Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
A few days ago I heard a snippet of conversation on the radio that got me thinking about my garden. On an NPR program called “On Point,” the writer Sydney Edison described how she had been gardening more than two acres of land for fifty years. “Gardens reflect your life back to you,” she said. [...]
19 May 2010 at 11:36
Julija Šukys
Canada, Children, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Exile, Gardening, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Lithuania, Mothering, Ona Šukienė, Research, Russia, Siberia, Slavs, Villages
A couple months ago I took my son to visit my Aunt Birutė to talk about family history and my grandmother’s exile. She gave me some extraordinary photographs during that visit, including several from Siberia. More than I expected. One small photograph, dated 1957, shows my grandmother’s house. Made of logs and with a straw [...]
Titles are my Achilles heel. I’m really, really bad at them. One problem is that I favour the abstract and poetic: titles whose meaning becomes clear only once you’ve read the book. For example, I wanted to call my first book “Welcome to Elkader” (instead of “Silence is Death”), but that was roundly rejected at [...]
My favourite blogger Mira Bartok has posted a new list of fellowships, grants and prizes for writers: for lesbian writers, poets (gay, straight or otherwise), Romance-language writers, non-fiction specialists (like yours truly) and the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant that I won last year. Check out Mira’s List here. Tell her I sent [...]
12 May 2010 at 11:20
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Journalism, Ona Šimaitė, Personal Essays, Phillip Lopate, Research, Writing
I keep going back to that month I spent at the Banff Centre for the Arts almost four years ago. Never before had I been treated with such generosity and respect (one of the Literary Journalism program’s mentors jokingly warned us not to get used to it, since never again would we be treated this [...]
If you’re in Chicago on the evening of May 25, 2010, head on down to the 57th Street Books to hear my friends Laimonas Briedis and Elizabeth Novickas speak about their work. They’re both brilliant and charismatic. Translating Vilnius – Elizabeth Novickas & Laimonas Briedis Tue, 05/25/2010 – 6:00pm 57th Street Books 1301 E. 57th [...]
Check out today’s posting on Mira’s List for writers’ fellowships and awards. Of particular interest: The Bard Fiction Prize, The Hodder Fellowships at Princeton, and the Guggenheim Fellowships. Happy hunting! [Photo: Valeriana Solaris]
07 May 2010 at 13:38
Julija Šukys
Domesticity, Life-blood, Louise DeSalvo, Mothering, Virginia Woolf, Writing
Louise DeSalvo, “A Portrait of the Puttana as a Middle-Aged Woolf Scholar.” Between Women: Biographers, Novelists, Critics, Teachers and Artists Write About Their Work on Women (Routledge, 1993), 35-53. I love this essay for many reasons. 1) It’s a seriously learned text written in a light and readable first-person voice. 2) It tells a story [...]
04 May 2010 at 06:35
Julija Šukys
Journalism, Language and Multilingualism, Lithuania, Mothering, Writing
This morning my Globe and Mail piece “Alphabet fusion” appeared in Lithuanian translation in the national daily Lietuvos rytas (Lithuanian morning). It was a very surreal (not to say postmodern) experience to read it. The article talks about how our family lives in three languages (Lithuanian, English and French), about what Lithuanian can do that [...]
03 May 2010 at 07:00
Julija Šukys
Creative Nonfiction, Funding, Personal Essays, Publicity, Publishing, Writing
USING SOCIAL NETWORKING TO CREATE A PLATFORM: I’m not expert on this, but my friend Jill Murray (www.jillmurray.com) is. She’s a Montreal author of young adult fiction, and is super-tech-savvy. She recently gave a talk on how to build a web presence through social networking, and posted her slides on her website. I found the [...]
