Feeling Inspired?

Recently Sean Lovelace did a post over at HTMLGIANT where he asked readers to supply a decent writing prompt.

There are tons of books and websites full of writing prompts. I remember in class we’d get prompts like, “Write a letter to someone who had a significant influence on your life,” or “Write a story that progresses from end to beginning.” I’m not certain I ever got anything out of that type of prompt. And the worst part of those prompts was when everyone in the room explained what they wrote about. There’s nothing more obnoxious than a group of wannabe writers talking about their dead parents or their grandmother who died of cancer. I feel for these people, but I got tired of hearing the same thing again and again.

(more…)

Our heartfelt congratulations to Cliff Garstang, the recently announced winner of the IPPY Gold Medal for Mid-Atlantic Best Regional Fiction, 2010, for his much-hailed collection of short stories, IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, from PRESS 53.

“This collection delivers on its title: each story takes us into an area—emotional and geographic—that we may not have been before. There is an impressive variety here, and Garstang’s ability as a storyteller is on display each time. These characters are real, vulnerable, and always, in unique ways, brave.” — Elizabeth Strout, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Amy and Isabelle and Olive Kitteridge

Today, Ethel Rohan shines the brights on Cliff:

Writing-wise, where are you now?

I’m between projects. I just sent a manuscript of a novel to my agent. Time to start something newish (I’ve got a series I’ve been poking at from time to time over the last couple of years).

(more…)

(more…)

You wake dreaming
ritual burning
woven skeletons
in asbestos flesh.
You wake up
dreaming experienced
lovers in other time zones.
The inner day
bears in them something
less than a child.
You wake dreaming
a being-awake
that has no counterpoint in sleep.

(more…)