dumbfoundry: February 2012

The Disappearing is an innovative new app that (literally) explores poetry and place. Created by The Red Room Company, The Disappearing uncovers poetry's invisible currents in the world around us. An interactive smartphone app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, The Disappearing uses geolocation technology to match poetry to place. Over 2012, The Disappearing will operate like a temporary journal, with three 'issues' covering three cities throughout the year. We're calling for poems about the Sydney area and the people in it. You don't have to be from Sydney; all we ask is that you consider the theme of 'disappearing' in your work.

posted by Ivy @ 11:01 AM

Munro Country

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Cheryl Strayed writes…

"The sight of her knocked me sideways, the way so many of her stories had. At the sound of her voice, I wept. I'd not expected this. Futilely, I searched my purse for a tissue, as unobtrusively as I could, mortified by my tiny gasps and copious tears. I gave up and wiped my face with my bare hands and tried to concentrate on her words. She was reading a story called "Nettles," the crowd breathing with one breath. I weaved in and out of listening and quietly weeping, the tears seeping ridiculously out of me, despite my inner pleadings that I get a grip. Later, I'd laugh when I told this story. I'd say that when I saw Alice Munro, I understood for the first time all those screaming, inconsolable girls in old footage of the Beatles in the '60s. And yet that wasn't what was happening at all. I wasn't crying for joy or excitement or because I was overcome with emotion to see someone I loved from afar. I was crying because something had come to an end. I knew it only in glimmers-it would take years until I fully understood-that a spell cast long before had been broken the moment Alice Munro walked onto the stage."

posted by Ivy @ 11:59 AM

How to date a writer

Heather O'Neill offers 10 tips on the perils and the pleasures of romancing a writer

posted by Ivy @ 12:44 AM

Tuwhare Crib Saved for Writers' Residence

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The South Otago crib that was home to celebrated poet Hone Tuwhare has been purchased by a private family trust, securing its long term future as a writers’ residence – the first of its type in the home of a Maori writer.

posted by Ivy @ 12:03 PM

'a bruise or a kiss for the reader…'

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Raffaella Barker writes:

There can never be one book, but Elizabeth Smart's novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept has a particular, personal position in my life. I first read this extraordinary prose poem when I was 19, doubly curious about the book for its delicious title and because it was written by my father's ex-wife. It was like drowning in an extraordinary dream - I could not believe that grown ups could love with such abandon. The novel has scarcely any plot, it concerns a triangle between the narrator and a married couple, but the events and actions are peripheral.

posted by Ivy @ 9:26 PM