RANDA JARRAR

My hot Egyptian brothas won the African Cup. Excellent. I’m not a huge soccer fan, but I am a fan of sexy sweating dudes playing soccer.

…over at FT. From the article:

At The New Yorker, whose sacerdotal approach to editing and mania for accuracy were derided in the 1960s by Tom Wolfe for leaving readers lost in “whichy thickets”, Wood has now found himself at the fastidious end of the publishing scale, which on the whole is a good thing. As with The New Republic, the editing process is one where he is constantly being asked to go deeper. “I find it isn’t the editors who put that qualification in,” he says, “it’s the fact-checkers. They have to be resisted, because they want to water down unprovable assertions. So you say: ‘There is great disagreement about Cormac McCarthy’s status’ – this was a piece I wrote a couple of years ago when No Country For Old Men came out – and they’ll say to you: ‘Well, I’ve been on the internet and I haven’t found much disagreement actually.’ So you say: ‘Well, for instance, Ian McEwan thinks he’s complete shit.’ ‘Yeah, but we’ll have to say then there’s been “some” disagreement.’ And already it’s getting wimpish.”

And here’s what the book‘s cover will look like. (You can click to enlarge.) I’m so happy with it I could plotz. I always worried that whatever publishing house I ended up with would put veils or exotic images or”Islamic” geometric designs or weird fonts on my cover. Instead the cover turned out exactly in tune with the colorful, jazzy spirit of the book. Hurrah! (For the book and for small presses.)

PS Big ups to Joe Namy for his artistic genius awesomeness!

“Wars in Distant Lands,” a short story by Najem Wali, appears in the February issue of Harper’s. I’m disproportionately happy about this. It’s almost never that a translated Arabic story makes it into the top-tier mags.

George Saunders came to visit U of M to do a reading at an awards ceremony and give a small workshop. I was lucky enough to have him workshop my stories, and now I know that getting compliments from Mr. Saunders can give me a level of confidence and bliss equal to three hits of ex. I learned so much listening to him talk, I wish I could relay it all here. But the top amazing things he said/did I condensed as follows:

1- He flipped off the workshop. Literally. He said the best thing a writer can do is shut out all voices but his own.
2- He stressed the importance of making “warrior time,” time to write, especially, he said, if you’re a woman (!).
3- Listen to what you think are your weaknesses, he said. Those are actually your strengths. Don’t spend time trying to be another writer. Be yourself, and find joy in your work.
4- Be reckless.
5- All storytelling tends to be about the day something different happened. Little Red Riding Hood went to visit her grandma everyday. We don’t hear about those visits, we only hear about the one that went wrong. Think about how that applies to your own fiction.

Those are my top five favorite things he said, along with the fact that a first-time writer has to remember that when their book comes out, time doesn’t stop. It goes on, and so should your next book.

A rock star, Saunders exceeded all my expectations. How inspiring to see a writer who teaches by just being himself.