cool stuff. Check it out:
- Huge congrats to my Clarion 2009 pal Shauna Roberts for winning the Older Writers Grant this year from the Speculative Literature Foundation! In her daily life, Shauna is an award-winning medical writer and editor specializing in diabetes and related subjects, but I know her best as a penner of fantasy, science fiction, and romance stories and novels.
- Writer, filmmaker, and book scout D.W. Gibson, director of the Ledig House residency, has launched an exciting documentary project called Not Working. It’s not what it sounds like. This is what it is:
Beginning on June 21, Gibson will spend the summer and early fall travelling across the US, beginning in Orange County, California, ï¬nishing in Camden, New Jersey. Accompanied by a videographer, he will interview individuals who have become unemployed as a result of the economic downturn over the last three years. Interviews will center on each personʼs story of losing a job: the Friday visit to HR, the form letter, the pointed email, the profane text, the security escort. Gibson will visit epicenters of the recession such as Fresno, California; Reno, Nevada; Kansas City, Missouri; and Columbus, Ohio.
The project is a response to Stud Terkelʼs seminal book Working, ï¬rst published in 1972. Familiarity with Terkelʼs book will absolutely enhance oneʼs interest in this project, but it is by no means a prerequisite. Not Working communicates on its own. By presenting the voices and faces of those affected, it reveals the Great American Recession not just as a set of statistics or a political debating point but as an intensely human tragedy that is sweeping the country. Not Working will be published as a book in the early spring of 2012 by OR Books.
Check out the site for pics, vids, podcasts, and blog updates!