Best Books, 2017

As usual, this list is taken from the books I’ve read during 2017. Who cares what year a good book was published, really? I believe in buying lots of books and then letting them rise to the surface at the right time. I also believe in keeping this list to 10 or under, so I’m being pretty ruthless here (augh, the anguish!). What are the books I relentlessly urged onto other people? What are the books that haunt me months later?

One difficulty with my list is that I try to keep it free of books written by my friends, which feels more honest to me, but I am lucky to have SO MANY accomplished and prolific writer friends! Also, in this age of social media, is someone I know from Facebook a “friend” or a friend? What if I met someone once at an event…are they my friend/“friend” and therefore excluded from my list? (Clearly I have time on my hands to be worrying about this.)

Anyway, my solution is to keep a separate list of books I loved that I read this year that were written by my friends (below), and I allowed two books that blur the “friend”/friend line to sneak onto the first list.

Anyway-anyway, let’s just get to the dang books! Presented in random order:

MY BEST BOOKS, 2017

Mother, Tell Your Daughters by Bonnie Jo Campbell: This is the book I recommended the most this year. Short stories about gritty women in a forgotten corner of Michigan, written by a master. This one went straight to my “Best Books” shelf, my highest compliment, FWIW.

Single, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny: Smart, funny, insightful stories about contemporary life. I inhaled this book!

You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott: I recommended this one a lot, too. Sort of billed as a mystery, but really an exploration of life inside the family of an elite (Olympics-level) young gymnast. What does it mean, what does it cost to be “special”?

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway: A re-read after seeing “The Select,” an hours-long theatrical adaptation. The antisemitism is tough to take, obviously…but this book is a classic for a reason. Lost, yearning, broken, aimless young people—who are, unfortunately for them, smart enough to recognize their plight.

  

The Half-Known World by Robert Boswell: A craft book about writing based on a series of lectures given at the Warren Wilson low-res MFA program. I never write in books, but I scribbled the hell out of this one, marking a thousand different passages. I also immediately trashed the opening of the story I was working on and rewrote it, thanks to this book.

Insurrections by Rion Amilcar Scott: Okay, I’ve met Rion a couple of times. Nevertheless, I’m compelled to mention these short stories, which all take place in an imaginary town in Maryland that had the only successful slave revolt in America. (That’s imagined, too.) Smart and hard-eyed stories, and a great writer to study for dialogue and voice.

Robert Lowell: Setting the River on Fire, A Study of Genuis, Mania, and Character by Kay Redfield Jamison: I’m sort of obsessed with Robert Lowell, so obviously I’m going to love a giant NF book that examines his genius and life through the lens of mental illness, written by an expert in the mental health field who writes poetic sentences.

The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard: I’m probably the last writer on earth to read this fine collection of essays. But if I’m not, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. I don’t care if you don’t like essays/prose/reading/women/whatever. Trust me. Here’s her most famous essay, about the grad student who shot professors/students at the University of Iowa physics department, where Beard once worked. You’re welcome.

Eveningland by Michael Knight: I was on a real short story kick this year, and this book is one of the reasons why I kept looking for more. No gimmicks, no flash. Just solid, deep, insightful story-telling. These all take place in the Mobile Bay area of Alabama, which made for an excellent reading experience while I was in Fairhope, AL. And this is the book I gave as a hostess gift to the lovely Fairhopeans (?) who hosted me for dinner…until the bookstore ran out.

Story Problems by Charles Jensen: Okay, I also know Charlie in that “’how are you’ at an event” sort of way. These are prose poems written in the form of (guess!) math story problems that brilliantly explore loss. I know, I know…you “don’t get” poetry. Try just this tiny sample and you will be hooked: http://thediagram.com/17_1/jensen.html

Bad Kansas by Becky Mandelbaum: Might as well wind up with short stories! This book won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, for which I screened manuscripts. This book was not in my stack to read…and if it had been, I probably would have stopped right there. (Not really, I’m very responsible.) Smart, funny, sorrowful, and voicey—all these stories take place in or relate to Kansas, a geographic place and a state of mind.

BOOKS I READ/LOVED WRITTEN BY MY FRIENDS/“FRIENDS”

Virgin and Other Stories by April Ayers Lawson: uncomfortable short stories; the first and the last are especially stunning

Twin of Blackness by Clifford Thompson: memoir about growing up in old, pre-gentrified D.C.

Magic City Gospels by Ashley M. Jones: Poems! That send ice through your veins, they’re that on point!

Day of the Border Guards by Katherine E. Young: More poems! Remember Soviet Russia? Here it is, harsh and detailed, witnessed thoughtfully through intelligent eyes.

Flood by Melissa Scholes Young: You can’t go home again, or can you? Returning to blue-collar Hannibal, Missouri, home of Mark Twain, here a muse and an all-encompassing tourist industry.

The Confusion of Languages by Siobhan Fallon: A troubled, tricky relationship between two ex-pat diplomatic wives set in the Middle East during the rising Arab Spring.

Apprehensions & Convictions: Adventures of a 50-year-old Rookie Cop by Mark Johnson: You won’t always like what you read in this account of life on the streets of Mobile, Alabama, but your eyes will be opened…widely.

Good House by Peyton Marshall: Dystopian novel where boys with genetic criminal tendencies are incarcerated, and worse. (Really, this all could probably be taking place right now, beneath our noses.)

Perennials by Mandy Berman: How I love great writing about girls at camp! Good one to study for managing POV in a large cast of characters.

Dancing by the River by Marlin Barton: Alabama stories by a master story-teller. A slow burn of a book.

I’m the One Who Got Away by Andrea Jarrell: A chilling memoir about coming to terms with an abusive and confusing girlhood.

Mountains of Light: Seasons of Reflection in Yosemite by R.Mark Liebenow: Memoir and nature writing winding together with the force of El Capitan itself. I read this on the plane flying home from California, and it was as if I were still in Yosemite, treading the paths, gazing at those ethereal granite formations, one with nature.

*****

Finally, thank you to ALL writers EVERYWHERE! I would be lost without books and stories. Believe me, I appreciate how hard it is to write, and I am grateful for each hard-earned word you share.

Apps Due for FREE Jenny McKean Moore Poetry Workshop...Program to be Suspended in Fall 2018

Here’s information about the upcoming FREE Jenny McKean Moore workshop at GW University…there is no website, so this is all the information you’ll need. 

Unfortunately, I received this notice along with a memo noting that the program is going to be suspended after spring 2018 due to financial considerations. Though the letter feels slightly hopeful that the suspension won’t be permanent, I’m still sad. This program was a wonderful addition to our DMV literary community.

The George Washington University

Jenny McKean Moore Free Community Workshop

Spring 2018 – Poetry Workshop

Led by Sally Wen Mao

Wednesdays, 7:00 – 9:00 P.M.

24 January – 25 April 2018

Come take part in a semester-long poetry workshop! To apply, you do not need academic qualifications or publications. The class will include some readings of published writings (primarily memoir and the personal essay), but will mainly be a roundtable critique of work submitted by class members. There are no fees to participate in the class, but you will be responsible for making enough copies of your stories for all fifteen participants. Students at Consortium schools (including GWU) are not eligible.

To apply, please submit a brief letter of interest and a sample of your poetry: 3-5 poems, 12 pt type, no more than 7 pages in length. Include your name, address, home and work telephone numbers, and email address for notification. Application materials will not be returned but will be recycled once the selection process is completed. Applications must be received at the following address by Tuesday, 9 January 2018:

JMM Poetry Workshop

Department of English

The George Washington University

801 22nd Street, NW (Phillips 643)

Washington, DC 20052

All applicants will be notified by email of the outcome of their submissions no later than Saturday, 20 January 2018.

Sally Wen Mao is the 2017-2018 Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington at The George Washington University. She is the author of Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014) and the forthcoming Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019). Her work has been published in The Best American Poetry 2013, A Public Space, Poetry, Tin House, Missouri Review, and others. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars at the New York Public Library, Hedgebrook, Kundiman, Bread Loaf Writers Conference, and others. 

New Flash Fiction!

Here’s my story “Valentine’s Day” in Shenandoah that will probably take you about three minutes to read:

“It’s your worst habit.” She accuses him constantly, a waspish buzz to ignore: it’s the toothpick wagging between his teeth, or “Jesus fucking Christ” flying out even on Sundays, or letting crackers go stale with the inner bag left gaping open, or sleepwalking, or. “It’s your worst habit,” she says to all of that and to all the rest, a prissy smirk cemented on her face, and here it is tonight, already.

Read on: https://shenandoahliterary.org/671/2017/09/07/valentines-day-pietryk/

~AND~

Here’s my story “Leftovers” in Four Way Review that will probably take you about 45 seconds to read:

My English teacher said yesterday there’s no gift that doesn’t come with chains. No one was listening because she’s always spouting stupid crap but she, right at that exact second, started giving me her sharp-eye and I wrote it down and she smiled this tight way that prickled me.

Read the rest: http://fourwayreview.com/leftovers-by-leslie-pietrzyk/

Both pieces were written in my amazing prompt writing group…more info about that (and how you can incorporate prompts into your writing life) here: https://www.awpwriter.org/magazine_media/writers_notebook_view/39/prompt_writing_not_just_for_workshop

CRWROPPS: The Writer's Best Biz Friend

This is one of the best resources I know for keeping up to date with calls for submissions and literary jobs/opportunities. It's also the place to share your own press/journal calls for work.Best of all, it is FREE! You can either consult the posts online or get an email sent to you daily. Here’s how to sign up:

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