I’ve been playing Electric Literature Bingo and not doing particularly well. However, there is still hope. That diagonal is looking promising. Please come stand near me tomorrow at the Sweet table, bring someone with you, and ask loudly (so I can overhear you) where your friend/companion/partner/mentor/squirrel/idol gets their ideas. Continue reading
Category: News (Page 2 of 2)
Field notes from a friend in the Quiet Room:
It is so cold here. Like really, really cold.
There is a guy with hipster hair + hipster glasses meditating. Or maybe napping while sitting upright. Continue reading
A list of items (figurative and literal) your illustrious Sweet reader/blogger has brought to AWP, in order of importance: Continue reading
You can’t miss a Terrance Hayes reading. For months, the local community of writers in Tampa buzzed about Hayes coming to the University of South Florida to spend a week as Scholar-in-Residence, attending classes and hosting a Wednesday night reading. Some of us had class, but it didn’t matter. You ask to be excused, you leave early, you do what it takes. But you can’t miss Hayes. Continue reading
Sweet is coming to AWP16 in the form of chapbooks— Jill McCabe Johnson’s Borderlines — editors, and readers.
Come visit us at the book fair! We’re located in space 1841 at the University of South Florida table and would love to show you what we’ve been up to since our fundraiser and latest issue this past December. Continue reading
I kept looking over my shoulder but I couldn’t find Aja Monet among the teachers and organizers gathered in the back of the filled Grace Allen room at the University of South Florida. I was excited to see her in person after watching Youtube videos of her reading on a sunny sidewalk or in front of a slam crowd. Jessica Thompson, a second-year MFA at USF, came to the mic and introduced Monet and her notable acclaim since winning the champion title at the Nuyorican Poets Café grand slam when she was only nineteen. Continue reading
On Wednesday, December 16, Sweet: A Literary Confection held its first fundraiser. After eight years of running primarily out of our editors’ pockets, Sweet was looking to dig a little less deeply into personal accounts to achieve some of the most noble goals a lit mag can aspire to: paying contributors for their publications, creating local and international writing workshops, and expanding its chapbook press. Continue reading
It took me a long time to understand celebrity crushes. They’ve always seemed so irrational to me.
I never had posters of New Kids on the Block or Jonathan Taylor Thomas hanging in my bedroom as a pre-teen. I never screamed and cried at a One Direction concert or pasted their photos inside my locker. I refused to take sleepover games of M.A.S.H., which were designed to predict my future through pencil, paper, and lists, dead serious (I knew I would never live with Ryan Gosling in a beach shack with our twenty-seven children.) Continue reading
I was a writing community virgin when I came to the University of South Florida to get an MFA.
My past life wasn’t devoid of community — as a member of the military, friendships were practically thrust upon me. After spending months away from anyone who wasn’t wearing camo pants, I learned to forge relationships with whoever was around, even the guy who said “Hooah,” did a hundred push ups a day, and took it personally that I didn’t cheer for the Ohio State University.
Army friendships are strong, hence the countless movies featuring uniformed bromances. Even the title of the hit HBO miniseries Band of Brothers implies that military friendships are at the level of familial bonds.
I can’t think of any movies about writers getting along famously. A quick Google search for “writers+friends+best+friends+for+life+i+never+want+to+be+alone” brings up The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I’ve seen that quite a few times, and I don’t remember any of the characters writing a book. Maybe I missed something.
I was expected to form a community when I joined the Army and again when I entered the University of South Florida’s MFA program.
To me, community is about relationships. It’s about connecting as friends.
So, who are the better friends–writers or soldiers?
The military was about doing a job. It was a difficult job and bonds formed between members because we were going through the same challenges. I became friends with the men and women who complained about the same things I did. We were propelled toward friendship through commiseration.
My writing community experience has been the opposite. Instead of being pulled together by events, my MFA cohort is drawn together by shared interests.
With my writing friends, ideas are exciting. Someone says that we should go to a graveyard for inspiration, and everyone hops aboard. Someone says she wants to write a short story in computer code, and everyone says to go for it. Someone says that we should join that cult downtown with the clown statue out front and the red splatters on the windows, and everyone says not to do it. But, they say it in a nice way that doesn’t make me feel bad for bringing it up.
As writers, we ignite each other.
My military and writing communities have been worlds apart. One was forged out of necessity, the other out of shared excitement. I have lasting friendships from both, but I have sparks at the University of South Florida.
They should make a movie about that. Call it MFA Cohort of Brothers and Sisters. Of the Traveling Pants.
from Sweet contributor and kick-ass poet Maggie Smith. It’s called The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison and is the winner of the Tupelo Press Dorset Prize. Pre-order it here!