The occasion: “#SixWordNovels” was trending.

This post by fellow writer Aubrey Hirsch pretty much sums up my experience at AWP.  I didn’t take many pictures.

Some shout-outs: During the spring of 2010, vintage (and vintage-inspired) clothing retailer Modcloth started a literary journal, The Written Wardrobe. Turi Fesler, a creative writing MFA candidate, is the Fiction Editor.  But the literary connections don’t end there–they’re known for their stylish copywriting and had a booth at AWP in Denver.

This year, they sponsored a literary deathmatch and hosted a panel.  And finally, they held a reading for The Written Wardrobe. Since one of my stories was selected to appear in their inaugural edition, they invited me to read.  It was a great atmosphere, full of family and friends and well-dressed attractive people. Some pictures can be found here, even though I’m not in them. I’m told there will be more pictures and even a podcast, so stay tuned.

I think it’s wonderful–and even necessary–for contemporary literature to reach more than just a small group of insiders, so I’m a huge fan of this new venture.  In a lot of ways, the new currency for writers is publicity and aesthetics, and Modcloth has been generous with both.   Aside from investing hours contacting venues and planning the reading, they designed and printed flyers and promoted it heavily online and at the conference.  Also, did I mention there were free drinks?  As a writer, I want my work to be read, but I also want it to have a good home, so I was happy when I saw their sleek and professional site.  Also, check out the promotional video for TWW.

I know thanking people is uncool in this day and age.  And also, that as a writer, I’m supposed to pretend that money doesn’t exist.  But on a very basic level, Modcloth spent a lot to support writers, and they didn’t have to.  A lot of writers are anxious about the future of our enterprise, and it’s encouraging when people outside of the field step up to show us love.

Another shout-out: my friends started a literary journal, Flywheel.  Speaking of aesthetics, Devan Goldstein designed the site and is also the the flash fiction editor.  Especially for those of you who like weirdly specific and exhaustive submission guidelines, check them out and submit!

Flickr photos by Erin McCann

Everything I write is a love letter.

I just finished reading “To Psychic Underworld:” by Dan Chaon. A wonderful, unsettling story that left (in me, anyway) a strange floating, untethered feeling. It’s hard to explain.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned him before on this site, but Dan Chaon is one of my favorite writers. “Among the Missing” is one of the best story collections of the past decade, and I was especially impressed by his most recent novel “Await Your Reply,” which has an interesting, almost cinematic sense of pacing and momentum.  It’s hard to describe without giving too much away, but the novel has three intertwined storylines: a man searching for his mentally ill brother, a recent high school graduate running away with her former teacher, and a young man reinventing himself after his family thinks he’s dead.  There are issues related to identity.  There are tricksters.

Most of Chaon’s previous work was set in the American Midwest, but this novel has a more global feel, as characters from all over the world interact in unexpected ways. One can imagine the author feeling somewhat liberated by all the possibilities–the main characters are great, but some of the novel’s memorable moments involved jolly menacing Russians and an African hairdresser. Highly recommended.

Graphic by Janet Parker

Glory awaits the person or persons who can procure me:

An expert on primates (preferably Chimpanzees)

Someone knowledgeable about rare Chinese teas and calligraphy

Someone who speaks fluent Swedish

A combat veteran of the recent wars in Afghanistan or Iraq

An old-fashioned barber who shaves facial hair with a straight razor

*It would be great if you could find one person who fits all the above criteria.

Rewards to choose from:

I will stop defaming you on Twitter

I will perform for you a one-man interpretive reenaction of the movie Blade Runner, complete with voices

A third-round draft pick in next season’s fantasy football league

A plastic cup full of paperclips in assorted sizes

What I’m working on:

A story inspired by Julian Assange’s James Bond Bunker

A story inspired by the movie Project X

A series of poems about the census

An essay about Picasso, The Boy Scouts, and haunted houses

Drink: Anchor Steam beer
Classic album: Led Zeppelin, IV
Current Album: Hot Chip, One Night Stand
Recent purchase: Ikea bookshelf
Weapon of Choice: A boombox that plays RUN-DMC’s “It’s Like That” at intolerable volumes

All bunkers should be James Bond-inspired.

A few months ago, I signed up for a Twitter account. The main reason was because if you asked the Old Spice Man a question on Twitter, he’d respond with a personalized video. My plan was to ask him, “What is the future of literary fiction?” for an online panel I was on.  But the same day I got a Twitter account, the Old Spice Man retired.  Apparently, he’s starring in a movie with Jennifer Aniston now.

So, for weeks, this Twitter account just sat and did nothing.  And now, I’ve decided to put it to use.  Ernest Hemingway once wrote a six-word story he was quite proud of:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

And those six words tell you everything you need to know about Hemingway. Not really.

Following Hemingway’s lead, I decided to post my own six-word stories on Twitter, one a week.  I have no idea whether I’ll be able to come up with 52 of them this year, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.  Some of them will make it onto this blog.  So far, here’s what I’ve come up with:

Opened chest: yet another treasure map.

The glass palace lasted a month.

New television show: prison riot cookoff.

The monkey butler didn’t work out.

In Soviet Russia, novel finishes you.

Okay, so that last one wasn’t quite a story.  Follow the posts in realtime: @robertyune.

Related: The Old Spice Man narrowly avoids certain death, from Newsweek.

Six-word Memoirs, from SMITH Magazine

More Six-word Stories from Wired

From an interview with Junot Diaz by “The Good Men Project,” an online magazine devoted to masculinity and philanthropy.

TGMP: What advice would you give teenage boys trying to figure out what it means to be a good man?

Junot Diaz: Advice is all young people ever get. I’d rather give mentorship: a reliable, steady, supportive presence that can model productive behavior and help them navigate this crazy world.

I don’t talk much about teaching on this blog, but I think Diaz’s quote applies to the classroom as well.  My best creative writing teachers also functioned as role models: obviously, I learned a lot listening to them, but I also watched what they did and it was the small details–the patience, the self-discipline, the generosity–that made the most lasting impression.

The Good Men Project also publishes fiction. You can read a story by James Franco here.

Currently reading:

1. “The Big Sleep” by Raymond Chandler.  Hard to believe I haven’t read this before, I know.

2. “Ulysses” by James Joyce.  Same as #1.  I hate this book.  So much of it is like a half-funny joke that keeps on going for an entire chapter.  Which is funny, I guess, but only for the person telling it.  But part of me feels like a fake for not having read it all these years.  Virginia Woolf hated this book, too.  From Katie Riophe’s wonderful “Why Criticism Matters” article in The New York Times:

“Mr. Joyce’s indecency in ‘Ulysses’ seems to me the conscious and calculated indecency of a desperate man who feels that in order to breathe he must break the windows. At moments, when the window is broken, he is magnificent. But what a waste of energy!”

Zing!

3. “Freedom” by Jonathan Franzen.  Ironically, due to the title, this is yet another book I feel obligated to read.  Also, I hear there’s a Bright Eyes concert and I can’t wait to read Franzen’s description of Conor Oberst’s hypothermic folk-rock caterwauling.

Although I do like Bright Eyes.  I own his techno album.  Also, “Fevers & Mirrors.”  And “I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.”  Terrance Stamp was in the video for “At The Bottom of Everything.”

Drink: Vodka Tonic

Classic Album: Pink Floyd, “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”

Current Album: Mumford & Sons, “Sigh No More”

Recent purchase: Six bags of POM Wonderful pistachio nuts

Weapon of Choice: Snowball

Related: “With Clarity and Beauty, the Weight of Authority” by Katie Roiphe. From The New York Times, 12/31/10.