Paulette Bates Alden http://paulettealden.com Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:09:54 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Shteyngart and Atwood at the Key West Literary Seminar  

It had been my intention to report on the Key West Literary Seminar this year, which took place January 5 – 8th.  The theme was “Yet Another World: Literature of the Future,” and featured Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Douglas Coupland, Michael Cunningham, Jennifer Eagan, Rivka Galchen, William Gibson, James Gleick, Jonathan Lethem, Janna Levin, Valerie Martin, China Mieville, Joyce Carol Oates, Dexter Palmer, George Saunders, Gary Shteyngart, James Tate, Colson Whitehead, and Charles Yu.  Whew!

Alas, I missed most of it.  I had a bad cold, the kind where it feels as if each cell … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/shteyngart-and-atwood-at-the-key-west-literary-seminar/ Medical Matters in Cuba  

 

In the comments section to my 1/31/2012 Cuba post, Emily’s asked whether we were involved in the actual delivery of the medical supplies we took over and what free medical care means in Cuba.  I can answer the former but not the latter question. 

Those of us on the tour carried over-the-counter medical supplies of a wide variety, since pretty much everything you could buy at a Walgreen’s or CVS are needed.  We were encouraged to spend about $50.00 each, as I recall.  We had both a “drop” in Santiago and in Havana.  In Santiago we met with … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/medical-matters-in-cuba/ A Visit to Hemingway’s House in Cuba  

Back in the olden days when I was in college, I did not have, as George Saunders said of himself at the Key West Literary Seminar, a boner for Ernest Hemingway (it’s a guy thing).  I preferred Faulkner and the girls: Katherine Anne Porter, Carson McCullers, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Mansfield.  But In Our Time did make a lasting impression on me.  While I have forgotten so much over the years, I have never forgotten “Indian Camp,” and I hope I never do.  The boy Nick has just experienced birth in the agonizing delivery of a baby at … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/a-visit-to-hemingways-house-in-cuba/ An Unexpected Trip to Cuba  

Dear Blog readers (if you’re reading my posts, I consider you a close, personal friend):

I have been MIA for almost a month.  I apologize for my silence, but I have a good excuse.  I’ve been in Cuba. 

No one was more surprised than I.

As those of you know who follow my blog, my intention is to post about writing and books.  But sometimes I wander far afield, as far as Cuba, in this case.  I’m so saturated with Cuba at the moment that I must tell you about it.   

It happened like this.  In January I came … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/an-unexpected-trip-to-cuba/ Russell Banks’ Lost Memory of Skin What an evocative and enigmatic title Lost Memory of Skin is.  It may have been what drew me to the book originally, before I knew what it was about, along with wanting to read another novel by Russell Banks, a writer I admire tremendously. Lost Memory turns out to be an ambitious, thoughtful, morally complex and deeply compassionate novel, and while it doesn’t always succeed, it’s an amazing accomplishment. I’m glad I read it, even though it was painful.

It has one of the most fascinating and poignant characterizations I’ve read.  The Kid, a twenty-two year old convicted sex offender … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/russell-banks-lost-memory-of-skin/ Perfect Gift for a Reader: Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction Still looking for that perfect book for the reader in your life (or perhaps yourself)?  I recommend the Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present  (the present being 2007 when it was published).  I had been looking for a good anthology of memoir and essays, and I couldn’t be more thrilled with this book.  I haven’t read all of the pieces—there are 50 of them—but the ones I’ve read are wonderful in the extreme, and the writers represented are most of the big names in nonfiction writing, with enough names I’m not familiar with … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/perfect-gift-for-a-reader-touchstone-anthology-of-contemporary-creative-nonfiction/ Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir I just came upon a new (to me) book on memoir writing which I want to recommend: Fearless Confessions: a Writer’s Guide to Memoir, by Sue William Silverman ((http://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/index.htm).  I learned things from it and will use some of her ideas and language in the memoir workshop I’m teaching in Key West in January.   She also has the most amazing bibliography of creative non-fiction books on her website http://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/click_here_to_see_sue_silverman_s_list_of_contemporary_literary_nonfiction__71566.htm

I thought I had read all the books on the craft of memoir, but nooooo. Lately I’ve sort of read two other (to me) new ones: The Memoir … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/fearless-confessions-a-writers-guide-to-memoir/ Russell Banks’ Descriptions and “Try Harder”

I’m reading the new Russell Banks’ novel, Lost Memory of Skin, and I’m pretty enthralled with it. I’ll review it here when I’ve finished it.  It’s about a young man known as The Kid who has done time for a sex crime (apparently sex with an underage girl, but I’m only halfway through and it hasn’t been fully revealed yet), has to wear a GPS monitoring device, and can’t live within 2,500 feet of anywhere children might gather—which reduces him to living under a south Florida causeway with other sex offenders.  A sociology Professor doing research on homelessness and … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/russell-banks-descriptions-and-try-harder/ The Sweetness of Chess Pie

I have every intention of having this blog be about books and writing, but sometimes I stray.  Today is one of those days, because I want to give you my recipe for Chess Pie.

Chess Pie is an old Southern recipe.  My South Carolina father loved a chess pie, untouched as he was by any health food considerations.  He lived in an era before cholesterol, or at least before we knew the word, and he died at home at 87 of a heart attack.  A good way to go.   My main memory of chess pie was when my boyfriend my … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/the-sweetness-of-chess-pie/ Paulette’s Book-length Manuscript Workshop at MISA

Hi, folks,

I’m posting notice of my workshop next October (I know — it’s a LONG WAY OFF) because there is a limit of fifteen students, and more to the point, lodging is limited on the island and if you want to reserve a place in the workshop and a place to lay your weary head, the sooner the better.

Here’s the link to a description of the workshop: http://www.madelineartschool.com/Classes_Teachers.cfm?StaffID=133

We’ll be concentrating on how to develop a book-length work — whether memoir or novel.  The kind of structural and conceptual work we’ll be doing will apply to either genre.  … Read More

]]> http://paulettealden.com/blog/paulettes-book-length-manuscript-workshop-at-misa/