August 20, 2009
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note of update, after a long silence…
Last April I went out and lived, semi-incognito, in a homeless tent city in Fresno, California. I spent most of the summer writing up an account of this, which will appear in the September issue of GQ Magazine. It was a very moving, sort of scary experience, that had the effect of re-energizing certain tendencies in my fiction and in me as a person, I guess, among these: respect for the real; a distrust of the American capitalist juggernaut; suspicion of my own Pollyannaish tendencies; new enthusiasm for the variety and weirdness of the world. Right now I’m working on a longer version of this piece. The GQ piece is pretty long – around 12,000 words – but at one point my draft of it was up to 250 pages. So many great stories and voices. So I hope I can bring the book together and that it captures even a fraction of the power of the actual trip.
Earlier in the summer I received a much-appreciated award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and went to NY for a very wonderful ceremony. Then, in July, I went to Italy for my first time ever. The Italian translation of “The Braindead Megaphone” had just come out. So I did some events in Rome and then went to the Capri Festival, which was a riot. Such a beautiful place. I felt – as I always feel in beautiful places – a little like I didn’t deserve quite so much beauty, and was kind of mucking up the beauty, ruining it for everyone else – but I stayed the course, and had a great time. Even took a walk up to the ruins of Tiberius’s villa, where he was rumored to have indulged in all kinds of sexual romps, but found nothing much sexual going on, just some frogs and butterflies and what-not flitting around some ancient columns, and in the distance a vast blue sea that must have been pretty fun to look at while engaging in sexual romps, back in the day, if you were Tiberius, and not one of the peasants he was forcibly en-romping. The whole Italian trip was magical…so thanks to everyone at MinimumFax and to the Capri Festival. It was especially nice to have my first Italian trip take place when I am already so old. That way, I could be a complete touristic fool and not have to feel bad or un-hip about it. Just picture me gaping in awe, having such original thoughts as, “Wow, this sidewalk was here in Christ’s time,” while looking wistfully at all the young Italians making out, and also, I am eating a gelato, sometimes while also drinking a Peroni. The land of “no pride” is a very comfortable place to be.
Am working on some new fiction, as usual. There’ll be a new story, called “Victory Lap,” in The New Yorker sometime this fall, and I have a short memoir piece in Granta, called “The View from the South Side, 1970,” also out in September; this is an all-Chicago edition, with some great contributors and a killer cover by Chris Ware. I also wrote an essay for an anthology being edited by Steve Almond, which will be a collection of outtakes from published stories, along with essays by the writers on why they cut the bit.
On the reading front, I’ve been prepping for a course I’m teaching at Syracuse in the fall. It’s a course focusing on Gogol, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Babel. So that’s been a treat. We’ve got an especially great new class coming in, and so I’m looking forward to meeting them next week.
I recently read Joshua Ferris’s new book, “The Unnamed,” in galleys, and found it wonderful: very deep and compelling. Joshua was nice enough to read my story “ Adams ” for The New Yorker podcast. Next up are galleys from Jonathan Lethem (“Chronic City”) and Maile Chapman (“Your Presence is Requested at Suvanto”) and am also hoping to get to Tom McCarthy’s “Remainder” this summer, as well as “Netherlands.” This may be wishful thinking, as the summer is flying past...but there’s always fall.
And speaking of fall, here are some upcoming readings and events (the dates are approximately right…best to doublecheck for exact dates/times/places):
Sept 19: Reading in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Oct 16-18: New Yorker Fest. I’ll be doing a reading on Friday and two events on Sunday: a fiction panel and then the big humor reading.
Oct 23-24: Reading at Concordia, in Montreal.
Nov 9: Reading at Bryn Mawr.
Nov 16: Reading at Chester College .
And then there are a bunch more readings in the spring.
So things are, as usual, pretty busy and rich. And, as always, I appreciate your interest in my work, and wish you all a happy and productive fall…
George
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JUNE 2008
Dear Readers,
Sorry for the silence from this end. Am really just working hard on some new fiction, so have put myself into a kind of a low-reading, low-interview period, after a busy fall promoting “The Braindead Megaphone.” So the summer plan is: hide out and write. It was interesting to be so busy and so public, and now the pendulum has swung the other way, and even going out to buy eggs seems dangerous.
I’m still writing my weekly humor column for The Guardian and had pieces in last two issues of The New Yorker. In the fall I’ll be teaching two graduate courses at Syracuse – one is a fiction workshop for our third-year students, and the other is a course in the intersection of film and books. I haven’t taught that one before, so it should be fun.
Thanks for all of your support and interest. One of the best parts of all the traveling I did in the fall was the chance to get out and meet the people who are kind enough to read my work, and be reminded of all the decency and good energy that’s out there in our country, in spite of what Our Country might be doing. I’ll try to write here again soon(er). Best wishes for a great summer to all of you.
George
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DECEMBER 30, 2006 (also printed in GQ magazine)
Not long after I got back from my recent rip along the Mexican border for GQ, I got a call from my sister, who's an occupational therapist in New Orleans. An undocumented Mexican kid, 21 years old, had fallen off a roof and broken his neck at level C3. He was paralyzed from the neck down and the prognosis was not good. He was uninsured, and, though Medicaid covered the cost of his surgery, he was out of luck as far as subsequent rehabilitation, or a wheelchair sophisticated enough to give him even a semblance of a life. Needless to say, he doesn't have much to look forward to. (The consulting neurosurgeon has communicated to my sister that he thinks it unlikely the kid will ever get any function back).
My sister's been doing this kind of work for over 20 years, but told me she's never had a case affect her as much as this one. The boy, who was unmarried, had been working in the U.S. since he was 17 and sending all of his money home to his mother in Veracruz. This boy is the sweetest, most polite person, my sister wrote me, and I wake up at night thinking about him. She described how, despite what must be a terrifying situation (the hospital has delayed telling him the full story on his condition, in hopes that his mother could be brought to the U.S. beforehand) he has been unfailingly gracious--even apologetic--to the people caring for him.
This story particularly moved me, I guess in part because I'd just come back from the border, where I'd seen what odds these immigrant workers struggle against; how the deck is stacked against them from both sides, when all they are really trying to do is make a decent living for themselves and their loved ones. One thing it seemed all sides of this debate agreed on when I was down there is this: the weight always falls on the little guy.
Anyway, my sister and I have undertaken a kind of modest mission to try and improve this kid's situation. Our main goal is to provide him with a wheelchair adequate to his needs. Anything we collect beyond that will go to help him get re-established at home, receive the additional rehabilitation he'll need, and help out his family the best we can.
If you'd like to send a check, please send it to: P.O. Box 302, DeWitt, New York, 13214, made out to Fund for N.M., and he'll get every damn cent.
Thanks so much, and Happy Holidays.
George
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DECEMBER 2006
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to write a quick note, wishing you all a happy holidays. I got back from another GQ mission in the middle of September. In this one, I drove the whole Mexican border, from Brownsville to San Diego - a total, with detours, of around 2500 miles. It was a lot of fun and very confusing. Every time I'd get some big idea about the "border issue," some living person who actually knew something would come along and contradict it. The piece, called "The Great Divider," will be in GQ's January issue, with some great photos by Marc Joseph. I'm really grateful to all of the people I met on the trip -- Border Patrol agents, Mennonites, Minutemen, you name it. It made me realize that the current left-right polarity is really only part of the story -- there was a basic American quality displayed by everyone I met -- a kind of courteous assumption-of-decency, along with a real willingess to hear and discuss whatever came up -- that I think is underrepresented in our big media. Anyway, the trip was a pleasure and gave me hope.
I had a piece in last week's New Yorker about the movie Borat, and there'll be one in there called "Ask the Optimist," which is just plain goofy.
Other than that, I'm hoping to dive, dive, dive, for awhile, and write some fiction.
Happy Holidays to all of you, and, as always, thanks for being out there.
George
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JULY 2006
Hello everyone,
Well, it's hot as hell in Syracuse, where I've been sitting in my little sweltering writing room for the last two weeks, finally working again after a lot of early summer travel. I was in the UK (for the first time in my life -- I've just written about this for the Guardian), then came home for my daughter's graduation from high school and a big party we threw for her. Then the two of us went to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the Summer Literary Seminar - one of the coolest and most intense writing conferences imaginable. They hold it during the White Nights, which is disorienting in itself, and then there is this incredible onslaught of brilliant readings and trips and classes...it's a miracle, honestly. A beautiful city, of course, but you can feel the literary history in every block. Very profound. Heard a great reading from a forthcoming collection of the work of the Russian absurdist Daniel Kharms by Ugly Duckling Press. The reading was held at the Stray Dog, the old hangout of Ahkmatova, Mandelstam, etc.
Then I came home, worked a little, and the family went out to California for a ten-day Buddhist retreat.
I'm home now, writing a lot, in the above-mentioned sweltering room, soaked in sweat, looking something like a cross between Ralph Kramden on a very hot day, and the Pa character from the old Highlights for Children strip"The Timbertoes."
I'm on a Guggenheim for the next year, so will get a break from teaching and just write, write, write. Am going on another trip for GQ next month; this time, the deal is, I'm driving the entire Mexican border, east to west. The plan is to meet with some Minutemen, the Border Patrol, etc. Should be exciting and a chance to get back to a part of the country where I spent a lot of time when I was younger.
I've been invited to do The New Yorker Festival in early October again, which is always an amazing time. (I have a new humor piece called, "Ask the Optimist" which should be running there in the next few months...)
OK- really appreciate you checking in here. Thanks, as always, to the wonderful Carol Carpenter for masterminding and maintaining this site....
All the best,
George
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MAY, 2006
Hey Everyone,
Just got back from some traveling for In Persuasion Nation, and
would like to thank the places where I read (Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.; Brookline Booksmith in Boston; Green Apple Books/The Canvas Gallery in San Francisco; and Skylight Books in Los Angeles.)
I especially want to thank, from the heart, everyone who came out to the readings. One of the best parts of being a writer is getting the chance to go out and meet the people who actually read your work. And I may be prejudiced, but I can't imagine a more generous or intelligent group of people than I met over the last week. Thank you, one million times, for being out there and for reading my books. I truly appreciate it.
The only publication immediately upcoming is in the June issue of GQ
Magazine but it's really one that is near my heart. It's about a
16-year-old boy they are calling Buddha Boy, who began meditating in the Nepali jungle in May of 2005. When I saw him, he'd been sitting
there eight months and, according to his families and the villagers, he
hadn't had any food or water in all that time. It was an incredible experience, so I hope you'll have a look at the story, which has some
amazing photos by Jeff Riedel.
I just sold a book of non-fiction to Riverhead. It's not titled yet but will have the three travel pieces for GQ (the one on Dubai, and one on Nepal mentioned above, and one yet to come), and a bunch of political and humor essays that have been in The New Yorker and Slate, and some other things--the Huck Finn essay I did for the Modern
Library, for example. It should come out about a year from now, and gives me another chance to work with the great Sean McDonald, who edited Phil and In Persuasion Nation.
This summer, I am going to do some reading in the U.K. in support of the British version (Bloomsbury) of the last two books,
bundled into one, and called The Brief and Frightening Reign of
Phil.
The schedule is as follows:
Saturday, May 27th. In conversation with Zadie Smith at Hay on Wye.
Tuesday, May 30. Event with Margaret Atwood in Salisbury.
Wednesday, May 31. Media in London (radio).
Thursday, June 1. Media in Dublin.
In early June, I'll be spending ten days in Russia, at the St. Petersburg Literary Seminar-- always a great time.
Also, because I got a Guggenheim for next year, Syracuse has been kind
enough to give me the next year off from teaching. So we are staying
in Syracuse and I am going to be, to use the technical term, "writing
my ass off."
OK that's about it from here. Thanks again, for all your kindness and support.
George
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MARCH 2006:
Hi everyone,
A few little scraps of news:
The "In Persuasion Nation" collection is coming out from Riverhead in
May. There will be tattoos available and some other cool things,
including a chapbook called "A Bee Stung Me So I Killed All the Fish,"
which has some of the political non-fiction that's been in The New
Yorker and Slate. It's gotten some nice early reviews in Kirkus,
Publisher's Weekly, and The Village Voice...
I just got back from Nepal, on assignment for GQ -- I went out to see
this 16-year-old boy who's been meditating in the jungle near India for
the last 8 months, supposedly without food or water. I stayed out at
the site on the coldest night in 70 years in that region. It was an
amazing experience. The story will be in the June issue of GQ, with
some amazing photos by Jeff Riedel.
Lane Smith and I just got our copies of the new, rereleased edition of
"The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip" that McSweeney's is putting out,
and they look beautiful. Same high-quality paper and colors and all of
that, with a new, non-vellum cover. The idea is to get these into the
kids' section of bookstores -- in the original US release, the book
ended up in the adult trade section and, I think, got a little lost.
It's won a number of awards in Europe and so we're hoping this time it
finds its audience.
The "Bohemians" story is in the new "Best American Short Stories" anthology.
Many thanks to everyone who has left messages here, and who've come out
to readings, and just thanks in general, for all your support and
encouragement.
