Hot Takes ✍️✨
Hiking Manhattan, Elizabeth Strout, Jennifer Dorr, summer writing workshops and more....
Dear Writers,
Wishing you all a happy Memorial Day weekend. It briefly felt like summer on Monday, when I went on a “tip to tip” hike (a.k.a. the Broad City Challenge) with friends and walked from the top of Manhattan to the bottom (17.79 miles total). We started at 9 a.m. at Inwood Farm Cafe on West 218th Street (take the A train to Inwood at West 207th Street), hiked through Fort Tryon Park, walked past the Washington Bridge, stopped for lunch at Dagon, walked along the Hudson, veered east on 28th Street to enter the High Line, stopped for cold drinks at Felini Coffee on West 14th Street, then lounged on wooden chaises set up on the sidewalks. I had to peel off at 14th Street, but the group kept hiking until they reached the Dead Rabbit bar on Water Street. I don’t have to tell you that we live in overwhelmingly crazy times, but spending a day outdoors with friends, laughing, sweating, walking, and talking, made for a wonderful day. You don’t need a lot of prep for this hike: Wear comfortable shoes; pack water, ice, and a phone charger/battery pack; wear sunscreen and a visor. This was a great way to rediscover Manhattan as the beautiful, walkable island it is.
Elizabeth Strout’s The Things We Never Say. We will unpack this novel in June as part of our series, Why This Book Works.
Roxane Gay, Man Problems (nonfiction, The Audacity Substack)
John Holman, White Folks (fiction, The Sun); The Best Thing About Fiction: A Q&A with John Holman and Finn Cohen.
Kristopher Jansma, The Samples, (fiction, The Sun). I stumbled upon this story while reading through The Sun’s archives. Jansma has a new story out, The Jenjune Cruise (One Story) and publishes a terrific Substack, The Nature of Fun. Links to some of his other work:
Helen Lewis, The Men Who Want Women to be Quiet (nonfiction, The Atlantic). Unnerving essay and compelling read.
Megan O’Rourke, Writing Residencies and What They Give You (nonfiction, Substack). O’Rourke edits the Yale Review, which runs great personal essays, among other things. O’Rourke writes: We often talk about needing time to write, though what we most mean, as I’ve talked about before, is protected time: time defended from all the pressing (or not-so-pressing) that weigh on one’s mind, and make it hard to write…The real gift is being taken seriously as an artist, and the deep nourishment of your identity as an artist. I did not know how depleted I was until I spent two weeks somewhere where I was an artist, and that was it. It allowed a deeper kind of focus. Hot take: Protect your time to write!
Susan Saulny, A Family Secret No More (nonfiction, NYT)
Jennifer Dorr, What My Mother Doesn’t Know (On Being Jewish Now).
LOCK IN! This summer, we’re teaching The Magic of Memoir & Storytelling, an 8-week workshop devoted to writing short stories, personal essays, novels, and memoirs. This workshop takes inspiration from Joyce Carol Oates’ Master Class, The Art of the Short Story, but we will spend as much time reading and writing nonfiction as we do fiction. Writers can submit up to 40 pages (double-spaced, 12-14 point font) for line edits and workshop discussion over the course of the class. The 8 weeks will be divided as follows:
Week 1: Intro and Principles of Storytelling
Week 2: Journals—Observing the World
Week 3: Exploring Taboos and Darkness
Week 4: Structure and Form
Week 5: Writing the Familiar
Week 6: Form Study—Miniature Narrative
Week 7: Form Study—Short Monologue
Week 8: Story Study
Mondays, June 15-August 3, 6-8 p.m. ET via Zoom (Tuesday nights sold out)
✍️✦
Thanks for reading!! 🙏🙏
What a great walk! Love that.