The 2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize & Why I'm Even More in Love with Caitlin Horrocks

2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize

Caitlin Horrocks' stories have always punched me in just the right way. So that after reading "The Sleep" or "Sun City" or even "Zolaria" and especially "This Is Not Your City," I feel amazed and exhausted and alive and also a little bit in love with Caitlin Horrocks and her words. And so, when I entered a story - in the usual titled-with-no-author identification format given to most contests - in the Passages North short fiction contest, which announced CH as judge, I hoped she might find something in my words, too - if my story even made it passed the first readers.

This week I had my first phone call ever from a literary magazine. Yes, that's right. From Tim Johnston, the managing editor at Passages North. He was quite calm, and meanwhile I tried to stay calm, as he told me that my story, "We Are Here Because of a Horse," had been chosen by Caitlin Horrocks as the winner of the 2012 Waasmode Short Fiction Prize. I'm still surprised and ecstatic and occasionally mumble, "nah, that wasn't me," even though I know I should shout, "yes, that's me and that's my story!" That's my story about a girl and a boy and a horse, about drums and Tulsa and dreams. And then I can't help myself and I celebrate by jumping up and down and scaring the dog, because my stories are finally getting a chance to be read.

And that's why I'm even more in love with Caitlin Horrocks and this thing that she and I both do.  This thing called writing.

"We Are Here Because of a Horse" was published in Passages North, Issue 34, Winter 2013.

(Photo Credit: sheeshoo at Flickr - the chrome horse at the Natural History Museum in Fair Park in Dallas).

The 2011 Soundtrack - Reverie 2011 – Day 11

Music is the background for many writers as they wind their ways through novels, short stories, memoirs, sonnets and villanelles.  The characters in my novel-in-stories each have their own particular musical preferences, from Johnny Cash and Wanda Jackson to Elton John and Cream, and one sings songs from popular musicals to his daughter as lullabies.  But in these cases, of the writers and of those they've written, the music remains in the background, coming forward only to add color or dimension to a scene or to enliven a character.

In my next book, a collection of stories, the music will bellow and beat in the foreground, for each piece will recall an aspect of a country song.  Who can resist writing about broken-down trucks, broken marriages, and runaway dogs?  So thinking on the past twelve months, I can’t help but laugh a little.  The soundtrack of 2011 is certainly the inspiration for that of 2012, and out of the bend of notes come stories, each with a unique rhythm and framework and narrative voice.   

January – The Black-Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”

• Hey, it was the new year, when one eats black-eyed peas for good luck and then dances around to their sweet, bouncing beat  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA

February – The White Stripe’s “Jolene”

• Flying over the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas en route to San Francisco for a Narrative Writing Workshop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m5KrPXL4wI&feature=related

March – Paul Simon’s “Rewrite”

• I rewrote the first chapter of my novel-in-stories, later published by Iron Horse Literary Review in their Father’s Day Issue – June 2011 - just like Paul sings, “I said, Help me, help me, help me, help me -Thank You!” - exactly…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2DypBHyUg

April – Cream’s “White Room”

• That’s what happens when you plant your ass in the chair and don’t get up until it’s done – the room turns white and weird, Eric and Jack begin to sing, while Ginger just thrashes about…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRC0rdFokKM

May – Wanda Jackson and Jack White – “Thunder on the Mountain”

• When it’s raining out and you’re wishing for the sun and a fast car and a mountain to race down – “You better roll your windows down” – by the way I love this video!  and yes, admit it, you love the white fringe and have been in that room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnULGVbhPcY&feature=related

June – John Prine and Iris Dement’s “In Spite of Ourselves”

(written by J.P.)

• The realization of what we've done and what remains to be done!  Ah, couples...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8&feature=related

July – Steve Earle’s “Every Part of Me”

• Learning compassion for characters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_jEKZ77So - album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXr3UiuueY - live

August – Steve Earle’s “This City” 

• The sixth anniversary of Katrina - S.E. with the Preservation Jazz Band in NYC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjhegm4JiQM&feature=related

September – Emmylou Harris’ “Wrecking Ball”

(written by Neil Young)

• Summer ends and you realize you just wanted one more dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9N5MGRPV0I

October – Townes Van Zandt’s “To Live Is to Fly”

• This is what happens when you light up with ideas…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JGc2CvM0EQ

November – Steve Earle / Emmylou Harris – “Goodbye”

 (written by S. E.)

• Preparing to bid farewell to the old year and a finished draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ctDVZditHzY - S.E. – album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr2IY8q687I&feature=related - S.E. & E.H. – live

December – Emmylou Harris – “Sweet Old World

  (written by Lucinda Williams)

• Dark winter days, Xmas lights reflecting the snow and ice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUHrFo4aPGI&feature=related

And just because I’m from New Orleans and believe in baker’s dozens and lagniappe, here’s one more!

Wanda Jackson’s “Sparklin’ Brown Eyes”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=HvnWcb6mu4Q

• This one for the brown-eyed boys in my story, “Skylight,”  in New Delta Review's Issue 2.1

http://ndrmag.org/fiction/2011/12/skylight/

Best of 2011/The List – Reverie 2011 – Day 9

Snow-encrusted walks

Reading

Plane ride over the Sierra Nevadas

Bittersweet goodbyes to The White Stripes

Sun over Alcatraz

Writing

Wintertime workers’ rights demonstrations before the Ohio Statehouse

Revision, revision, revision

Hannah's 21st!

Paul Simon’s “Rewrite”

Nancy Zafris on Flannery O’Connor

Kentucky Derby

Roses

Heat

Stop ‘n’ Go

Friends

Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont

Writing alone and together and at dusk when the hummingbirds are searching the wide-open flowers for some answers

Secrets

Wide-plank floors

Sex with a one-armed man

Surprises

Concessions

Patience

Live Fast, Die Young

Hunkering

Lighting candles

Giving thanks

Jeni's ice cream

Walks with Atticus

Wrapping

Hannah - all grown up and saving China!

Zak's 18th!

Thinking

Considering

Congratulating

Sleeping

Nikky Finney – 2011 National Book Award Winner for Poetry – Head Off & Split

Last night Nikky Finney was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for her collection, Head Off & Split.  Inside the crisp white cover is the first of three sections: The Hard-Headed.  And this morning my fingers found their way through the first pages, past fish scales and seamstress pins and truth, to the poem, “Left.”  I read and felt as though I'd been punched in the stomach.  The kind of punch that brings you out of your chair to stand, still and breathless.  To pause and then to realize that you're still alive while they're not.  The three on that New Orleans rooftop.  Another three for the 1,836.  The kind of punch that leaves you winded and brought, once more, to your senses.

Pleas Help Pleas

Three words for the three stranded, the e already gone in the high waters. 

Nikky Finney’s power rises and slaps.  The shore I tumbled on as a child, strolled along as a young woman, the low levee of Lake Pontchartrain, has a different meaning.  All changed by the uncompromising cameras, the way the nearly two thousand were left to their own.  The poetry calls it up again, and the water lines are clear again.

Awarded the National Book Award for Poetry, for the book that gives voice to the many who have been silenced.  Strong stuff.  This poet has words in her pockets and her pockets are deep.  We are not done hearing from Nikky Finney.  It is a sure thing that she has plenty more to say and I for one am waiting for her next exclamation, her next whisper.

Her acceptance speech, a poem unto itself, a slew of incredible gratitude and veritas, is a hint of what is to come.  What a woman of words.  Again, I am reeling.  

Video of 2011 NBA acceptance speeches:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/11/national-book-awards-2011-video.html

birthday candles!

Sometimes birthdays don't need

any words, just candles to light

and a breeze to blow them out.