Lauren Alwan's Blog
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Nov.07.2011
In between other reading I'm still working my way through the Modern Library's list of Best 100 Novels. My review of number 96 is currently up at LitStack. If you have yet to discover LitStack, it's a great resource for readers, with daily reviews, staff picks and bookish news.
Modern Library...
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Jun.07.2011
I love the essay collection, Orphans, by Charles D'Ambrosio, and currently have an appreciation up at The Last Book I Loved feature over at The Rumpus. You can read it here.
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Jun.05.2011
I'd have thought by now the world would be weary of the now-familiar orneriness of V.S. Naipaul. For years his sour statements have been the source of regular media attention. So when the Nobel-winning author's latest rant made its wildfire-like path through the Twittersphere, I think I may have...
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May.13.2011
Over at the Emerging Writers Network, Dan Wickett, executive director and publisher of Dzanc Books, has come up with a great way to bring attention to the short story by declaring May National Short Story Month. The short story may be brief, but it demands a high level of attention and rigor. With...
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May.02.2011
In which I cluelessy roam the aisles of our local library sale, and learn that for some, book browsing is a serious business. My new post up today, at The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog, here.
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Apr.05.2011
How structured is your reading life? There was a time, in grad school, when I diligently compiled lists and systematically read my way through them, analyzing each selection in a weekly essay. That was only four years ago, but it seems like another era now. Without the structure of an MFA program,...
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Mar.28.2011
"Most of writing," says Andrea Barrett, is patience." The act of writing teaches me this lesson daily. When beginning a new story, patience is required to envision the initial world until it's ready for a first draft. Individual pages requires patience to have the proper flow....
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Mar.27.2011
In the group setting, I tend to be reserved. The trait is not iron clad. It’s something I’m able to overcome, in my teaching for example or at family functions, but I’m most comfortable as an observer, preferring to watch and listen rather than take part. This reserved streak tends to become more...
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Mar.25.2011
Language and image inhabit different realms of human expression, so when Stephen Soucy of Modernist Press announced a call for fiction inspired by works of art, I thought it was a great idea and submitted a story, "Self Portrait: Untitled" (first published by WorkShirts Writing Center in...
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Mar.20.2011
There are certain things I avoid whenever possible—reptile vivaria, stadium concerts, any and all post-Thanksgiving sales. But I’ll take any of these, any time, rather than face a conflict. I’m terrible in situations of disagreement and controversy, mostly because I lack what my grandfather called...
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Mar.18.2011
I just reread one of my favorite essays, John Barth’s “Incremental Perturbation: How to Know If You’ve Got a Plot or Not,” and the timing was perfect: it was in the middle of a holiday season when my family watches a lot of films on DVD. If the connection seems dubious, I promise it’s not.
In the...
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About Lauren
Lauren Alwan’s fiction has appeared in the Alaska Quarterly Review, StoryQuarterly, and most recently in the Sycamore Review, as a finalist for the Wabash Prize in Fiction. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize nomination and a graduate of the Warren...
Lauren’s Favorite Books
A House for Mr Biswas, Interpreter of Maladies, The Coast of Chicago, The Dead Fish Museum