When we switched to the new blog format, I lost all the videos that I had posted. Now that I’ve figured out how to post videos again, I have decided to have a Billy Collins animated poetry day. Some of you may remember these – I’ve posted them before, but I love them and could watch them repeatedly. For those who don’t know, Billy Collins is a former US Poet Laureate, and I think his animated poems are the best thing about YouTube. Okay, well, the best thing about YouTube is this. And this isn’t bad. But the next very best thing about YouTube are the Billy Collins animated poems.
Ann Leary, author of The Good House
Author of The Good House
Yes I Will Yes
October 24, 2009 by 38 Comments
“…and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.” James Joyce, Ulysses
My friend Davyne Verstandig, head of the Litchfield County Writers Project, recently asked me if I would like to attend a lecture about James Joyce, given by author Frank Delaney.
James Joyce? Frank Delaney? Yes I said yes I will Yes.
Town and Country
October 21, 2009 by 75 Comments
A few weeks ago, I received a call from my book publicist. He told me that he had just given my agent’s phone number to somebody at Town and Country magazine. Town and Country had an idea for me, he said. He actually used the word “collaboration.” It was something they wanted me to write. They would be in touch by the end of the day
Wrestling
October 9, 2009 by 18 Comments
Art
by Herman Melville
In placid hours well-pleased we dream
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt–a wind to freeze;
Sad patience–joyous energies;
Humility–yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity–reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob’s mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel–Art.
A Tribute to Frank McCourt
October 7, 2009 by 32 Comments
Last night, Denis and I attended a tribute to Frank McCourt at Symphony Space, which is a performance space in our old neighborhood in Manhattan. Symphony Space is where all the Selected Shorts series are performed and recorded (if you haven’t downloaded anything from this Public Radio series for a car trip, I’m not sure how you’ve been able to tolerate a car trip). Symphony Space is also where Frank used to meet, annually, with other authors and celebrities, to read from the works of James Joyce at Bloomsday on Broadway, so it was quite fitting that the space was chosen for his memorial evening.
Using Words
July 21, 2009 by 14 Comments
Many famous authors – Eudora Welty, Joan Didion, Virgina Woolf, John Gardener, Stephen King, Edith Wharton, Anne Lamott, Annie Dillard (I’m sure I’m leaving out the most obvious) have written essays and/or books about the craft of writing. I was recently doing some research about Robert Louis Stevenson and learned that he wrote a book called, The Art of Writing. I had read most of the above authors’ works on their craft, but had not been aware that R.L. Stevenson, probably my very first favorite author (my mom read us A Child’s Garden of Verses before we went to bed each night, when we were very small) had wriiten one, and now I’m in the middle of it. Thought I’d share something he wrote about the use of words:
Writers all Jacked Up on Lattes
June 1, 2009 by 15 Comments
This weekend, in addition to attending my friend’s son’s graduation party (he’s our dear friend too – congratulations Adam) and trying to install a garden, I met Lauren Lipton and Marie Bostwick for coffee. Marie and Lauren and I first met last month, while doing a reading/panel discussion for the Litchfield County Writer’s Project and we all had such a great time that we decided to keep in touch. Yesterday, we were just settling down in Marty’s, the local coffee place, when Davyne Verstandig, also a writer and the head of the LCWP wandered in, and the four of us had a three hour gabfest.
I’m on YouTube!
May 23, 2009 by 20 Comments
Our friend and resident poet/language professor Phil Holland has composed a poem for me!
The other day, I commented here, in response to his last poem, that I have a hard time remembering when to use “affect” and when to use “effect.” In what seemed like a matter of minutes, the brilliant Mr. Holland had whipped up a very clever poem to help me. He emailed it to me straight away, but I begged him to recite it, because everybody loves his voice so much. I must say I was blushing and grinning maniacally when I heard him utter my name on YouTube. I think it’s my YouTube debut. Please, don’t try to prove me wrong by finding some embarrassing footage of me on YouTube, this would have a very negative effect on my self esteem, forcing me to affect a haughty and dismissive attitude toward you all, my dear blog friends. Let’s hope I got that right.
Write or Ride
May 13, 2009 by 26 Comments
Today I woke up full of ideas about how to promote the paperback publication of my novel, Outtakes From a Marriage.
First, I’ll write that clever piece about our visit to the White House for the Huffington Post, thought I. Then I’ll write a sweet story about meeting my husband for the Modern Love column of the New York Times. I’ll write a piece about how joyous and liberating it is to be getting old for More Magazine. I’ll write a piece about how ugly and depressing it is to be getting old for Vogue Magazine. I’ll write all these pieces and when they’re published, there will be a mild panic among the populace. Each and every American will be forced to look up from their magazines and computers and cry out, as one, “Who IS this Ann Leary, and how in God’s name can I get a copy of her book before they are sold out of all bookstores, everywhere?”
Paperback Writer
May 12, 2009 by 58 Comments
Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book?
It took me years to write, will you take a look?
It’s the first novel by a woman named Leary
And she needs a job, so she wants to be a paperback writer,
Paperback writer. Paperback writer.
Yes, that’s right, Outtakes From a Marriage comes out in paperback today. So if you don’t own it yet, what’s stopping you? It makes a great gift. It’s lightweight, affordable and compact. It’ll look lovely next to your bed.
