A man and his story stare at the sun, the whole face of the sun. A woman’s story is a small, smudged thing, a stepped-on thing, a hard-to-see thing, a crowded back thing.
I am a reliable narrator. Or not! The important thing is that you Kate Gale and Red Hen Press have brought me back to my own writing. I loved "Stones of Ibarra" and had a lovely correspondence with its author, published late in life — a gem! You too are a gem — obviously the star of AWP. If I can get a "reliable" transport, I will attend your April 3 event for 3 Armenian writers one of whom won the Nimrod Award in 2022. In addition, and I know I'm rambling (allowed at 91), I purchased Nancy Kricorian's The Burning Heart of the World on Saturday. Read it at one sitting. Never a word wasted, gripping. Thank you!
This is really beautiful, thank you. It's hard when the language and every way we are trained to use and relate to it asks us (women, femme people, maybe others?) to participate in reality as the substance that supports; the connective tissue to the main muscle: but then simultaneously connotes greater value to what's being supported. It's hard when we live in a culture where being the supporting matter, having a nuanced or dispersed consciousness, being in any way feminine is not of value and is often treated as a liability. It's a reductionist culture where objects are seen as singular, and singularity and importance are connected.
I wonder sometimes what it would feel like to be born into a language that reflects the complexity of relatedness as valuable: if then a singular narrator boldly describing his reality would seem foolish, half-sighted. If then the room-skirting unreliable voice tapped into the undercurrents of emotion and the nuances of dynamics between people might become important, even if only for being closer to the truth that one is not enough; that we are not singular; that the world we live among is a series of relationships we are responsible to tend, and that treating existence as a series of singular objects is causing massive harm.
Anyway I think the work you are doing is part of building back this language, from the recesses of ancestry or the future emerging. Thank you for the work.
you and your writing = something to me
i am reading . watching . appreciating
Terrific Kate.
“Write late, and write well.” 🙌🏼🙌🏼
Yes, writing still matters, Kate.
What a delectable read!
I want to go to the city, stand outside a random tall building, approach everyone who comes out and ask them: are you important?
I am a reliable narrator. Or not! The important thing is that you Kate Gale and Red Hen Press have brought me back to my own writing. I loved "Stones of Ibarra" and had a lovely correspondence with its author, published late in life — a gem! You too are a gem — obviously the star of AWP. If I can get a "reliable" transport, I will attend your April 3 event for 3 Armenian writers one of whom won the Nimrod Award in 2022. In addition, and I know I'm rambling (allowed at 91), I purchased Nancy Kricorian's The Burning Heart of the World on Saturday. Read it at one sitting. Never a word wasted, gripping. Thank you!
This is really beautiful, thank you. It's hard when the language and every way we are trained to use and relate to it asks us (women, femme people, maybe others?) to participate in reality as the substance that supports; the connective tissue to the main muscle: but then simultaneously connotes greater value to what's being supported. It's hard when we live in a culture where being the supporting matter, having a nuanced or dispersed consciousness, being in any way feminine is not of value and is often treated as a liability. It's a reductionist culture where objects are seen as singular, and singularity and importance are connected.
I wonder sometimes what it would feel like to be born into a language that reflects the complexity of relatedness as valuable: if then a singular narrator boldly describing his reality would seem foolish, half-sighted. If then the room-skirting unreliable voice tapped into the undercurrents of emotion and the nuances of dynamics between people might become important, even if only for being closer to the truth that one is not enough; that we are not singular; that the world we live among is a series of relationships we are responsible to tend, and that treating existence as a series of singular objects is causing massive harm.
Anyway I think the work you are doing is part of building back this language, from the recesses of ancestry or the future emerging. Thank you for the work.