June 19, 2012

Hi friends & writers,

Yesterday I arrived in Boston and am re-figuring my way around. I have lived here before and loved these streets and especially these bookstores, and since then much has changed and so I am learning it all over again. And of course I have changed, so I am learning to reconcile “my” city of now with “her” city of a decade ago. Strange how our old selves find ways to take the third person.

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PROCESS: A CITY, TWO WAYS

Because we place so many of our own questions into what we observe, it is impossible to separate the viewed from the viewer. As Anaïs Nin said, “We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.” This phenomenon is especially vibrant in descriptions of place. A town or city can be many conflicting things for us, simply because we are many conflicting people in it. The moodiness of this divide can make for incredible descriptive writing.

Try this: Describe the same city two ways: one from the point of view of somebody who has just experienced a great stroke of fortune, and the second from the point of view of somebody who has just suffered a tremendous loss.

FEATURED VENUE: GLIMMER TRAIN

In 1990, two sisters who loved to read founded Glimmer Train. Over twenty years later, the Portland-based literary journal stands as one of the most respected short story journals in print. Their stories are highly anthologized and frequently crowned with awards – and still Glimmer Train has a wonderful reputation for openness to new writers. Try them.

Submission guidelines here: http://www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html

PROMPT

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master” (7min)