“The Art of Waiting” in Harper’s and on the radio…

Almost a year ago I began working on “The Art of Waiting,” and I’m so proud that it was published in the March/April issue of Orion. (Click here to read some recent reading and art recommendations I wrote for their blog.) I’m also delighted that my essay was chosen for the “Readings” section of the May issue of Harper’s.

On Monday, I will talk about “The Art of Waiting” and assisted reproduction on the Diane Rehm show. Richard will join me, along with Barbara Collura, executive director of Resolve, and Dr. Paul Gindoff, director of the Fertility & IVF Center at The George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates. If you’d like to listen (or call in), we’ll be discussing infertility-related topics, which are still very much on my mind, from 11:00 to noon.

(Those are our spring woods at dusk, above. I believe the bald eagles are nesting again too.)

Orion podcast, Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Retro Renovation

I thought I’d post a link to Orion‘s podcast for the March/April issue. Here’s a summary of what you’ll hear: “Orion editors Jennifer Sahn, Andrew Blechman, and Hannah Fries discuss the March/April 2012 issue of Orion, including the first of a two-part essay by James Gustave Speth about the disappearing American Dream and how things have gotten so bad in Washington; Belle Boggs’s poignant memoir about infertility; Amy Leach’s delightfully whimsical essay about panda bears; Steven Kotler’s humorous investigation into ecopsychology; poetry in the issue; and an introduction to a very unusual project (“Take a Closer Listen”) creatively displayed in this issue of Orion.”

Click here to listen, or here to read my essay and join the discussion.

Also, if you follow Orion on Twitter, you might have learned that the planet Mars will be bright in the east tonight–the brightest this year. (I’m not on Twitter, but sometimes I browse around to follow VCU basketball or see what Richard is up to.)

And speaking of, inspired by my post about our yard, Richard sent me this link to a story about Bonnie Jo Campbell’s “swamp house” kitchen renovation (on the blog Retro Renovation), which she waited 24 years to tackle. In the accompanying interview, she talks about the importance of living modestly if you want to write:

I always tell my students that if they are serious about writing that they should live in a very modest house and try to keep expenses low so that they don’t have to work themselves too hard to pay the mortgage. They think I’m kidding, but I’m not. It’s very hard to make time to write in any case, and so if there’s a way to spend less time earning a living, then follow that way. I also am honest when I say that my poor housekeeping is part of the plan.  I can have a clean, well-kept house or I can get books written, not both.

I asked my creative writing students, who all want careers as artists, if they were willing to live frugally, even to be poor. They all said “yes!” very eagerly. I actually believe them; it’s hard to picture any of them growing up to become investment bankers, or even regular bankers. I did not encourage them to neglect their chores, though.

(pictured above: sunset at my house)

The Art of Waiting (a new essay in Orion)

The other week, at a reading of his new book, Broadway Baby, the poet Alan Shapiro said something about writing that I had to repeat to my students: “Writing is a way of being happy. Even if you’re writing about something sad.” I’ve said similar things to them, but never as well as that.

“The Art of Waiting” is an essay I wrote for Orion magazine, one of my favorite publications. I’m so honored that Orion published my essay, which is probably the most personal and difficult piece I’ve ever written. But writing it–when things were very hard, and very sad for me–was a gift. It was a way of reminding myself not only that I’m not alone, but that the natural world is interesting, mysterious, and wonderful, and provides purpose and healing that we did not expect. Click here to read about Jamani the lowland gorilla, marmoset reproductive suppression, Virginia Woolf’s diaries, the sound of 13-year cicadas, and my efforts to come to terms with my own infertility.

(Pictured above: sunset in Siesta Key, Florida)

Bedside Reading

Some books I’ve recently enjoyed…

From top to bottom:

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr

Let the Dead Bury Their Dead by Randall Kenan

Late Wife by Claudia Emerson

The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht

Assumption by Percival Everett

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

Binocular Vision by Edith Pearlman*

(and on the Nook: The Flight of Gemma Hardy by Margot Livesey, Flannery: A Life by Brad Gooch, and Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron. )

*I’ll post more about this one soon. But my quick recommendation is that you buy a copy for yourself and one for your favorite short story reader.

Cute Stuff in My Yard, and New Work

Just so you know it isn’t all propane tanks and old car parts:

I also wanted to share a new story that has been up for a little while on Blackbird. I’m honored to be included in the fall issue with Clifford Garstang, fellow Bakeless winner Nick Lantz, and so many other talented writers. Blackbird, which is published by VCU’s English department and New Virginia Review, is a great place to read new and established writers, and they have a terrific online archive of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Please click here to read “Death Panel.” It was inspired by the play God of Carnage, which Sky and I took our parents to see in 2009. My mom and I got the idea to write a play about her family, but about the farthest we got was the set–my grandmother’s living room, with an armchair and a Christmas tree decorated with a deflated Easter balloon–and the general mood. So I wrote a story instead.

Another Valentine!

This time a story I wrote with Richard. Dave Daley, of the awesome site (and publishing house) Five Chapters, asked me to write a story about a troubled celebrity marriage. I thought it would be more fun (and funnier) if Richard helped, so we wrote it together.

It was a surprisingly easy collaboration. I thought of the idea (I was obsessed with the rumor that Demi was sent to the hospital for whip-its–how is that possible? And why would she do them? Couldn’t she have a whole nitrous tank if she wanted, like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet? That seems more elegant to me.) Then Richard wrote a hilarious screenplay-style skit. Then I worked on it, turning it into a story. Then Richard made some final changes. Then we argued about the title (Richard prefers “Dog Day Afternoon”). I do seem to be writing about pets a lot lately.

So! Click here if you’d like to read it.

Ugly Stuff in My Yard (a valentine for Jen)

Recently my friend Jen and I were talking about our love/hate relationship with certain design and lifestyle blogs–I won’t name any names, but you know the kind of blog I’m talking about. Perfect, stylish apartments and houses, beautifully photographed. Eames chairs that are not rusty, sofas that have not been shredded by cats, renovations that are up to code. Chalkboard-painted backsplashes, bookshelves arranged by color (so dumb!), children who look French. Sometimes I visit them just to make myself feel bad. I would hate for my blog to make anyone feel bad (especially Jen), so here is some stuff that is in my yard. This is not a before-and-after, as I am unlikely to do anything about this stuff:

This is my propane tank. Propane tanks are always ugly (and sort of depressing), but you can’t really do anything about them. We use propane to cook and heat our water. And when the power goes out (please don’t, power), to heat the house. (Bonnie Jo Campbell has a good story featuring propane tanks called “World of Gas.”)

This is one of our wells, with the stuffing coming out. We have two wells, which is also sort of depressing when you think about it, because it means one of them isn’t good enough (our house is situated very high up a hill, in the woods). We switch back and forth, every week or so. I think it helps us save water, thinking about the wells. Anyway, this one is ugly. I guess we could get one of those fake rocks to cover it up, but that would probably be worse.

Before we bought our house, different kinds of animals used to live in different incarnations of this cage. Some vultures? And then some dogs? That’s what I’ve heard.

We have to be on the alert for trees that might fall on our house. This one was a suspect. We don’t heat our house with wood (thank God), so we don’t have anything to do with the logs. Sometimes I think about becoming a firewood lady.

Here is the coup de grace, though:

We have an outhouse. (Though it might surprise my in-laws, we do have an indoor bathroom. The outhouse is full of car parts and hasn’t been used in 20 years, FYI.)

Happy Valentine’s Day, Jen! xo