Sandra Gail Lambert

Bacopa: A Literary Review - Another Reason to be Glad You Live in Gainesville

Were you at this weekend's unveiling of the latest Bacopa?  If not, you missed something quite grand.  Each year the Writers Alliance of Gainesville's Editorial Team produces Bacopa: A Literary Review, and it is fast gaining a reputation for excellence.  Last year's volume was well-reviewed in New Pages ("Strong first lines.  That's the enviable trait . . . ")  The 2012 issue is also beautifully produced and chock-full of talented writers.   

WAG has monthly meetings and this one was given over to a celebration of the newest issue.  The editors shared selections from an international array of authors and local contributors like Stephanie Seguin, Mary Bast, Bruce Hoch, Mary Bridgman, and Tad Karmazyn read to us.  We responded with the deserved celebratory applause.  

Afterwards I tried to go tell each and every one of the editors what a good job they'd done, but I missed a few.  So Denise Ahlberg, Jani Sherrard, Pranada Comtois, Gen Aris, Kaye Linden, Dorothy Staley, and Eldon Turner - thank you. 

Next month's WAG meeting (Sunday, June 24th, 2:30pm at the Millhopper Library), which is open to non-members, will present Sidney Wade - one of my favorite poets.    

The suitcases are out and waiting. Three weeks left to pack.

In case you were wondering, Beall's Outlet Store has a fine selection of writing mumus.  I just brought some home and all the chicken/head cut off pacing the house and scribbling lists in the kitchen, by the TV, at my bedside anxiety is gone.  I'm set.  I'm ready.  The mumus and that stack of yellow pads already in a suitcase - that's all I need.  

Well, I should probably also pack some jeans and shirts and refills for my pens and the transfer bar for the tub and that little pillow that fits into my lower back and bras since I may never relax enough to wander over for the communal breakfast in just a mu-mu.  And earrings.  And a power strip.  And printer ink.  And a flashlight because it's important to always have a flashlight, don't you think?  And there's more.  The list beside the computer is the longest. 

    

Post-acceptance

So, I thought, this is it.  After getting accepted to an artist's colony, one just doesn't write anything at all anymore.  Why hadn't someone warned me?  But, of course, with relief, there was a morning when I revised an essay rather than listen to another Tell Me More podcast while I played solitaire.  And a next morning when I worked on the first chapter of a novel.  And another day when I poked around on the essay some more.  It was like a train's slow chugging forward from a standstill.  But these last days have been all errands and social events.  For sure, this isn't an express train.  

And why all the train allusions?  Probably because right this moment five weeks from now, I'll be snuggling into my bunk bed in the Amtrak Superliner accessible bedroom.  It's the first leg of my journey north to Saratoga Springs.  And it is an express train. 

Yaddo! Happy Freakin' 60th Birthday to Me.

It was like being a senior in High School waiting for news about colleges.  I was at the mailbox, expecting the rejection like always these past four years, ready with my Plan B of putting together some sort of on-my-own writing retreat this summer, and I saw the envelope with Yaddo's return address.  "That is a big envelope," I thought.  I held it awhile.  It was big and it had heft.  I slit open the top and slid the papers out past the letterhead, date, my return address, and the salutation.  The phrase "pleased to invite you" came into view. 

So in June, a few days after my 60th birthday, I'll be heading to Saratoga Springs for a six week residency at Yaddo. (For my non-writer friends - this is a big deal.  Check out the list of alumni.) 

All of you writers with Yaddo experience, especially any of you who use wheelchairs, send advice my way.  And such big thanks to you alumni who provided references.  

Everglades Artist in Residence Program

During my most recent Everglades stay, since I'm an American, I found a little time to shop.  In-between the t-shirts and field guides, below the postcards, I discovered a book of poetry by Roger Mitchell.  In 2002 he had been one of the artists invited to spend a month in the Park.  A requirement of the residency is that you leave something behind.  His gift was this collection of poems accompanied by the sketches of Frank Duval, another artist in residence.  Here's the beginning of his poem about kayaking on Florida Bay.

"At low tide.  There might be an inch between me/and the peninsula's marly run-off./I couldn't be any closer to the earth/if I tried, here where it is land one hour/and sea the next.  Birds blow by in clouds, . . " 

Then on our way out of the park we stopped at the Anhinga Trail where Eileen Powell, the current Artist in Residence, was encouraging visitors to collaborate in the construction of a ceramic tile wall.  Way cool.    

Here, here's a fine example of our government money at work.  And it's another reason for me to keep writing. Forget the fame, the fortune, the  groupies - someday, perhaps, I'll have built a resume good enough to get chosen as an Everglades Artist in Residence.        

 

I Love a Syllabus

I've spent the morning immersed and thrilled by lists of class descriptions.  This summer I turn sixty, and a friend told me this means I can audit University classes for free.  (She's got hers all picked out.)  I don't think they'll let me into any of the MFA workshops, but still there is undergraduate Fiction Writing.  And all those other classes that will only improve my writing - Surveys in American Women's Literature!  Asian-American Studies!  The Folktale!  A whole term studying Zora Neale Hurston!  Or Chaucer!  Caribbean Literature! 

I can't wait until the Fall list of courses is released ( in March).  I can't wait to be holding a syllabus.  Really, it's exciting the way they have everything itemized and scheduled class by class  And list required readings.  And suggested readings.  And order you to write papers.  As someone who teaches herself things, it's comforting to leave the driving to someone else.   

Rhonda Riley - The Road to Publication

Rhonda Riley is a writer friend.  And she has a debut novel, Adam Hope, coming out from Ecco (HarperCollins) Press.  And she's speaking this Sunday at the Millhopper Library at 2:30pm about how that happened.  Do not miss this story of going from an agent's slush pile to having a novel sold at auction.  (For those of you not obsessed with all things publishing, "sold at auction" is a big, freakin' deal.) 

The Writers Alliance of Gainesville - WAG - is holding this event.  Check them out. 

 

Conference Discoveries

Because of the Other Words conference I'm reading Vinculum: Poems by Alice Friman and Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy by Ira Sukrungruang.  Here's why.

Alice Friman read on the opening
night of readings and that thing happened where me and the poem - well, it was like that scene in West Side Story where Tony and Maria meet for the first time.  The crowd around them disappears, the music fades, and time ceases to be linear.  Later, I bought her collection, found the poem, and was awed that it wasn't even a page long.  

Now that would have been enough to make the drive and the hard hotel mattress worth the trouble, but then I went to Ira Sukrungruang's creative nonfiction workshop.  His presentation was lovely, learned, and intimate.  I sort of cried a little in the beginning, was intellectually stimulated throughout, and had the start of a next essay bouncing around inside me by the end. 

Remembrance: Elegy and Celebration

Something in the theme of Remembrance: Elegy and Celebration and with a time limit of just one minute - those are the parameters for those of us participating in the Friday Night Reading at the Other Words Conference in St. Augustine this weekend. 

Which means that all of us together, in one evening, will form a whole piece of writing.  It makes me think of Tibetan sand painting mandalas that are destroyed upon completion - a meditation on impermanence.  (Except this is not Tibet so there are plans for You Tube.) 

Or in literary terms, we'll end up with a type of RENGA or alternating accretive verse (with prose).  I'm making a couple of selections - my fictional little girl sitting on the baby graves of her siblings, a memoir moment of my mother in Hospice, the death, in my novel, of the last saber-toothed cat.  I'll read the one that seems to fit with this moment we'll be creating.

Florida Literary Arts Coalition's "Other Words Conference"

And here I go again, once again in St. Augustine.  The Other Words Conference is November 10 -12, and I'm presenting at two panels.  "Memoir: Who Are You Writing For?" is on Friday and Saturday I'm reprising "The Search For A Literary Agent."  And I'm part of the Friday night readings.  

And there are plenty of other panels on so many subjects - from the use of profanity in your work to "Fire Ants and Leaves of Grass" (about nature writing) to the use of point-of-view and narrative voice in creative non-fiction and poetry.  And I've heard from returning writers that anything by Ira Sukrungruang is not to be missed.

And don't forget the keynote speakers - Jenny Browne, Alice Friman, Diane Wakoski, Michael Gills, and Carol Frost.  Yep, I'm going to load up on anti-inflammatories and go to everything. 

Florida Writers' Festival 2011

Amy Hempel, D.A. Powell, Laura Kasischke, David Berman, and Kevin Young are all reading, presenting craft talks, and mingling at receptions here in Gainesville this weekend beginning tomorrow, Thursday.  Here's the full schedule for the Florida Writers' Festival.  

For sure, I'll show up on Friday night to hear Amy Hempel and D.A. Powell.  The readings begin at 8pm at the Ustler Hall Atrium near the University of Florida stadium.   

Post Jane's Stories Retreat

It rocked.  Big congratulations to the women of Jane's Stories Press Foundation - some of whom are pictured here.  

What makes a writers conference work? First, it was well run by a group that was having a good time doing it, and this sense of hospitality and welcome permeated the day. 
Maybe my favorite part of Karen McElmurray's  workshop on "The Floating World" of memoir was the discussion.  Intelligent discussion.  Non-self promoting discussion.  Genuine discussion.  You know, the kind of thing that can sometimes happen in a group of women.  And the writing exercise left me with a piece that might turn into something - me, at thirteen, in a claw-foot bathtub, drinking a stolen beer and shaving my legs for the first time.  Now, that's a good workshop.

The "Successful Quests for a Literary Agent" presentation that Anne Martin Fletcher and I gave, I'm pretty sure, went well.  We had a great time doing it.

Georgia Banks-Martin had a rapt audience for her poetry workshop and all the while there were individual critique sessions offered at no added cost. And, an important quality for a workshop, the lunch was delicious. 

By the time of the reading that night we'd become a community of writers - thanks to Jane's Stories Press Foundation. 

 

Saturday Night Fun in St. Augustine - Come hear me read.

Well, me along with Karen McElmurray, Georgia Banks-Martin, Shobha Sharma, Kimmy Van Kooten, and Anne Martin Fletcher.  Even if you haven't been able to make it to that day's Women Writing Retreat, come to this final, free, and open to the public event at Anastasia Books (81 King St).  Seven pm.     

I'm either reading fiction about a hot-flashing lesbian in relationship trouble or an essay about rolling in the mud of Payne's Prairie.  But then there's that short, short piece about morphine and my mother.  I promise, I'll have it figured out by Saturday night.         

 

Writing Women Retreat - Getting Ready for October 15th.

 
Anne Martin Fletcher and I have put together what I'm pretty sure is going to be a kick-ass presentation  (Aren't I humble?) about the quest for a literary agent.  Our "quest" stories, our work, our writing backgrounds are so different and that right there is instructive.  

The talk will be chock-a-block with specifics, but the part I want to share here is more amorphous.  By the time I finished writing this novel, I'd spent maybe a year in revisions.  Which means the way I cared for my writing was to be tough, critical, unsparing, and always trying to see it as someone else, someone detached.  But when I wrote the query letter this didn't work.  Open-hearted, generous, enthusiastic, unconditional, delighted - all these qualities had to somehow reappear.  Between now and the conference, I'm hoping to have something more articulate to say about the importance of falling back in love with your work.

So, the Writing Woman Retreat, Saturday October 15th in St. Augustine, presented by the Jane's Stories Press Foundation. 

The Floating World: Truth, Facts and Memory in Memoir Writing

 
Jane's Stories Writing Women Retreat has its schedule of events out.  First up is a two hour memoir workshop with Karen McElmurray. (And it doesn't conflict with my presentation.  Whew.)  "The Floating World: Truth, Facts and Memory in Memoir Writing" - Really and truly, the title makes me think Karen peeked over my shoulder as I wrote and thought "this woman needs a little help here." 

Karen McElmurray is a novelist, creative non-fiction writer, teacher, and ex-sporting towel factory worker.  Her books include the memoir Surrendered Child: A Birth Mother's Journey andThe Motel of Stars, a novel.  Southern Scribe offers a compelling interview with Karen that includes this quote - "To write this memoir . . . I had to look hard at events that I’d scarcely spoken about with anyone, no less summoned as words on a blank page." 

So Jane's Stories Women Writing Retreat - Saturday, October 15th in St. Augustine.  Be there. 

Writing Woman Retreat in St. Augustine on October 15th

 
The presenters include Karen McElmurray, Georgia Martin-Banks, and others, including me.  Jane's Stories Press Foundation has put together the Writing Woman Retreat - a good, reasonably priced, nice long day of workshops, panels, and readings.  And it's all in downtown, historic St. Augustine overlooking the Bay.  Go ahead and save the date on your calendar.  

I'll be doing more posts later about things like why a talk entitled "The Floating World: Truth, Facts, and Memory in Memoir Writing" gives me the shivers or why I, a non-poet, might be sitting front row for "Telling Tales: Poetry and Fairytales."  Oh, and there'll be a word or two about the presentation that Anne Martin Fletcher and I are doing.  And about the readings I'll be part of that evening.        

A Way Early "Heads Up"

 
This fall I've been invited to speak on panels and give presentations.  I'm pretty much thrilled about it.  Here's the basic, so far, information.

Jane's Stories Press Foundation Fall Retreat - October 14th - 16th in St. Augustine. 

Florida Literary Arts Coalition "Other Words" Conference - November 10th - 12th.  Also in St. Augustine.  

Ahhhhh, I'm Writing in Cedar Key Again.

 
I could never live in Cedar Key.  The bookstore is inaccessible and that would just piss me off every day.  But I've found a place for myself here - a cheap room with loads of windows, a nice staff, and a bathroom that I can make work for me.  I've left the Little Dog with friends so my time is unaccountable to anyone.  I stay up writing until 4am, sleep until an unheard of 10am, and it doesn't matter.  My mind stretches past my next scene to do list and reaches the glimmer and spark place where I know things, important things, mostly inarticulate so far things about the novel. 

And whenever I'm stuck, I put on a big sun hat and stroll along the edge of the Gulf past fisherman hauling in their crab cages and pelicans waiting for the leavings.  I look into the water for dolphins and above it for frigate birds.  I look for restaurants with ramps and plan meals of fried shrimp.  So far I've written about 4,000 pretty decent words.           

Writer Friends

 
Three years ago Connie May Fowler organized a writers conference in St. Augustine.  Many layers of connections and good things happened there, like for instance, I was set on the right, next, path for my novel.  And I met some fine writers.  Always, at a conference, I try to "gather" at least one more writer friend.  The week with Connie was particularly productive, and tomorrow, two of my gathering from that conference - one from Tallahassee, one from St. Augustine - are meeting here at my house. 

We plan on a day, dinner, night, and perhaps a next morning of writing talk, talk, and more talk.  Each of us has completed or is very close to completing a novel.  What are our next goals?  Can we even imagine?  How about changing the point of view on this chapter?  What do you know about that agent? 

I'm hoping to send them on their way with all of us primed and ready to write, submit, and have an idea of our right, next path.  Or at least eat some good food and laugh a lot.              

Feminist Open Mic this Tuesday

 
Johnny Rocket has put together this ongoing gathering of varied, talented, and enthusiastic writers.  I don't make it every month, but that never changes the sense of welcome and community.  My favorite part is the "not knowing" - when someone gets up to read or perform, I just have no idea what's coming.  And then, often, I almost laugh outloud from the delight of hearing a lovely piece of writing. The Feminist Open Mic is at Wild Iris Books this Tuesday, April 26th at 7:30pm and repeats every last Tuesday of the month.