May 31, 2012
Since publishing my monograph, Beyond the Icon: Virginia Woolf in Contemporary Fiction, I’ve continued to record new Woolf references in fiction, and I continue to find them frequently, often by chance. In the monograph I analyzed 37 Woolf citations, and now I have 29 more, for a total of 66. I haven’t a clue what I’m going to do with them, if anything, but I still find it fascinating and rife with meaning.
The two most recent sightings are linked here, in my latest post on Blogging Woolf.
May 23, 2012
Sigh. Robert Browning’s sentiment has often been my own. My latest published essay, linked here: “Cornish Pasty” in Phoebe Journal, records my last trip to England, in 2006, and brings it all back in a rush. It’s also the final piece in a trilogy of essays about my Virginia Woolf pilgrimage. (The first piece is still looking for a home, and the second one, “Elvis Standing By,” was published last year.)
May 14, 2012
Don’t worry. I’m not one to strew my personal angst or the seedier scenes from my speckled past into my essays or on my blog – unless I can have fun with them. Don’s unplanned-for period of unemployment last year wasn’t all that traumatic for us, but it was terrific grist for the writer’s mill, and I’ve used it in two stories.
My essay about sushi and life, “Love at First Bite,” ends with Don being laid off: “…afater the initial shock, we looked at each other and shrugged: ‘Let’s go to RK [sushi] for lunch and make a plan.’ Sushi is a luxury now, but we’re champs at tightening the belt and do it with such panache.” This story was just published in the San Diego City College literary anthology, City Works 2012. It’s a print journal, so I can’t link to it here.
But here’s the piece that evolved from the six months that followed, “He just stands there and breathes…,” which has just been published in the on-line journal, Prime Number. And of course I couldn’t leave out Virginia Woolf.
May 10, 2012
Everyone’s entitled to the escape reading of their choice, whether it’s who-dunnits or sci-fi or erotica – mine is chick lit, & so I had great fun standing up for it in my latest “Between the Lines” column for the Presidio Sentinel. It was the first of a series about local authors, and Jennifer Coburn, the author of four delightful novels, was my first choice as a feature.
Jen and I go way back – we worked together at Planned Parenthood and have popped up in each others’ paths over the years. Most recently I saw her at the International Women’s Day rally downtown. Which is to say that her feminist credentials can’t be called into question, and her chick lit novels all have a way of showing the strength & savvy of her characters.
I also make the argument that Virginia Woolf would approve!
May 3, 2012
Going back to school in my 30′s was the turning point in my life–my personal renaissance–and writing about it was a long and arduous process, because it was so important for me to get it right. I sent out my completed essay, “Re-Entry,” earlier this year, and it was published just this week in Jenny, an online journal from Youngstown State University.
Jenny is the nickname for Jennifer that my daughter disowned when she was five, but this Jenny is the Jeannette Blast Furnace in Youngstown Ohio, mentioned by Bruce Springsteen in his 1995 song “Youngstown.”
It will come as no surprise that Virginia Woolf enters into this account as she does most of my stories.
April 17, 2012
Compiling references to Virginia Woolf from my reading is a never-ending adventure. It never ends because Woolf’s appearance in contemporary fiction, memoirs, essays and more, shows no sign of lessening, and it never ends for me because I continue to be fascinated with this phenomenon. I can’t think of anyone mentioned more than Woolf except perhaps Shakespeare. My 2010 monograph, Beyond the Icon: Virginia Woolf in Contemporary Fiction, included 37 references from fiction; since then I’ve brought the total to 63.
These sightings make up the majority of my posts as a regular contributor to BloggingWoolf. This past week I noted my latest findings, one in a delightful story, “Festival of the Immortals,” by Helen Simpson, and a couple more in the world-within-a-world of literary journals.
April 4, 2012
It was invigorating and inspiring to attend the release party for the San Diego Writers, Ink fifth annual anthology of work by local writers. And it was extra nice that my writing buddy, Jim Brega, was one of the anthology authors who was celebrated. Jim and other authors read from their work, a fine sampling of prose and poetry. I wrote a recap for the Presidio Sentinel column.
March 10, 2012
I tuned in by web to last week’s Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Chicago. It would have been exciting to be among the 9,000 participants and to hear Margaret Atwood’s keynote talk as well as many of the other authors presenting. I’m sure Virginia Woolf’s name and references to her work came up at many of the 400 sessions – I found two & noted them on the Woolf blog.
March 3, 2012
…and on and on. Which is what I wrote about in my latest Between the Lines column for the Presidio Sentinel after reading P.D. James’ Death Comes to Pemberley. The Jane mania has resulted in a fair share of silliness, but it’s also gotten people talking about and reading Jane Austen. The examples I provide are just a smattering of what’s come along in recent years.
The Virginia Woolf fascination continues as well, although I think a lot of people find Woolf’s own work more intimidating. But we’ve come a long way from when she was thought to be the character played by Elizabeth Taylor in ”Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
February 16, 2012
I just finished reading Glaciers, by Alexis Smith. The narrator, Isabel, is such a fragile flower, and while I’m not one by any stretch of the imagination, her life and loves and longings resonated for me in this sweet story.
Because the writing was compared to Virginia Woolf – which is what enticed me to read it — and as I found a hidden reference to Woolf, I wrote about it in my post, “Woolf Haunts Glaciers“, on Blogging Woolf.
