Anne Carson--Short Talks
Shellie Zacharia
Jayne Anne Phillips (Black Tickets)
Christopher Merkner
J. Robert Lennon (I haven't read his work yet--has anyone else?)
Robert Olen Butler (Severance)
Will think about this some more.
Margaret Luongo
Associate Professor, Creative Writing
Department of English
356 Bachelor Hall
Oxford, OH 45056
513-529-5221
________________________________________
From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of cris cheek [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 3:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: short form
I agree, re the sequence Keith . One Way Street, Tender Buttons, Testimony and The Book of Disquiet are each (in differing ways) good test cases in that respect; extractable from AND having a gestalt?
i think a long list is fine . as long as we steer away from too much that could simply be poem and short story.
half the point, surely, is going to be to set a contestable hare running?
cris
On Jan 22, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Tuma, Keith W. wrote:
Once the sequence is introduced as an option, the possibilities are nearly endless. There seems to be a tilt toward prose—otherwise the epigram and haiku and lots of poetic forms would seem to be available. But to list a few favorites not previously mentioned that might or might not be in line with what is emerging here….
Joe Wenderoth (Letters to Wendy's)
Jonathan Williams (lots of him—someone has my books so I can't be specific at the moment)
Donald Barthelme (The Teachings of Don B)
Leslie Scalapino (that they were at the beach and The Woman Who Could Read the Minds of Dogs etc.)
James Kelman (the short short fiction/essays)
I see that Rachel's suggestions are just in—I like her use of categories, though I'm not sure that it exhausts the possibilities.
Keith
From: cheekc <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:04:41 -0500
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: short form
Dear Eric and Eric,
these are all GREAT suggestions. Let's keep this ball rolling.
cris
On Jan 21, 2012, at 3:17 PM, Goodman, Eric wrote:
I would especially second Russell Edson. There was a tribute to him at AWP a year or two back.
I'd like to add Jim Heynen to the list. Several collections of short-shorts about The Boys, unnamed farm boys in rural Iowa. I've had him to visit before.
I also suggest that we check in with our former student Rachel Levy, who works pretty exclusively and well in this genre, to ask her opinion.
From: "Melbye, Eric Dr." <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Faculty <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 2012 13:59:56 -0500
To: Faculty <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: short form
With the caveat that I have no context for the short-form discussion I missed, here are a few other names, etc., that I would add to this list, after perusing my own bookshelves:
Pierre Reverdy
Max Jacob
Robert Walser (The Microscripts takes the term “micro” to weird heights)
Russell Edson
Rosmarie Waldrop (Reluctant Gravities, etc.)
Henri Michaux (Darkness Moves is a nice anthology of his written work)
Francis Ponge
Robert Bly
Charles Simic
Ben Marcus (The Age of Wire and String—not a stellar work, but hey, you didn’t ask for quality)
Barry Yourgrau (Wearing Dad’s Head—see above re: stellar)
Killarney Clary (maybe not a “major writer,” but I’m a fan. See Who Whispered Near Me and Potential Stranger.)
Would you include in this list authors/works that aren’t typically categorized as “short/hybrid form,” but might be worth looking at through that lens? If so, the following might be included, but only if you’re inclined to really stretch. If nothing else, such works would invite discussion of what “short form” and “hybrid form” might mean:
Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet)
Edmond Jabes (The Book of Questions)
Milorad Pavic (Dictionary of the Khazars)
Anna Kavan (maybe Asylum Pieces and/or Sleep Has His House)
Bruno Schulz?
Maybe some works by Janet Frame?
I’m not aware of a creative nonfiction writer who has a substantial body of work in short-form, but there are a few good anthologies of CNF short-shorts.
Finally, if you wanted to include hypertext/multimedia/performance artists in this list, how would you define “short form”? You would probably go by the physical height of the artist, yes?
Best,
The Other Eric
From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of cris cheek
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 6:01 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: short form
HI everyone,
following on from our discussion a couple of mornings ago it might be great to brainstorm a list of people that we could consider as working in short form (in genre or in hybrid forms - although i note the meaning in abbreviation too). I am thinking that our definition of short form might include contemporary legends; parables even; fables; anecdotes; the pensées; the philosophical fragment; ????
Pulling books from my shelves, both at home and in the office, my tendency is to move towards blurry hybrids such as the prose-poem and sequences of prose poems; very short plays (poets theater and suchlike . . Beckett's late works); flash fictions / the short short story; short film (maybe maybe); poetic sequence; the creative non-fiction short essay; hypertext fiction; cartoon strips (?); text-image sequences; text-art; hypertexts; monologue . . stand up? . .
I wanted to start the ball rolling and encourage you to splurge names and thoughts here. These are not names to bring to campus (well, certainly not those who bear the euphamism passed on) but to help to begin to develop some overlapping points of reference at least in respect of literary figures:
Montaigne
Charles Baudelaire
Arthur Rimbaud
Alfred Jarry
Franz Kafka
Jack Spicer
Blaise Cendrars
Daniil Kharms
Walter Benjamin (i'm thinking of a work such as One Way Street)
Jorges Luis Borges
Richard Brautigan
Samuel Beckett
Italo Calvino
Nicole Brossard
Fabio Morabito
Lydia Davis
Christopher Middleton
Ben Lerner
Renee Gladman
Lyn Hejinian
Robert Fitterman
Dana Ward
Chris Goode
Michael Ondaatje
Harryette Mullen
Mathew Goulish (microlectures)
and i am all too painfully aware on how unrepresentative this list yet is . . do help to flesh out the potential picture here
looking forwards
cris
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