Such a great post! I treasure my one-page (one-sentence) printed form rejection from Lish at The Quarterly. It made me feel like it was really only circumstance that prevented acceptance of my (naive and prematurely sent) story. I studied with Amy Hempel at Skidmore 30 years ago -- a life-changing experience where I learned some of the Lish aesthetic. (and where we met briefly as you were writer in residence!) Her workshop approach was maybe a little less directive than Lish's. Faced with an opening that was throat clearing, she would say, "Who can see another way into this story?" whereas Lish, I gather, would point to another paragraph and declare: "There's your 'attack'!" I only recently discovered your published interview with Lish and will be seeking it out! As for your story, so many sentences to love. My favourite: "The men who could count counted." Many thanks for sharing your hand-edited pages. What a time machine.
Mark, You're lucky to have worked with Hempel. Wasn't she famous for bringing her dog to the English department? Or am I making that up? There is a very good essay about Lish's theory of composition on Numero Cinq. Written by a former student of mine Jason Lucarelli. I don't know if you noticed it.
Lucky, indeed. I wrote my first published story in her class. Then, while at the Saratoga train station going home, I found a brochure on train safety that inspired my second ("Stay open for business" was one of her aphorisms). It's true she brought her dog to class, and that too related to a lesson. In a Lish-inspired exercise, she asked us to sum up our essence in one sentence. We then had to write a story from the opposite POV (In Lish's version, the one sentence does not have to be true...). In her case, with Lish, her line had been something like "I can't live without animals". This led to a story in her second book, "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom", about the widow of a veterinarian who couldn't stand animals. Thank you for the link to the Lish article.
That's a great anecdote about dogs, Hempel, and Lish. Amazed me to read how precocious you were, writing your first story as an undergrad.
Let me take this opportunity to tell Out & Back readers to look up your work, also that you contributed a lovely piece to Numéro Cinq's "Childhood" series back in the day.
Thanks for the share. I've always felt blessed to have sneaked into Numéro Cinq just before it wrapped up. But you give me too much credit. I took Hempel's workshop as a non-credit course, six years after my undergrad degrees. Scary to think I was the oldest student in the class even 30 years ago.
Such a great post! I treasure my one-page (one-sentence) printed form rejection from Lish at The Quarterly. It made me feel like it was really only circumstance that prevented acceptance of my (naive and prematurely sent) story. I studied with Amy Hempel at Skidmore 30 years ago -- a life-changing experience where I learned some of the Lish aesthetic. (and where we met briefly as you were writer in residence!) Her workshop approach was maybe a little less directive than Lish's. Faced with an opening that was throat clearing, she would say, "Who can see another way into this story?" whereas Lish, I gather, would point to another paragraph and declare: "There's your 'attack'!" I only recently discovered your published interview with Lish and will be seeking it out! As for your story, so many sentences to love. My favourite: "The men who could count counted." Many thanks for sharing your hand-edited pages. What a time machine.
Mark, You're lucky to have worked with Hempel. Wasn't she famous for bringing her dog to the English department? Or am I making that up? There is a very good essay about Lish's theory of composition on Numero Cinq. Written by a former student of mine Jason Lucarelli. I don't know if you noticed it.
http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2013/02/04/the-consecution-of-gordon-lish-an-essay-on-form-and-influence-jason-lucarelli/
Lucky, indeed. I wrote my first published story in her class. Then, while at the Saratoga train station going home, I found a brochure on train safety that inspired my second ("Stay open for business" was one of her aphorisms). It's true she brought her dog to class, and that too related to a lesson. In a Lish-inspired exercise, she asked us to sum up our essence in one sentence. We then had to write a story from the opposite POV (In Lish's version, the one sentence does not have to be true...). In her case, with Lish, her line had been something like "I can't live without animals". This led to a story in her second book, "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom", about the widow of a veterinarian who couldn't stand animals. Thank you for the link to the Lish article.
That's a great anecdote about dogs, Hempel, and Lish. Amazed me to read how precocious you were, writing your first story as an undergrad.
Let me take this opportunity to tell Out & Back readers to look up your work, also that you contributed a lovely piece to Numéro Cinq's "Childhood" series back in the day.
http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2017/06/03/childhood-mark-foss/
Thanks for the share. I've always felt blessed to have sneaked into Numéro Cinq just before it wrapped up. But you give me too much credit. I took Hempel's workshop as a non-credit course, six years after my undergrad degrees. Scary to think I was the oldest student in the class even 30 years ago.