Congratulations to all October 2006 graduates
(AKA old RATS/new alumni):

Stephanie Ruth Anderson
Clare Martha Beams
Claire Campbell
Megan Constance Donohue
Vivien Joyce Drabkin
Jennifer Flores Estaris
Brian Joshua Eule
Rivka Ricky Galchen
David Michael Gordon
Tupelo Jereme Hassman
Elaine Dorothy Johanson
Subhashini Kaligotla
Alice Taylor Larsen
Diana M. Lind
William Joseph Merrell
Lantz Eugene Miller
Wendy Elizabeth Paris
Jamie Christopher Pietras
Karen Elizabeth Russell
Kate Lynn Schirmer
Jaclyn Cheryl Thomas
Jennifer Lynn Yabroff

Way to write your way out of here!

SoA Alumni, Writing Division | No Comments »

For a while now there’s been an ongoing debate about what the influence of the Internet will be on literature. This is an interesting discussion and one that is bound to continue for some time.

Another interesting question is what resources the Internet offers for practicing writers. My experience is that the web offers a mixed bag. As someone who sits in a cubicle at least four days a week, I’ve had ample time to comb through what’s out there. Here are a few sites that may be of interest to you.

For self-publishing or starting your own blog, you can go here:
Blogspot is a nice, simple interface that anyone can use.
(Also WordPress, the hosted version of the software you are looking at right now. –Matt)

For one of more well-done web magazines check out elimae, which stands for “electronic literary magazine.”

The Center for Book Culture runs a pretty good website where you can read reviews of contemporary fiction as well as interviews with a lot of great authors. There’s a particularly good interview here with David Foster Wallace.

For a near comprehensive list of places to publish stories, go here:
http://www.litline.org/links/journals.html

I have no idea how I came across this website, but it’s an incredible resource for writers and readers. I highly recommend downloading Realplayer (free and easy to install) and listening to some of these interviews. Don Swain might not be the world’s greatest interviewer, but he has managed to attract some of the best writers in the world. Among the interviewees are: Barry Hannah, Mary Gaitskill, Anne Beattie, Raymond Carver, Paul Auster, Harold Brodkey, Harry Crews, Stanley Elkin. Pretty much anyone great you can think of is on there.

Another interesting destination for interviews with authors is Bookworm, a public radio show based out of KCRW in LA. Bookworm’s site has an archive where you can listen to all past shows. Some notable ones include: Deborah Eisenberg, John Updike, and Don Delillo. (For music, check out Morning Becomes Eclectic)

Here is a link to a great interview with Saul Bellow.

Hope something here sparks your interest. Keep checking back to the site. More updates to come.

RATS blogosphere, Writing Division | No Comments »

Ed Wood’s my favorite, but if you want to see The Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands (actually I love this one too), or Pee Wee’s Big Top Adventure, head out to Symphony Space this Saturday. Show up in your pjs. The first showing’s at 11 am.

Upcoming Events (Writing), Writing Division | 1 Comment »

RATS holds a monthly reading series, alternating Manhattan and Brooklyn bars to accommodate our spreading population. Research Arts students in all three concentrations (and recent grads, too), are encouraged to read new work, work they’re excited about, and to bring friends. Our first reading was held October 8th at the Lucky Cat in Williamsburg. Check the Events calendar on this website for upcoming dates, locations and times. If you’re interested in reading or have a venue suggestion, contact Rebecca Schiff at rjs2108@columbia.edu. Links to bars that are hosting us:

http://www.theluckycat.com/
http://www.thedeadpoet.com/about.html

Reading Series, Writing Division | No Comments »

We’re the first to admit that cutting chords, going wireless, flying coops and getting out of dodge is eventually inevitable. And if you’ve found your way to this web page, it means you’re ready to give up the $500-per-month gym membership and the clinic-like healthcare to start peddling your project and paying off loan loaners who may or may not be named Eddie The Knuckle.

That said, the least we can do is offer you a proper sendoff, by offering resources that will help MFA-hopefuls prepare for turn-in.

The next thesis deadline is March 5, 2007. In the weeks before you turn in, check this site for blog entries from faculty that will discuss the process and answer your questions.

If you have any questions, comments or ideas swishing around, please send them to soarats@gmail.com or post them below. A-hoy!

Thesis Turn-In, Writing Division | No Comments »

Welcome to the new Research Arts blog. We’ll be posting an array of information here to keep you engaged and pounding away at your theses. There’s no set method, but we’ll try to post a few times each week—mostly about things that’ll make you want to write, such as particularly notable readings, art exhibits, links to useful interviews, articles, web resources, etc..

To get things going, here’s the first head’s up. This was passed through the division email, but it is definitely not to be missed.

Sunday, October 8, 2006, at 2 PM, fiction writer, playwright, and poet, Denis Johnson will be reading at DIA: Beacon, an art museum located less than an hour upstate via Metro-North (leaves from Grand Central, nice ride, costs like $5).

This seems like a really special opportunity to hear Johnson (author of Jesus’ Son!) read at a great museum. DIA:Beacon is a converted Nabisco factory that serves as a permanent home to works of conceptual art, sculpture, installations, and earth art that are too large or unwieldy to fit in conventional museums. For instance, one enormous warehouse at Dia is devoted to Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. If you like the idea of walking inside the hull of enormous, rusted iron ship with the sensation that the walls are about to collapse on you, then you’ll love this. It’s beautiful and scary.

The art is big and amazing to see in person. There’s work from Warhol, Joseph Beuys, Sol Lewitt, among many, many others. I’ve been several times and it’s definitely worth the trip.

Keep checking back to the blog. New stuff will be up shortly.

http://www.diacenter.org/

Denis Johnson
Sunday, October 8
2006, 2 pm

Denis Johnson was born in 1949 in Munich, Germany, and raised in Tokyo, Manila, and Washington. His fiction includes Angels, The Stars at Noon, Jesus’ Son, and The Name of the World. In 2001, a collection of his international journalism Seek: Reports from the Edges of America and Beyond appeared. His books of poems include The Man Among the Seals, Inner Weather, The Incognito Lounge and The Veil. His plays include Hellhound (on my Trail), and Shoppers Carried by Escalators into the Flames. He lives in North Idaho.

RATS blogosphere, Writing Division | No Comments »

In late spring/early summer of next year, we plan to organize and facilitate a writing retreat for about 4 or 5 days. Our goals for retreat are as follows:

• Reserve a quiet, aesthetically attractive area condusive to good writing (our model is Schroon Lake, NY: Think rural bars with stuffed coyotes and Johnny Cash karaoke).
• Help in someway to subsidize aspects of the trip for participants.
• Hold a few events: guest lectures, bars, hiking, S&M …

We’re still in the preliminaries for this program, but if you have a location suggestion or know of an existing setting prospect (read: your Great Aunt Alma who owns a house in the Adirondacks) please let me (Jeff Bender) know.

Also, for questions regarding the retreat, please contact me at jb2424@columbia.edu.

Writer's Retreat, Writing Division | No Comments »

Good news! This five-letter contraction translates into the simple fact that if you’re a third-year or beyond, you’ve officially found your people. As in, you pay the student activities fees, therefore you should have some activities to attend. Starting this school year, you now have your own team of DRAs (DRA + RATS = D/RATS) to make sure you take your turn at the activity booth.

Over the next year, prepare to hear from your trusty D/RATS about the good stuff. Readings, write-ins, watermelons — we’ve got it all, fellow mouse-ies. And as D/RATS, we’re now at your service.

Welcome to getting what you pay for.

Love,
Your D/RATS
soarats@gmail.com

Diana Delgado
Denise Burrell-Stinson
Amanda Pennelly
Rebecca Schiff
Jeff Bender
Thom Blaylock
Matt Griffin
Alex Waxman

Writing Division | No Comments »

Finally, a real understanding of SOA RATS.

RATS blogosphere, Writing Division | No Comments »

So, I’m just getting started with putting this site together. I could use some helpful thoughts about what you folks want out of your blog.

Go ahead and email me (Matt Griffin) at [[soarats@soarats.org]] your thoughts and critiques, and I’ll see what I can do to make this stuff really work.

What you should be seeing in the next few weeks is the addition of a RATS messageboard, a calendar with nifty pop-up events details, proper site architecture, Research Arts blogs for Film and Theatre (if they want them), member comments, and…well…these crazy pictures I’ve been making by scanning words.

Not to mention content, both authored by your D/RATS staff and sent to us to add.

zWeb Site Development | No Comments »