In this now surreal and dystopian 2020, this magical realism blogger turns, not to a magical writer, or a realist writer, but to a writer who was arguably an absurdist or an existentialist. Or maybe both and neither. Yup. Albert Camus. I guess alot of us are thinking about Albert Camus because of his famous … Continue reading March 2020 What would Camus say?
Author: Stephanie Barbé Hammer
Stephanie Barbé Hammer is a prose writer, magical realist, and a committed, intermittent poet. A 5-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize she has published work in Hayden's Ferry, Pearl, CRATE, Rhapsoidia, NYCBigCityLit, the East Jasmine Review, Apeiron, Inlandia, Literary Alchemy and the Bellevue Literary Review among other places. Her fabulist novel _The Puppet Turners of Narrow Interior_ appeared in March 2015 with Urban Farmhouse Press. Her poetry collection _How Formal?_ was published in 2014 with Spout Hill Press and her prose poem collection _SEX WITH BUILDINGS_ was published in May 2012 by Dancing Girl Press. Stephanie is addicted to teaching; she taught composition for the first time ever at Edmonds Community College. She is currently managing editor for SHARK REEF literary magazine and trying to make something happen with her second novel manuscript.
and… read something
Friends -- while we're gearing up to write we can also read something. Read something by a friend or a stranger. Read something by a stranger who became a friend. A couple of weeks ago I received a copy of Gloss, the new poetry collection by Wendy Barker. It's fantastically good. I met Wendy at … Continue reading and… read something
no return to normalcy– so? write about it
Dear friends -- I haven't posted in a while because, in order to pay off a tiny bit of my trip to France last fall, I taught at Edmonds Community College this quarter. I had been looking forward all winter to planning a big end of April trip to SoCal, the area that I still … Continue reading no return to normalcy– so? write about it
why bother?
https://images.app.goo.gl/YrEbzqUVGKMtNN8R8 (phab photo of comedian Phyllis Diller by Lee Cerano) Friends -- I've been asking myself this alot these days. Brilliant poet Judy Kronenfeld warned that at a certain stage in life, creativity comes less easily, and I am certainly experiencing that. But I also feel a certain futility about a lot of what I … Continue reading why bother?
me and Peter Handke
Friends -- This is a rough, inelegant attempt at a bundle of issues that I'm trying to grapple with vis a vis this author. I wish I could say what I want to say better. But here it is. Long before I became a creative writer, in another life I was a comparative literature scholar … Continue reading me and Peter Handke
We cry because we laughed and vice versa – thoughts about the unreal in performance
What is moving us now in this strange historical moment of lies and spectacle? What art speaks when kids are caged at the border and families get shot as they shop for back-to-school supplies at a Walmart? An American resident who is a journalist who gets murdered and dismembered in an embassy? What can get … Continue reading We cry because we laughed and vice versa – thoughts about the unreal in performance
New Story up at Isthmus Review
Friends -- did you ever start writing a story, that seemed to go swimmingly until.... the end? That's what happened with this short story that I kept on tweaking but couldn't find the right closure for, until .... i could. Enjoy. And then please take a look at the beautiful pieces in this issue. … Continue reading New Story up at Isthmus Review
Too real: Bergdorf’s, New York, East Coast private schools and the sexual threat from E. Jean Carroll to Christine Blasey Ford (it really is as bad as it sounds)
Friends -- this is not my usual kind of post, but these are some thoughts I'd like to share nonetheless. This past Friday night, I watched E. Jean Carroll tell Lawrence O’Donnell her story of how Donald Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. That story – like the story of Christine … Continue reading Too real: Bergdorf’s, New York, East Coast private schools and the sexual threat from E. Jean Carroll to Christine Blasey Ford (it really is as bad as it sounds)
Our Sansa
What does it mean to be proud of a fictional character? What does it mean when we not only embrace them, not just follow their progress, but make them a family member as though we knew them intimately, and then not just applaud them, but in the Yiddish parlance of my family, kvell for them? … Continue reading Our Sansa
Story time Sunday — May 12th 2019 — a list poem for Mother’s Day
Writing friends -- Samantha Udegrave and I have been talking about list poems in our class at Hugo House, and I thought I'd share a rough draft of a piece I just wrote this morning. Lists can be a powerful way to engage with difficult material, and I hope you'll use this draft as an … Continue reading Story time Sunday — May 12th 2019 — a list poem for Mother’s Day
