bark, bugs, leaves, & lizards

Sharing The Suck

by dsb nola on July 30, 2009

Cheryl Wagner, author of Plenty Enough Suck To Go Around: A Memoir Of Floods, Fires, Parades, and Plywood, is being featured at the TPMCafe Book Club.  Check it out.

Programming Notes

by dsb nola on July 9, 2009

A writer I’m tight with is featured in a new episode of the Mississippi Public Television series Writers.  The one hour episode, “African American Writers,” features Anthony Grooms, Ravi Howard, and Dedra Johnson.  However, you won’t be able to see this episode unless you convince your local public television affiliate to grab it from a satellite and broadcast it.  Here’s what you do:

• Call the station’s program director.  In New Orleans, that would be Elizabeth Utterback at WYES (504.486.5511) and __________ at WLAE (504.830.3719).
• Explain that there’s a Mississippi Public Television program you would like to see.  It’s called Writers, and the episode “African American Writers.”
• Note that Mississippi Public Television offers the program royalty-free to to any PBS affiliate across the country.
• The standard uplink is scheduled for Sunday, July 19 @ 16:30 ET, SD 07.
• The high definition uplink is scheduled for Wednesday, July 22 @ 17:00 ET, HD 03.
• In New Orleans, emphasize the local angle: Dedra.
• Elsewhere, just say it’s a kickass program and you’re itching for a compelling reason to donate to public broadcasting.

Writers On The Make

by dsb nola on May 26, 2009

Not long after G and I started going out in college I helped her find an apartment closer to mine.  When she got moved in a friend of ours came over and shared a story about another time he’d been in the exact same apartment.  That time, he found the poet Derek Walcott, who several years later won the Nobel prize, in bed with a couple women (young poets, of course!).  Our friend suggested all participants seemed plenty willing and happy.  Maybe that hasn’t always been the case.

The oversexed writer certainly isn’t a thing of the past, but my generation of writers (and later) isn’t nearly as flamboyant about it.  Or as sloppy.  At least not at the university in the Age of Sexual Harassment.  For example, I don’t think writing professors are screwing their students out their office windows anymore (which one of my grad school profs apparently did back in the day).  I’m sure many writers sleep around but maybe fewer witnesses are around to dish.

Writers On TV

by dsb on September 20, 2008

Sure, you’ll see this sort of thing in Mississippi. We were in Jackson early in the week and you guessed it, that’s when I took this picture. Part of what I appreciate about it is how small a sliver of the story about Mississippi it tells. It’s easy, it’s loaded, everybody supplies subtext. Mississippi Burning is right around the corner. That’s certainly not my experience (not that I haven’t tasted that bad stuff, too).

We were in Jackson so Dedra could do a taping of a Mississippi Public Television program called Writers. The other writers were Ravi Howard, Like Trees, Walking, and Anthony Grooms, Bombingham. (I met Ravi last year at Bread Loaf, so it was great to catch up with him. Loved his book. Haven’t read Tony’s yet, but I will).

The taping lasted an hour and a half or so and I got to watch from the sound room. They had a great conversation about their respective novels, the craft of writing, being black writers, their work methods … They could’ve easily gone on for a few more hours. It was an interesting mix of perspectives–Tony in his 50s, Dedra in her 40s, Ravi in his 30s. Later, we all went over to the Lemuria bookstore and bought books. Go figure.

The show will apparently air sometime in January, February, or March. Past programs in the series have been shown on over 70 public television stations nationally, but I don’t know if it’ll be broadcast in New Orleans. I might have to start agitating for it.

P.S. I have to say how pleasant it was to see writers treated with respect–hotel, per diem, mileage, kindness, and warmth. The Mississippi Public TV folks were as nice and classy as could be. And Lemuria always celebrates the writer.