A blurb for Hometown (V. Press, 2016) from David Gaffney

I'm so looking forward to the publication of my first pamphlet/chapbook of flash fictions from V. Press in 2016, Hometown. As I've admired David Gaffney's short-short stories for some years, I asked him if he'd provide a blurb for the collection, if he liked it. Here's what he sent: "Etter's stories climb into your head and reboot it from the inside, from the squealingly joyous to the darkly sad, some with gear changes that fling you backwards in your seat, some told in voices so strong you could lean against them, and then some fragile, as if the page held nothing but the faint impression of a delicate and long-dead insect. I can't wait for more."

My first collection of fiction

Some of you will know that I've published a number of stories in lit mags over the years, so hopefully it won't be a complete surprise that V. Press has offered to publish a chapbook/pamphlet of my flash fictions next year. I haven't decided on a title yet, but I'm already trying to obtain a particular image for the cover. We're aiming for May 2016 publication, so I can do a launch at Bath Spa before the school year ends. 

Yay!

 

"Permanent Winter"

My short-short story, "Permanent Winter," appears in the December online issue of Bluestem, available to read here. I wrote it last January, when my brother-in-law Reggie was complaining on Facebook about all the snow days they were having in Illinois.

Self-Censorship and Writing in and out of the Classroom

Yesterday at the annual NAWE conference (the National Association for Writers in Education, UK), I spoke on a panel with Bath Spa colleague Steve May and Columbia College Chicago comrades Randy Albers and Alexis Pride. Titled "Revelation and Transgression: Moving Past Self-Censorship," we spoke both about our own experiences overcoming self-censorship and about trying to get students to overcome it in their own writing. 

I think students feel or obtain such permission largely by example, by the reading they're assigned or recommended and by the instructor's own work. For example, Alexis spoke movingly about how the literary weight given in the classroom to Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye made African-American experience seem welcome subject matter; and after sharing some of the poems that have arisen from my own experience as a birthmother (as in my pamphlet/chapbook The Son), I've had students seek me out to discuss writing and sharing their own work on subjects they consider taboo. The same thing has happened with my experimental poetry--sometimes once a student finds it on her own or comes to a reading I give from it, she'll come to me to find out about experimental writing more generally and how to get started writing it.

The topic lingers in my mind as I consider how I might improve my teaching by broadening such models, perhaps especially in my Sudden Prose module with a wider array of flash fictions and prose poems. Your thoughts and recommendations are most welcome!