Sons

Sons are sons and daughters are daughters. We have sons; we have daughters. We have them, we look at them, we think about them, we move toward them, we move away from them.

We have us our sons. We have us our daughters.

You have neither and this is why we spend so little time in your company. You have no son. You have no daughter. You have nothing but you and it is strange and terrible.

This son here has more fingers than that one. This daughter receives messages from the stars. This son is allowed no more than ten carrots a week. This daughter will try at some point to kill a horse with her teeth.

Minor adjustments to the world, and all this would be very different. Did you know that? You might have the sons. You might have the daughters. Instead, things are how they are. They are what we see them to be.

They will not change.

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I'm in love with Grouper.



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I"m teaching a class in late January. And it will happen every Tuesday until March.

Kitchen Sink Fabulism: A Primer for Girls and Boys

There is a movement afoot in contemporary writing—a new(ish) movement with some very old roots. Calvino, Barthelme, and the fabulist writers of recent history—those writers who mined the themes of old fables for their new stories—ago have inspired the likes of Kelly Link, Kevin Brockmeier, Aimee Bender, Etgar Keret, and many more to write in the fabulist mode while also crafting contemporary, domestic tales. We will look at a number of writers in this mode, and discuss how to add elements of the fantastic to your own work in a seamless and elegant fashion.
Instructor: Matthew Simmons
Meets: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Tuesday, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Min: 5 Max: 15

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Two readings coming up. Both at Hugo House. One is on January 19 @7pm. The second is at Cheap Beer and Prose, January 28, 7pm.

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New review of A Jello Horse, now in its third printing.

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