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I'm a freelance writer, online editor, fiction editor, blogger, and copywriter. I’ve written about everything from the World Economic Forum in Davos for The Atlantic’s Web site, to a great many travel pieces for The New Yorker and Condé Nast Traveler. I’ve contributed to five books.LinkedIn
@MeakinArmstrong On Twitter
- RT @Luludotcom: “When a writer talks about his work, he's talking about a love affair.” - Alfred Kazin
- RT @TwtsFromHistory: Cicero #haiku: Political speech. Most important thing to say. Don't invade Iraq. http://wcti.us/005o
- RT @Wigleaf: yo yo yo Glen Pourciau http://wigleaf.com/
- @NKMfamily Me too, but it's embarrassing how little I know.
- RT @KBAndersen: Love obituaries of people, new to me, who led really long, cool lives. http://tinyurl.com/32ssxwp Especially on a sunny, ...
- The most misspelled words in English http://bit.ly/yr2o
- Guernica cosponsors ILP Lisbon Literature Award. Prize? Trip to Lisbon and the Disquiet writers conference http://bit.ly/aj4DRH #writing
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Tag Archives: Guernica
Reading in Union Sq Today
Park-Lit has a simple concept: writers read from their work, outside, in a public park. Today at 6:30 on the 21st, Guernica (in association with Park-Lit and Open City magazine) will be having a reading in Union Square Park. (On the south side, right in the thick of things, near the Washington statue). I’m not reading but acting as the MC for the event. The readers will be:
The readers:
Joshua Kors (nonfiction)
Terese Svoboda (poetry)
Alexander Chee (fiction)
More about the readers and who they are (they’re fabulous, by the way) at the Park-Lit site.
Posted in Blog, Fiction, Public Reading
Tagged Fiction, Guernica, nonfiction, Public Reading, writing
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Reading: Hosting Park-Lit in Union Sq
Park-Lit has a simple concept: writers read from their work, outside, in a public park. At 6:30 on the 21st, Guernica (in association with Park-Lit) will be having a reading in Union Square Park. (On the south side, right in the thick of things, near the Washington statue).
The readers:
Joshua Kors (nonfiction)
Terese Svoboda (poetry)
Alexander Chee (fiction)
More about the readers and who they are (they’re fabulous, by the way) at the Park-Lit site.
Posted in Blog, Fiction, Guernica, Public Reading
Tagged Fiction, Guernica, guernicamag.com, Park-Lit, Public Reading, reading
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Cinema’s Beautiful Blowhard
The Beautiful Blowhard
I wrote an essay recommending Samuel Fuller’s work. A portion of what I said:
“A Fuller film careers between drama and melodrama; it stars scene-chewing actors; is low budget, and has the subtlety of a machete. A Fuller film can start out being about one thing (such as in one of my favorites, Crimson Kimono , where it begins in a Noirish vein, with two cops investigating a crime in 1950s L.A.) only to veer off somewhere else (racism against Asians). Watching a Fuller film is seeing the unpredictable. It breaks the rules of “good” writing—and just goes for the jugular.
Posted in Blog, Editing, Film Review, Guernica, New Clips, Writing, Writing Samples
Tagged By Meakin Armstrong, Guernica, Samuel Fuller, writing
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PEN World Voices and Guernica: A recap
Novelist Claire Messud (who was guest-editor at Guernica recently) led a panel discussion on women, diversity, and literature. I’ll let another Guernica writer Lorraine Adams sum up the event. Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Editing, Fiction, Fiction Editor, Guernica, Public Reading
Tagged Claire Messud, Guernica, guernicamag.com, Lorraine Adams, Pen World Voices, Public Reading
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Norman Rush: “Mating”
It took some convincing to get me to read Norman Rush. I expected his first novel, Mating, to be an obvious cross between Saul Bellow and a Victorian romance. It took me a long time to realize this: that’s not such a bad combination. Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Guernica, New Clips, Writing Samples
Tagged By Meakin Armstrong, Guernica
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Jakob Dylan: “Women and Country”
“Because of a former roommate, I shut the door on Jakob Dylan. While my roommate played Dylan’s hit, “One Headlight” repeatedly, I escaped to my bedroom where I could listen to something else. She sang random bars from his songs all day. She shattered the few quiet moments in the apartment to blather on about Dylan’s “cuteness.” When she wasn’t doing any of that, she was comparing him favorably with Bob Dylan, saying that his father couldn’t sing or write a single good song —not a one.” Continue reading
Posted in Blog, Editing, Guernica, New Clips, Writing Samples
Tagged By Meakin Armstrong, Guernica
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Claire Messud in Guernica
It’s been busy at Guernica. I’ve been working on a Claire Messud guest-edited section. It’s fantastic and suggest you read. The comments section is burning up. . .
Women make up 80 percent of the fiction reading audience in this country. So why, guest fiction editor Claire Messud asks, are women authors so frequently left off the best-of lists, and left out of prestigious book prizes?
Guernica at Page Turner
November 14th, I’ll be at Page Turner, The Asian American Literary Festival. I’ll be introducing Guernica Guest fiction editors Amitava Kumar and V.V. Ganeshananthan, who will be conducting a reading, along with the writers who are featured in this week’s issue. the event will be held at Powerhouse Arena, the same place Guernica had its benefit (with David Byrne in the audience and Jonathan Ames on stage!)
The Caine Prize, E.C., and Me
I wrote about the the recent Caine Prize for African Writing award for the Guernica blog.
Spoiler Alert (not really, it could hardly be a surprised, I’d imagine): I say that my favorite thing about the award is that the short story was unsolicited.
Read my essay about E.C. winning the Caine Prize for African Writing HERE
Read EC’s Guernica story HERE
Posted in Fiction, Fiction Editor, Guernica, Writing, Writing Samples
Tagged Guernica, guernicamag.com, writing
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New fiction on Guernica, from Patricia Engel
Patricia Engel’s “Dia” explores the tension that can exist between “just friends” of the opposite sex.
I find him sitting on a plastic lounge chair by the hotel pool. I give a little wave and he stands. We kiss on the cheek. He tells me I’m taller than he remembers.
New Fiction on Guernica, by Justo Arroyo
“The Question,” by Justo Arroyo translated from Spanish by Seymour Menton
“Such fiery pupils—your immediate reaction is to avoid them. But the old man knows it, and he keeps looking at you until you have no other choice but to return his look, even when the fire in his eyes forces you to recognize his existence, which is exactly what it’s all about.”
New fiction on Guernica–from Marie Myung-Ok
It’s called “A Meeting,” which is Korean slang for “group date.”
Marie Myung-Ok Lee is the author of the novel, Somebody’s Daughter. Her fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Witness, and TriQuarterly and has been short-listed for the O. Henry awards. Nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. She is writer-in-residence at Brown University and also teaches there.
Do I need to mention once more that Esquire loves us?
New fiction on Guernica
The Memoirs and Prison Journal of Horace W. Redpole, 1793-1794
by Paul Gregory Himmelein
Grandmother was sprawled upon the couch in a heap of black crinoline; her shockingly white legs were raised in the air. Mr. Sparrow supported himself in a very precarious position and did not look the least bit comfortable but was busy grinding his privates into Grandmother’s, much like a mortar and pestle.
