Political season is hot and heavy in the United States and has been for awhile now as 2012 brings us the Presidential Election. Every three four years we elect a president, but every three years we have to deal with political ads and media hoopla. Can you tell already how tiresome I think it all is?

Unfortunately, it’s also the season where people who have been Facebook friends for years get into political arguments that cause them to defriend each other and be bitter rivals for years afterwards. It would seem that most Americans can easily be torn apart by the discussion of politics. Which, if you think about it, is rather lame because IF it would have been such a divisive issue between friends, wouldn’t they have figured that out much sooner? Why does it take an election year to finally figure out someone’s true ‘passion’?

Personally, I don’t really ascribe to any political party (even though I’m registered Republican). I find policies on both sides of the parties I like and policies on both sides I don’t agree with. I voted for Bush and I voted for Obama. My Facebook even says I’m “purple” in the political category.

Recently I was talking to a friend who was bemoaning the political state of affairs in the country. Why can’t it be fixed, he asked. So I told him the story of the penny (from one of my favorite episodes of West Wing). In the episode Sam tries to figure out why they can’t abolish the penny. Sam’s quest takes most of the episode. On the pro side of the argument he has lots of great reasons, most pennies fall out of circulation (2/3 of them are never used again), the minerals used in creating a penny are mined and mining them pollutes the earth, and a bunch of other reasons, but he struggles to find a reason NOT to abolish the penny (the answer he wants to find). Finally, he stumbles across it – Lincoln is on the penny. Lincoln is from Illinois (the only state that accepts pennies in their toll machines). The Speaker of the House is from Illinois. All of that work, to simply kill a good idea.

I equate politics to a giant Jenga game. We can’t pull this piece out because it rests on all of these backroom policies, extra grievances, special interest groups, etc. As political folks have said in the past it’s much easier to pass a law then it is to change one we’ve discovered is broken. Politics is an inelegant system to deal with an elegant idea: democracy.

So, if you’re one of those people who have defriended someone for their political stance that you were friends with before, go apologize. Political party lines don’t define us. They define our broken answer to the inelegant system. Sometimes, as I learned in Sports Night, you’ve just got to separate the stuff from the stuff.

I’m live blogging at AWP. If you’re unfamiliar, I keep updating this post as the panel goes along. Hit refresh to see more notes.

The room is pretty full!

A cursory look at the job listing a MFA seems insufficient to be hired for teaching.

The average PhD takes five to seven years. At times working on a doctorate can cause frustration or despair.

The objective of the panel is to ease the path of those pursuing the degree.

Christian Jerard (sp?) is a poet who is with the University of Tenn. after finishing his MFA he thought he needed more education to really feel like he “owned” a classroom. He loves teaching and wanted to teach. He thought the PhD was the next step. His most important lesson was that his creative dissertation was that he’s still doing a lot of research and critical work.

One of the struggles is how to be a scholar when you think of yourself mainly as a writer. But the benefit is to bring a sense of tradition to your work. You feel apart of something much bigger than yourself.

Writers bring a different perspective to their lit classes that “straight lit” kids can’t.

This is not an MFA vacation.
Doland – “my story is really about stumbling and staggering through life.” She’s a historical novelist.

After college she didn’t know what she wanted to do, so she went to Japan, then came back and took a workshop where her work was ripped apart. She went to another workshop. Then went to AWP and decided to move to Washington DC her parents said she should go to school (MFA)Her first paper was about Mammies were masculized. Her professor said she was good at doing criticism.

After her dissertation she realized she really loved creative writing and wanted to teach creative writing. She felt like an imposter though because she was teaching without publishing a book.

It helps to have a PhD helps you because you can teach more courses.

Having a PhD helped her writing as a historical novelist because she knows how to research.

Roger Reeves -poet, the name of his presentation was something like this… advice for writers who want to go to graduate school because the economy tanked in 2009. Advice: drop big words in your conversation to impress your professors.

Roger was told by a poetry professor that he wasn’t a black poet because his poems followed the tradition of French poems. He launched into a litany of black poets and their poetry’s tradition.

He tells this story because often what graduate students are discouraged about what they want to study. Roger says to risk, risk, risk! We are building birds not bird cages. Parroting back is often rewarded in programs, but risk doing something new.

There is a space for our brilliance despite the pressures of money, jobs, etc.

New panelist – just finished her PhD two days ago at U of Penn. She’s a fiction writer. Her thesis was on contemporary black women authors. She became a writer because she fell in love with voice. Her scholarly self discusses voice and so does her creative self.

Her MFA in creative writing was literature classes with PhDs and creative writing workshops.

Going to a PhD seemed organic because she realized she’s always thought critically as a writer. Even though she’s creative. In college she had a fellowship for playwrighting and critical writing.

Misconceptions.. She thought shed be able to write during her PhD because she was only taking three courses.

She thought everyone would understand her scholarly work and creative work, but it wasn’t so. People did not see the connections between her scholarship and creative work.

Strategies.. Plan to write, revise and submit. Get organized about it. She realized her writing time was limited and so it had to be productive. While she was out of classes and writing her dissertation she gave herself permission to take time out and write creative projects.

There are far more people who want to do creative and scholarly work at the same time then we realize. Talk to them!

The mod got her PhD in 2010. She got her PhD in poetry. Just having doctoral candidate on her resume opened doors to teach. Her research was how Jewish poets adopted Walt Whitman.

She didn’t realize how much work it would be to write an academic dissertation . As she continued she realized her desire for creative writing growing and writing about poetry shrinking. She had a hard time switching from critical, prose writing to creative writing in poetry.

Finally she realized that she should do creative dissertation, but she was already deep into her process. She was living where there were no creative programs. She finished, but with lots of tears.

Advice..
1. Know your limitations and inclinations..
2. Choose a thesis topic that interests you (not that you’re not sure of) it’ll keep you going.
2a. Do not let anyone discourage you from your topic, it’s a marriage you have to love it.
3. Time management (break it down, set a schedule)
3a. Start small.
4. Pick advisors who are supportive because you’ll be wanting to have a relationship with them for years to come.
5. Persevere!

Christian thinks writers often make a divide between creative and academia but they’ve always been linked.

An MFA doesn’t make you a writer.

Roger did an MA in English. Had a professor tell him, “creative writers are the niggers of the English department.” this was 2005, and this is someone who was his advocate. So be firm on what your direction is before you enter a program and know what the program requires. Be aware of the politics.

You may be up against judgements or assumptions.

Question: easy way to figure out funding other than digging through their websites?
A: call them. It can change year to year. Also, apply for scholarship. Once you’re in a program talk with the dean if the money isn’t there. See yourself as an investment for the college and ask for the money.

Question: do people get a PhD without wanting to teach?
A: most wanted to teach but not all got teaching jobs. Do a PhD because you want to do it. if you just want to write, just sit in your chair and work on your craft.

Do a PhD for a variety of reasons, but don’t do it just to teach.

Resource: doctorates without boarders

If you do want to teach make sure you’re willing to move.

Comment from the audience is that the PhD is different in the UK. Your research must mesh with your creative work.

Question: as a fellow starving academic what are your projects so we can support?
Roger has a book coming out in 2013 from Copper Canyon Press

Question: is it more beneficial to go from MFA to PhD if you want to teach?
Roger: yes. Because it gives you progression and gives you free time to write.

Question: I heard you need clearly articulated idea for your research. Did you have one?
Yes, but it’s okay if it changes. It’s to prove you know what a research topic is.

Question: how do you balance between creative writing and scholarly?
Mod took 3 weeks on dissertation and then 2 weeks on poems
Roger took whatever what was more important to him. To switch modes he will run in between or read someone else’s work.

Question: how do you do a PhD with a family?
Child care. Or if you have a partner they need to understand and respect “thinking” time.

Question: Age?
PhDs usually in 30s and 40s, but there’s older. People are professionalizing early. There is ageism in the job market because we celebrate the wunderkind.

On that note… The end!

How do you represent a culture without venturing into stereotypes? Like, I’m writing a character whose Asian, look at all these Asian things!

I think it’s always about having as multi-layered character as possible. If you make unique characters you don’t have to worry about it. Never run from multi-racial characters, even if they are stereotypical they’re part of the conversation!

An attendee says it’s hard to find the center when writing culture because she worries with her own racial identity, is she Asian enough? Is she American enough?

A teacher in the audience remarks that there’s a difference between stereotypes and generalization. Generalization is to make things simple. Stereotypes are about oppressing.

“The problem with stereotypes isn’t that they’re wrong. It’s that they’re only one thing.”

“What we have to realize is that more and more we’re going to be looking at how cultures rub against each other.”

You have to be aware that even positive portrayals can be stereotypical

Read books by people of color!

Tell the truth from your heart and not “is this politically correct or not?”

YA has a way of cutting through all the crap and telling the truth. It can do this in a way that even non-fiction struggles with sometimes.

I’m live blogging from AWP.

The panel hasn’t even started yet and the room is packed.

Panelists:
Meg Kearney
Curtis L. Crisler
Helen Frost
Marilyn Nelson
April Lindner

April admits she was an accidental YA novelist. Her agent said her novel “Jane” (a modern telling of Jane Eyre) would be better for teens so she changed it only slightly (the ages of the characters and toned down some of the racier scenes), everything else stayed the same.

April says that she finds YA freer then she ever would have imagined. The readers are highly communicative and write often.

April reads a selection from the fourth chapter of her novel, “Jane”.

Meg is reading poems from her novel in verse. Her second poem she read “My Two Mothers’ is about having an adoptive mother and a birth mother.

Meg says that it’s fun writing for young adults because they not only are very communicative, they write great reviews of books they love and they share them with their peers.

She says she grew up with books and Jane Eyre changed her life, so it’s fun to write for young adults because that’s the age most people have a book change their life.

Meg said she did a Q&A and didn’t realize there were so many people who were adopted. After the Q&A a girl came up and said that she had never talked about being adopted with anyone other than her mother before and Meg said to herself, this is why I write.

“Writing for children or young adults is as hard as it is for adults.”

The hardest part of writing for YA/children is the fact that it’s treated like the unloved step-sister by others. Inevitably YA writers are asked, “are you ever going to write for adults,” or “are you ever going to write a ‘real’ book?”

Because of this, Meg says, sometimes we even ghetto-ize ourselves. But we need to be part of the conversation.

Curtis is reading poems from his works. He said that his novel was his MFA project, and someone told him, “whoever publishes this is going to have to have balls.” He paused and said, “and guess what? It’s published as YA.”

His novel, “Dreamist” is about a kid from Chicago who gets a scholarship to Cal State. It’s a mix-genre novel (prose/poetry).

The books I read as a kid is the reason I want to write now.

Helen made a hand out on where to start if you’re beginning writing YA literature. “I use a story to pull teenagers into poetry.”

Helen is reading her poems. Her first one is about an abusive father.

Marilyn tells the story that someone once asked a famous poetry author what her writing process was like and were shocked when the author said that the first part of her process every day is to answer fan mail.

Marilyn says she fell into YA backwards while working on a biography of George Washington Carver. At first she said, “I don’t want to be stuck in the children’s book ghetto,” but it was a life-changing experience. That said, her books are not reviewed in poetry journals.

People act like they can’t buy and read YA books. “I’ll buy it for the 14 year old daughter of a friend of mine, but I won’t read it myself.” And Marilyn says that sad.

Marilyn says that she writes for YA for political reasons. She knows too many people who write poetry with the purpose of not being accessible. They want their poems to not be read by 90% people. Marilyn, as a reaction, wants to write poems that don’t scare readers away. “I write history.” She calls herself a lyric historian because of a 7th grader who called her that when she did a reading at a school.

She says that she uses poetry because words effect us in a new way. “Poets always complain that they don’t have an audience, a way to get an audience is to write for young adults. If they learn to love poetry at age 15, in 10 years they’ll be 25 and still love poetry.”

Marilyn is reading a poem based on a fan who told her about a time she met George Washington Carver as a child.

Question: “Are there are any journals that accept YA in verse?”
Sucker Literary Magazine http://suckerliterarymagazine.wordpress.com/

Question: Taboo subjects – do they need to be wrapped up at the end? Or the answer be moral?
Curtis: No. I think we need to be truthful to characters.

Question: Do you find your audience is a younger audience (because kids like reading ‘older’ books).
April: I get a range, but a majority of them are on target age.
Helen: “They advise you to write your protag older than your target reader.”

Question: Where are the avenues/places for writers to bounce ideas off each other?
Society of Children Book Writers is a good start?
Highlights Foundation
Halmen University has a low-res MFA has children/YA writing program

I’m live blogging at AWP. This panel is at the Red Lacquer Room in the Palmer House. Excited that they’re discussing genre writing as literary fiction.

Panelist, Kate Bernheimer
Brian Evenson
Matthew?
Kevin Brockmeier

Kate says that fairy tales (which she’s using to describe all genre fiction) live without Literature, but literature can’t live without fairy tale.

Genre endings aren’t necessarily “happy ever after” – they have an ending that doesn’t end, it just gives you a continuing time ending (the “ever after” part).

People thrive when there’s biodiversity. Kate believes the same is true with story telling. We need all kinds of genres.

Fairy tales are often not considered literature because they’re popular. Which is dumb.

Brian thinks that if we’re told a work is literary fiction, we look at is as literary fiction. If we’re told it’s genre, we look at it as genre.

How did Lovecraft go from “horror’ to “literature” writer? Literature distinctions are more about monetary reasons then writing reasons (i.e. we can sell detective fiction better). It’s a buying/selling tool and it shouldn’t be how we think about writing.

Matthew thanks everyone who write this genre. He works for Unstuck lit journal.

The cool genre literary magazines has a great community, but it’s not really reaching for more readers. Matthew really wants 50/50 genre writers and MFA/literature people.

Small Beer Press literature/fantastic.

Kevin says most of he likes to read lives between literary fiction and and or fantasy.

Kevin believes that a slanted perspective or different perspective is how we see the world most clearly.

Tabz editorial: if you are on a panel after lunch, don’t drone on. Even if your writing is beautiful.

This panel is full of writers. There should be more genre fiction panels at AWP.

Question how do you cross from literature and genre? Stylistic or ideas?

Brian believes there are writers who do both. Consciousness of both literary fiction style and genre style will help.

Kate believes the lines between are either illusionary or permeable.

Everyone told me not to write a novella, so I wrote a novella – Matthew

More traditional genre literary magazines stick to universal characters.

Unstuck really loves great writing at the sentence level and the story level.

Kate didn’t feel like she fit anywhere when she first started writing. Finally she found her place and she celebrates the “losers.”

Question is it still a stigma for being a genre writing?

Kate says that at the formation if English departments genre style writing was not accepted. She thinks now its changing.

Brian thinks its changing. He doesn’t think creative writing workshops shouldn’t straight jacket people.

Yay someone asked about graphic novels.

I’m living blogging from AWP.

The panel has two literary agents and three authors. Sorry I didn’t catch everyone’s name!

Do female authors still make less then men? No.

In crime fiction women are still lagging behind. Most of the branded crime fiction are male writers and male protagonist. That said most books sold are romance and that’s all female.

International sales are also strong for female. One literary agent said her biggest auction advance was for a female author.

Cozy mysteries? Tend to follow Murder She Wrote style or hobby or food. Knitting mysteries for example. They are PGish and at the end everything is wrapped up. Cozies are the fastest selling sub genre of mystery novels. Followed closely by thrillers.

Thriller writers usually get big advances and if they don’t sell well you’re out. With cozy mysteries you get nice advances, but there’s less pressure to sell.

The moderator knew a thriller writer who got an 800,000 advance, tons of marketing, the book didn’t do well.. The writer was dropped.

Thrillers are high concept novels. Something huge and usually international story. Borne Identity is an espionage thriller. Mostly male authors. Huge advances, but if you don’t earn out your career is in trouble. Lee Child didnt burst out till book 7.

Cozy — the killer and victim need to know each other, solution depends on the deduction of the detective no forensics, no explicit sex and violence or swearing.

Thrillers — there has to be a very very good protagonist with a personal motivation and a very very evil villain, there has to be a big stage, there has to be a ticking clock feel to it.

Does it hurt you to self publish does it hurt you later! It’s complicated. If it does amazingly well… Maybe. If it doesn’t then it’s complicated.

Even if you don’t do ebooks, you should get accounts on the ebook platforms so no one else publishes under your name.

If you do self publish then make sure your book stands up quality of traditional publishing.

Give it a shot at the topic the world (ie get an agent). If you can’t get there then maybe self publishing.

“what is the best sub genre of crime fiction for women?” don’t ever ask that it makes women second class citizens – Jane

Female suspense – Mary Higgins Clark

“What is literary? I consider my novel literary, but it seems pretentious.” a really good story written very well. The book you fall into. The Alienist.

I asked, “How do you write strong female characters?” you have to ask what’s at their core? Make fully actualized characters. Sell your character through the story. Jane said her first book her character had to learn how to fire a gun. “Because how many of us have shot a gun? Well, I have because I’m a writer now.” – Jane

How do you write male characters as a female? I tend to write the despicable…

How do you write discrimination and violence against women. Understand it’s hard for audiences to read. If you’re not careful your book will become an issue book.

How did you do research? Hands on! Find an expert. Go to the location if you can if not Google Earth and talk to someone whose been there.

Women should have as many opportunities in crime fiction as men!

This amazing graphic by Mallory Dyer is on one of my favorite Tshirts from Threadless.
I just love everything about it.

The music of Doctor Who has always been what really gets to me. A great piece of music can make a good scene even more amazing. The feel of the music is magical, from the theme song to the short bits and bobs of music that you don’t really think about. One iconic piece of music that gets me every time is “Rose’s Theme.”

One of the reason’s it’s iconic is appears in so many episodes (“The End of the World”, “The Parting of the Ways”, “The Christmas Invasion”, “New Earth”, “The Age of Steel”, “Fear Her” [Trailer at end of episode], “Doomsday”, “Human Nature”, “Utopia”, “The Stolen Earth”, “Journey’s End”, “The End of Time, Part Two”).

Probably the biggest reason, it’s so tied to the most emotional moments in the show. Every time I hear it I get misty-eyed. It’s the musical reminder of love, loss, and everything that made Rose amazing. Love it.

Check out the Doctor Who fan orchestra doing Rose’s Theme, so beautiful:

In the amazing TV show Community the awesome Abed is introduced to Inspector Spacetime, a parody of Doctor Who. Now the intrepid Inspector wants his own web series and you can help.  Click here to help fund the webseries on Kickstarter.

Inspector Spacetime has a huge fan following who have been busy establishing the show’s long history and canon.

Please consider putting a few bucks in the Inspector’s bowler. I heard a live reading of the first episode at Gallifrey One. It’s amazing.

I love Sarah Jane, Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy. I love Rose because she was my first companion and without her, I doubt I would have been happy to go on to the second series without 9. I loved Martha because she was intelligent and skilled. I love Amy because she feels like me. But if I have to only choose one, I choose Donna.

Donna, the temp, who is going through her quarter life crisis like I was recently. Lost her fiance who never loved her, had a crappy job, and jumped at the chance to be something more. After Rose and Martha I was ready for a companion that wasn’t in love with the Doctor and was just (as Donna said) “mates.” I love Donna’s ability to question the Doctor, to handle herself, to want to save people, and to remind the Doctor who he could be. She was sassy, spunky, and incredible.