Though born and raised in the United States, I recently found myself asking whether I'm an American writer. I concluded that, based on my approach to fiction and despite having been born here, I am absolutely not an American writer. American writers, with few exceptions, believe you need to get to the point. I'm not…
Craft Note: Embracing the Morning
For most of my adult life, and a lot of my youth, I've been a night owl. As a kid, I loved staying up on Friday and Saturday nights to catch Chiller Theater or The Ghoul. Then came "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" and "Midnight Special" and "Saturday Night Live." Later, my punk rock inclination and…
Ubu in the Arcades: Excerpt from Housebreaking the Muse
The following is a draft excerpt from my novel in progress, Housebreaking the Muse. The novel is haunted by the character of Jacques Rigaut, the French dadaist, gigolo, drug addict, dandy, and suicide. It is also narrated, in part, by a reformed Père Ubu. In this fragment, Ubu introduces the setting for much of the…
Off Topic: My Thoughts on Pursuing an MFA
At long last I’m returning to the blog after a summer (and then some) of, well, screwing around. In this post, I expand on some remarks I made in answer to a column in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “M.F.A. Fever.” The column takes up the challenges of advising students who seem to have…
Craft Note: Serious Day Jobs and the Grave Dangers of the “Twinned” Existence
The Writer and Pynchon's Concept of "Twinning" So, here I find myself arrived at that stage of life in which the passing of the sands through the hourglass has evolved beyond hoary metaphor into palpable reminder of my long sacrifice of calling to day job. I seem daily to grow more desperate and panicky over…
Ed Desautels' Maximum Fiction 