Traipsed up and down the levels of Powell’s yesterday, scratching this and that from my semester’s 20-book reading list. A few eluded me and I’ll have to go the online route to snag ‘em. Should be fun. I think. Hope. Nah, it will be. Also worked digital storytelling into the fold, so I’ll be off to the Bay Area for a digital storytelling class shortly. The plan (subject to creative change): A creative body of work for my thesis, which will include personal essays / memoir and digital storytelling essays. (If you’re smelling online stalking and sexual harassment — including from colleagues — as topic fodder, you’re right. I refused to let the R-S buy my silence. And you, dear stalkers, won’t silence me either. Not with fear. Not with intimidation. Not with the implicit threat of rape — a gangbang, the Workers’ Compensation psychologist said during my interview. Not at all.) Still, there are — many — other subjects rattling around, all of which touch me deeply. I’m delighted to explore and write about them all, although the process isn’t always delightful. And I hope I can touch my readers, too.
But back to the positive momentum, which is finding the lemonade in the lemons, to borrow from a tired cliche. Loved the exhaustive pace of the Goddard MFA residency, which had me running from 5:45 a.m. until about 9 p.m. I’m trying to defrag all that I’ve learned over the intensive. And I was utterly delighted to see friends, an old one and many new ones, who I’m privileged to share a journey with. Happy trails to you. And now, the works begins, along with some freelance newspaper work (stand by). Yahoo!
-Christy
The semester’s reading list:
Angelou, Maya. I know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Bird, Isabella. Adventures in the Rocky Mountains
Duras, Marguerite. The Lover
Gonzalez, Rigoberto. Butterfly Boy
Gornick, Vivian. Fierce Attachments
Gornick, Vivian. The Situation and the Story
Graham, Sheilah. Beloved Infidel
Griffin, Susan. A Chorus of Stones
Guevara, Ernesto Che. The Motorcycles Diaries
Kapil, Bhanu. The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers
Lambert, Joe. Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community
Lowe, Bia. Wild Ride
Rankine, Claudia. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
Sebald, W.G. The Rings of Saturn
Tempest Williams, Terry. Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Thompson, Abigail. Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life
Twain, Mark. Roughing It
Wolff, Geoffrey. The Duke of Deception: Memories of my Father
Wolff, Tobias. In the Garden of the American Martyrs
Wolff, Tobias. The Boy’s Life
Filed under: Books, Butterflies, Christy Lochrie, Creativity, Newspapers, conversation | Tagged: creative projects, Grad school, reading
[...] the reading list: Vivian Gornick’s “Fierce Attachments.” I find myself flinching at her honesty [...]