RANDA JARRAR

The newest issue of the Australian literary journal Skive Magazine includes my short story, “Grace.”  I wrote the first draft of ”Grace” at Hedgebrook two years ago; it’s thrilling to see it published.  You can read the story if you click here to download a free PDF of the magazine.  It’s one of few stories I’ve written about Non-Arabs.  Hope you’ll check it out & enjoy…

I’m reading for the Arab Students’ Association tonight at the Betsey Barbor Lounge on the University of Michigan campus. 7PM

Also, tomorrow night, I’ll be in Chicago reading at the Book Cellar as part of the Scion Author Tour. Come out for profanity and a goody bag!  Details:

7pm
The Book Cellar
4736 N. Lincoln Ave.

I watched a little over half of the Hunter S Thompon biographical documentary last night. I’m looking forward to finishing it. Here are some writers I really want to see docu-bios on.  If such films already exist, please email or comment pronto:

Flannery O’Connor.  Including footage of the house and any recordings by her, with short glimpses of her craziness.

Mahmoud Darwish.  Plenty of interviews with both Palestinian and Israeli writers, and lots of footage of him as a hot young man.  Also, footage of his readings.  Amazing.

Willa Cather.  Drag king photos, and lots of ‘em.

Jane Bowles.  Cool info about her, not Paul.  Pictures of her lovers.  Old footage of Truman Capote calling her a genius.

Edward Said.  The whole thing narrated by his pal Salman Rushdie.  In fact, it would be cool if he did the interviews, too.

Borges.  Footage everywhere, including Texas, where he was staying during the Whitman shootings.

Kafka.  An animated one, to include some of his own illustrations.

Which writer would you like to see a bio-doc on?

Wish I could go see Eudora Welty’s photos in NYC:

Fifty black-and-white photographs taken by Eudora Welty (1909-2001)… will be on exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York from November 7, 2008, through February 15, 2009. Beginning with a re-creation of her first solo photography show held in 1936 at the then Photographic Galleries in New York, and ending with eleven photographs the author made in New York City, the exhibition reveals Welty’s fascination with, and compassion towards, people from all walks of life.

More at Artdaily.

The weather is shifting to real Winter mode here in Michigan.  For me, that means I will try to hibernate and spend the Winter writing on the new typewriter (which is becoming more and more beautiful to me now that my macbook is prone to random shutdowns and data-erasing).  Everyone often comments on how the second novel is hell to write.  Zadie Smith wrote somewhere that it is often a process in repudiation of the one the writer undertook for her first book.  That was the case for me until recently.  Recently, I have begun to wonder how exactly I managed to write my first draft of the first novel. I am superstitious by nature, so I am wondering if duplication of the conditions (poverty, sleep-deprivation, etc.) would be effective.  Of course, I don’t actually want to go there; for one thing, the first novel was written in a hot climate whereas this one is struggling to be born in a very cold one.  Still, it has me wondering how other writers cope with the second baby.

I’m back in Michigan… Wordfest was incredible, favorite moments include: sitting on the same couch as Sandra Tsing Loh and Lynda Barry, browsing at Powell’s then walking over to Rocco’s and having a slice of greasepizza with punks and their punkbabies; meeting a college freshman who told me she couldn’t wait to read my book; and ordering “companion fish” from the Benson’s Hotel’s friendly housekeeping staff (2 minutes later, a couple of active and confused goldfish showed up in a bowl, carried by a suited man).  I was on the same plane as Lynda Barry on the way home, which rocked my world.

I’m writing from Portland, where I’m attending Wordstock.  Tomorrow, 11/9, I’ll be reading from A Map of Home in room 136 at 11AM.  And at 3PM, I’ll be joining Rachael King and Selden Edwards on the First Books panel at the McMenamins Stage.  Hope you’ll join us, or spread the word to your Portland friends!

Check out this great article, which includes quotes from Toni Morrison, Rick Moody, Jane Smiley, and others, on how Obama is the first writer president. A snippet:

Morrison finds herself wondering how some of her late friends would have reacted, like James Baldwin (“How I miss him now,” she says), who in the 1960s had scorned as condescending Robert Kennedy’s prediction that the United States would have a black president in 40 years. Were “Invisible Man” author Ralph Ellison still alive, he would have renamed his classic novel “Visible Man,” Morrison joked.

How thrilling. My eyes are still a little puffy from crying with joy. Everyone’s already said this, but those of us who are minorities in America have been inspired, moved, and validated, as have our children. I worry just a little less today about my son’s future. Hurrah!