Saturday, April 5, 2008
THE Conversations and Connections conference at Johns Hopkins University was fabulous. Not only was my favorite writer in the whole world there, but it turned out that when I told her how she changed my writing life, she said she understood. Major gulp.
I told Mary Gaitskill, the best writer in the world and an extraordinarily cool woman who I now want to be more than ever, that I had always viewed my writing life and future as similar to that of Sylvia Plath. It's a pathetic statement in some obvious ways, but it's the truth. I always assumed that my writing would be tied to a dark, intense path that would not have an incredibly happy ending.
Ms. Gaitskill shared her esteem for Sylvia Plath.
I LOVE Mary Gaitskill. Did I mention that she was wearing a brown Willy Wonka t-shirt under her neat-o brown strip suit? She was so Vogue.
I loved her before. I really and seriously love her now.
If you don't know Mary Gaitskill's work, take a look. She's a beautiful, authentic, real, raw and edgy writer. Dark, but just the perfect amount of dark.
My sentimental favorite is Bad Behavior, a collection of short stories. But Two Girls, Fat and Thin, is a great novel. And Because They Wanted To was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1998. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993) and The O.Henry Prize Stories (1998). "Veronica" (2005) was a National Book Award nominee, as well as a National Book Critics Circle finalist for that year.
You may know the movie “Secretary,” based on her short story of the same name.
Peace and a pause, d
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