New Writer: Hello, Mr. Editor. I have a story that I would like you to read. Old Editor: I figured you would. New Writer: Well, will you read it? Old Editor: I already read it, actually. New Writer: No way! When did you read it? Old Editor: Just this second. New Writer: Wow, you are … Continue reading Experimental Fiction
On Writing
On Miley Cyrus and the Role of Grammar in Creative Writing
Miley Cyrus just can't catch a break these days. From valid criticisms of her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards to the nearly half a dozen open letters she's received from Sinead O'Connor, the 20-year-old pop star can't stop ruffling feathers. Perhaps the nerdiest rebuke came three weeks ago when indie-rock multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens … Continue reading On Miley Cyrus and the Role of Grammar in Creative Writing
The Confessional: On Writing Sins
When I was a boy, I was an excellent listener. Every Sunday I would go to church and the preacher would preach and I would take his messages to heart. No matter how dubious the notion (water into wine, a pregnant virgin, condoms are bad), I would accept it as an absolute truth. I trusted … Continue reading The Confessional: On Writing Sins
Kids Write Poetry, Too
Recently a friend of mine posted on Facebook a poem that her son wrote. When I read her comment under the poem, “Justen wants to publish this someday so bad!” I got to wondering if there are places for children to submit their creative work, beyond the last page of their local newspapers. I found … Continue reading Kids Write Poetry, Too
Perfect Poem. Population: Zero
Too often it happens, I believe, as poets, we believe that there is a road-map that one can follow in the creation of the “perfect” poem. Say, if we go up Linebreak 55 and get off on Enjambment 2, and go North on Stanza Boulevard, then we'll find the almost microscopic village of Perfect Poem. … Continue reading Perfect Poem. Population: Zero
Introducing Unexpected Objects: An Idea for Reviving or Finishing Difficult Poems
Lately, I’ve been dropping lures into my poems. Lures that would otherwise catch walleye in some small lake in northern Michigan are cropping up in my work to help me explore difficult subjects. The fact that lures are objects used to do something, that they are part of an action, made them particularly interesting and … Continue reading Introducing Unexpected Objects: An Idea for Reviving or Finishing Difficult Poems
Un-Control
Poring over the number of submissions we at The Minnesota Review receive, what I always want to pick up from a piece is electricity. The same ecstatic feeling you get when you read a passage of impossibly well-communicated emotion…something to bring me into the mind and world of a work and abandon my critical faculties … Continue reading Un-Control
An Interview with Jazzy Danziger
Jazzy Danziger’s debut collection, Darkroom, is the winner of the 2012 Brittingham Prize in Poetry. Danziger studied at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns/Poe-Faulkner Fellow in poetry. She currently serves as editor for the Best New Poets anthology. Interviewed by Christopher Linforth How did you … Continue reading An Interview with Jazzy Danziger
Turning Writing on Itself: Metaphors and Similes about the Creative Process
In the part-confessional, part-instructive, and entirely user-friendly On Writing, Stephen King likens authors to paleontologists: stories, he says, “are found things, like fossils in the ground,” and it’s the writer’s job to unearth them. Ernest Hemingway, in his minimalist way, stated that “Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” And Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael, once … Continue reading Turning Writing on Itself: Metaphors and Similes about the Creative Process
Choosing the Right Journal for You
Inspiration can strike at any moment, so you ought to keep some means of note-taking handy. Here are a few tried and true methods, and a few tools you may have overlooked. The Moleskine: A journal made of collective memory (2/3 absinthe, 1/3 big game hunting). If your family has been wondering about you—is she? … Continue reading Choosing the Right Journal for You
Interview with Carol J. Adams
Today's post is a bit of a change for our regular blog content, although not our journal. You likely already know that the minnesota review features both creative and critical writing, but you may not have known that we often feature interviews with leading scholars. Today, we're featuring part of an interview that Heather Steffen conducted … Continue reading Interview with Carol J. Adams
Just Say “Arrgh!”
Even in my mother’s womb, I knew I wanted to be a pirate. I’d say my “arghs,” drink through my barrels of rum, and have a jolly time sitting around with my fellow shipmates. If only, if only. Well, twenty years later, I’ve accepted the role as an English major, secretly watching for the next … Continue reading Just Say “Arrgh!”
May We Write Like Ben (or Jerry)
Those Picassos of Pistachio Pistachio, those Borgeses of Half Baked, Ben and Jerry have authored an oeuvre of delicious genius, and a young writer would do well to learn the lessons of the ice cream iconoclasts, who did to dessert what only the most innovative artists do to their crafts: they reinvented it. If we're … Continue reading May We Write Like Ben (or Jerry)
Inching: How I’ve Learned to Get Anywhere
I have been dreaming of a small-scope life like a paint peeling front porch hosting rocking chairs and suckle-sweet honey hues. I imagine writing stacks and stacks of essays and poems and stories of which I am pleasantly proud. Heaps of quiet fall into the atmosphere of my future life like snow. Not real snow, of course. The … Continue reading Inching: How I’ve Learned to Get Anywhere
iWrite!
With all the hubbub surrounding Apple’s recent game changers—OSX Lion, OS5 with its futuristic Siri, and iCloud—iWrite! hasn’t received any of the attention it deserves, but let me tell you, this app rocks! Like all Apple innovations, iWrite! allows the user to focus on creativity and form, and leaves the humdrum nitty gritty (in this … Continue reading iWrite!
Just Say Scrotum
Almost every writer has this history. We begin writing young, exercising power over our experiences and observations by organizing them and labeling them with language. As a part of this organization, many of us employed poetic language, applying florid descriptions to ordinary or ugly experiences. We masked pain, and hid messages. For some of us, … Continue reading Just Say Scrotum
Growing Out of My Thesaurus
I didn’t think I was a poser in my relationship with words until I read this: “If you write a poem with the aid of a thesaurus, you will almost inevitably look like a person wearing clothes chosen by someone else.” That’s Mark Doty in his interview for The Writer’s Chronicle. At first, I called … Continue reading Growing Out of My Thesaurus
Short Story Challenge: The Happy Story
Is it that unhappy people are drawn to writing that we never get a happy story? Or that most people aren’t really happy? How often do you read a story populated by even one happy person? Maybe the question should be, do you know any happy people at all? For most fictional characters, if they … Continue reading Short Story Challenge: The Happy Story
Come On, Let’s Write Some Shit!
“There is no such thing as writer’s block,” William Stafford explains, “for writers whose standards are low enough,” to which you might retort: “But I want to write good shit, not shit.” Fine. But even the best writers admit to writing crap to get to their good stuff and even say it’s the crap, sometimes, that inspires … Continue reading Come On, Let’s Write Some Shit!
Exercise in the Periphery
During a recent class workshop of one of my poems, my peers felt there were parts not contributing to the overall piece. As they identified each line in need of axing, I felt like I was losing something essential in my writing. I thought, these are the parts of the poem I labored over most. … Continue reading Exercise in the Periphery
The Minnesota Review 