower--think of all the people who submit and don't even know they can report it on the Digest).  So newbie writers might stop and think--hmmm, less than 1 in 400 submissions is accepted.  Maybe this isn't the place to send that story you just wrote for your first creative writing class.

Information such as how soon you can expect to hear from a journal (average 2.6 days for Bananafish, average 309 days for McSweeney's Quarterly) and the aforementioned rate of acceptance (.23% for Missouri Review, 91.43% for Daily Bites of Flesh 2011) goes a long way to helping a writer get some publication credits (I know where I'm sending my next horror microfiction "bite of flesh").

Another useful feature is a list of upcoming theme deadlines.  This can also be a great place for new writers looking to break in.  My guess is that not so many people are writing stories about Australian Vampires, Adopted Chinese girls or What a Woman of 45 Ought to Know (all theme issues currently looking for content).  I like to peruse the list and see if there's anything I've written that fits themes.  If you're written about aliens, the aftermath of 2012, or the American dream; science, slumber, or secrets; creation, the courtroom, or yes, even cat crimes, there is presently a journal or anthology looking for your work.

There's a lot more worth describing, but it's a fun site to explore, so go take a peek.

It's begun

It's been a while since I posted anything.  Spent the past few months moving a few times, first from Humboldt up to Josephine County, Oregon, for a few months living off-the-grid in a little cabin in the woods on the Illinois River; then slowly making our way all the way down through California to San Diego.  Then came searching for a place to live, moving in and getting settled--setting up kindergarten and baby sitters and a writing space and so forth.

Well, I just finished my first week in San Diego State's MFA in Creative Writing.  Wednesday was the orientation where I met a number of my first-year colleagues, as well as second and third year students and some faculty.  Looks like a good group of people I'll be sharing words with for the next few years.

For Fall semester, I'm taking 3 courses: a fiction workshop with Prof Hal Jaffe, a prose poetry/flash fiction workshop with Prof Marilyn Chin, and a lit class on contemporary American fiction with Prof Stephen-Paul Martin.  I read books by all three this past year (Martin's The Possibility of Music, Chin's The Revenge of the Mooncake Vixens, and Jaffe's Guerrilla Writer's Guide to Post-Millenial Culture) and though their styles are quite different from each other (or rather because their styles are so different), I feel I can learn much, so I'm looking forward to each class.

So, yeah.  After talking about this for, what, ten years?  and having gone through the whole application thing 4 or 5 years ago, it's finally happening.  I'm in a space where I can focus on my writing--and worries such as how to pay for it will just have to wait.  For now, the writing's the thing.

Movin' South

Back in February, I posted that my time at the Redwood Hostel was coming to an end, and I was planning on starting an M.F.A. in creative writing--provided I got accepted somewhere, of course.  Well, I was 1 for 2 in the admissions game (I guess batting .500 is not so bad--but if I got one less hit, I would have been out of the game entirely). So I will be heading to San Diego State University in the Fall, to start a three-year program (more info on what it is here).  I'm excited to work with the faculty there--they seem very open to both experimental and political works.

Also, two weeks ago, I completed Humboldt State's MATW program--Master of Arts in Teaching Writing.  All I had to do this semester were two 25-page papers, an 80-page thesis, and read about 20 books.  So my brain is a little sore from all that exercise. I enjoyed it, but I'm looking forward to the program in San Diego, as academic writing is not nearly as much fun as short stories and novels and so forth.

In other news, two of my "Slugdalas" (Banana Slug Mandalas) have been published recently.  One in Cabrillo College's 25th anniversary issue of Porter Gulch Review (the release party was earlier this evening), and the other online in Mandala Journal's Cosmopolitanism issue.

So yeah, if anyone has a lead on a great cheap apartment in San Diego, please let me know.