Fictionary Magazine
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A TRUE GENRE BENDER JCO ACROSS THE BOARD Joyce Carol Oates is an author whose talent stretches across the restrictive shackles of genre. She has successfully written literary fiction and short stories, only to move on to horror stories and mystery and suspense novels, and in doing so has often blurred the lines between the genres. Here is but a brief sampling of her staggering breadth of writing. Faithless: Tales of Transgression Beasts You Must Remember This – Short-Story Collection – – Novella – – Literary Novel – Don’t be fooled by the title, Faithless is about In a small liberal arts college in the 1970s, The Stevicks are an average, working-class family much more than marital infidelity. The 21 stories a naïve young college girl falls in love with a simply trying to survive the extraordinary 1950s. in this collection cover every type of faith, or professor of poetry and his sculptress wife. Oates weaves McCarthyism, mass paranoia, and lack thereof, imaginable. From faithlessness in As Gillian descends into a gothic world of drugs, political unrest into the Stevicks’ world, following oneself to infidelities to God, these short stories obsession, and a battle for her humanity, fifteen-year-old Enid Maria’s affair with Felix probe the varied ways in which people betray Oates creates a living nightmare for the reader, Stevick, a professional boxer twice her age who one another and themselves. a beautiful and shocking tale of infatuation, happens to be her uncle. An epic family saga that sex, and the need to be noticed. grabs hold of you right from the start, You Must Remember This is one novel you will never forget. Freaky Green Eyes The Faith of a Writer Zombie – YA Mystery Novel – – Nonfiction– – Horror – Freaky Green Eyes is an alter ego that guides Perhaps overqualified to write a book on Winner of the Bram Stoker Award in 1996 and Franky, a fifteen-year-old girl struggling to writing, Oates does so with ease and style. told as a first-person diary, complete with crude realize who she is while growing up with an She celebrates her “first love” authors, the drawings and staccato sentences, Zombie tells the increasingly absent mother and a father thrill of inspiration, and the absolute necessity story of Quentin P., a serial killer intent on creating prone to violence. Morphing into a coming- of reading as a writer. She delves deep into his very own zombie. Though his quest is horrific, of-age story, a mystery novel, and an her own process, while offering advice to Quentin’s captivating humanity and his childlike examination of domestic violence, this book beginning writers. This book is essential for air make him almost relatable, sympathetic even, caters to all readers. any writer’s collection. and that is what provides the book’s true terror. Real World: Columbia When Writers Start Getting Real compiled by James Lower / photos by Ian Merritt You know how it goes at all those rooftop fundraisers you go to over the summer, right? Alright, well neither do I. But if we did, there’d be some highly paid, starched-collar professional, a friend of your parents, who asks, “And what is it that you go to school for?” And you reply, “Actually, I’m a writer.” After the requisite, “Ohhhhh,” and a pregnant silence, the pro scoffs and says, “Well, what exactly do you plan to do with that?” Hypothetically, we’d like to grab this person by their collar and spit, “Lay off! I like telling stories!” But over time we’ve realized that even though these people might not be genuinely curious, it’s still a great question. A degree in writing could just be one of the most versatile degrees around in terms of what you can do with it. Just look at our alumni. This is the true story of five alumni who wound up living in Chicago and reporting back on what happens when writers stop being broke ... and start getting real. From public relations to National Public Radio to the high school English classroom. From the freelance hustle to the towers of the Tribune. With an incredible amount of hard work, luck, and patience, this is where your degree can take you: just about anywhere. DREW FERGUSON Writing Department. The dirty little secret disaster to the New York Times, writing a draft VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE/ about public relations is that too many people of a speech for the U.S. President, trying to FINANCIAL AT KETCHUM in the field can’t write, they don’t understand convince CEOs that it’s not really appropriate MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING ’98 their audience, and they’re too busy to bad-mouth nuns or try and take a hit out overanalyzing everything so they never see on them, writing someone’s Congressional I’d like to be noble and say that I got into public how simple things really are. PR’s supposed testimony, or sitting in a TV studio green room relations because I thought it was an important to be about effective communication, and with Chaka Khan. After a while, everything, no field, that the work I did would free the flow the Story Workshop method of teaching matter how strange it is, has a been there, of information, that it would allow companies writing demonstrates that the best writing done that vibe to it. to better communicate with the public, but is about having a strong sense of audience, that’d be a lie. I got into public relations for understanding forms, and getting to the And that’s what makes returning to your own two reasons: 1) The money (it’s weird how heart of the matter—what’s most taking fiction—the stuff you aren’t writing on the job— people say “selling out” like it’s a bad thing) your attention. Need to communicate with all the easier. Is it hard to write your own novel and 2) because I can say I lie for a living (or at employees, vendors, or shareholders? You’ll when you’ve been writing all day? Sure, but it’s the very least, I hedge or exaggerate the truth), find yourself smack dab in the letter form and probably no harder than writing after serving which for me is about the most productive use making sure the voice and the content meet cappuccinos, working construction, or whatever of a fiction writing degree outside of writing the needs of the audience. Need to write a else other gainfully employed people do to earn fiction. I’ve heard other writers discuss how press release or develop a pitch for a reporter? their scratch. Whatever takes us away from our there aren’t factory jobs that pay for writing You look at the material you’ve been given own writing sucks, but the thing is, when you’re fiction, but PR is damn close. and you rely on that old Take-A-Place coaching writing for other people all day, that just makes to go to the moment or thing that’s most your own writing even more important. Bottom In fact, you’d almost swear that the Story taking your attention, and voila, you’ve likely line: PR’s a day job that was practically made Workshop method of teaching writing was got your news hook. Best of all, you can find for fiction writers. It pays, leaves you time to designed to produce flacks—and of course, yourself in plenty of truth-is-stranger-than- write, and sets you up brilliantly for promoting most flacks never took a class in the Fiction fiction moments—trying to explain a maritime your own book when it’s published. MY awareness of audience Helps me consider HOW best to reacH THem, so THat WHat Happens to me, WHat matters to me, doesn’T just seem like THE random isolated THougHts and EXperiences of one woman ... JESSICA M. YOUNG the company for a mom who’s just putting her my sense of telling and direct address. When REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO WBEZ’S son down for his morning nap; or the window to I am telling scenes or models, I must make EIGHT FORTY-EIGHT the city for a retiree who’s interested in what’s sure that the writing is sharp and tight enough MFA IN FICTION WRITING ’08 going on in his community. I imagine all these so that the listener on the other end can see people and more, on the other sides of their clearly what I see. I don’t have a lot of words Radio is definitely not a medium I thought would radios listening to WBEZ, my voice pouring out like in longer-form fiction, nor do I have the suit me as a writer, but looking back, it seems of their speakers. I know about the listeners who benefit of an in-person telling. I must rely on like an obvious choice. I have some performance make public radio a part of their day: They’re the writing and make it as clear and concise training, which gives me a strong sense of voice thoughtful, they’re engaged, they’re curious, and as possible. I always take my sense of telling and listening, and as a writer, I have no shortage they’re smart, and if I don’t grab them, then to someone with me into the essays I write. of emotions and opinions about the world around they’re lost. My awareness of audience helps me I remember I have something to communicate me.