Raymond Carver (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lately I’ve been browsing on Issyvoo. A beautifully clean looking site, it distills out succinct insights by writers on their own writing, and that of others. Many of the quotes link to articles, interviews, etc, from journals like Paris Review, or The New Yorker. I’m finding it a great place to discover more about how writers work, and to bridge from authors I like to authors they like, which is often a happy journey. I found a great interview with Raymond Carver there, and started reading some of his short stories online. I’m sure I did some of his stories in high school, but can’t remember any of them off the top of my head. Today I read Kindling, a posthumously published story he wrote years earlier, not long after he gave up drinking. You can find it here, at Story of the Week. For an excellent interview with Carver, have a look here. In it he talks a lot about his methods of writing, and interestingly claims his first drafting to be rubbish, a scaffolding he would build up over months.
I find it inspiring to read the words of other writers, on their lives, on their processes. These are people who take their work seriously, who are aware of their limitations. They struggle with it, they make headway. Over time they build up bodies of work, representations of their growth, of the evolution of their thoughts and beliefs. Fascinating.
The other thing I love about Issyvoo is the black and white photographs. Great.
If you use Facebook please visit my page, Burinsmith! You can do so by clicking in the right column…and click Like if you do! Then you’ll get updates as they occur. I’ll be putting things on there to round out content here on the site, things like starting points, comps, commentary. Today I put a post on there about Verandah Literary Journal’s outrageous submission fee. I’d love to hear how you feel about that.
