Fall Writing Classes Available Now at Writers Studio
Published September 11, 2019 by Philip Ivory
“Dynamic, Inspiring, invigorating, supportive. The Writers Studio seemed to me to have all the qualities one could possibly wish for in a writing school.”
JAMES LASDUN, poetry and fiction professor at Princeton University, New York University and Columbia University
Greetings Tucson writer friends! As a teacher and assistant director for the Tucson branch of The Writers Studio, I’m excited that our roster of fall classes is posted and students are already beginning to sign up for our fall session.
Check out our web site for a full listing of Tucson classes. Discover new voices and craft techniques to bring your personal material to life. Sharpen your feedback skills. Learn to identify and build upon your strengths as a writer
SPECIAL DISCOUNT CODE: Use Coupon Code: shine to get $15 off one of our 8-week classes. (Discount must be taken at time of registration online or by phone (212) 255-7075 and may not be combined with any other offer. Expires 9/19/19.)
BEGINNER’S LEVEL WORKSHOPS
Wednesday Evenings with Lela Scott MacNeil
Starts October 16 at 6:30 PM
Saturday Mornings with Richard Leis
Starting October 5 at 10 AM
INTERMEDIATE
Thursday Evenings with Philip Ivory
Starting October 17 at 6:30 PM
ADVANCED
Monday Evenings with Lela Scott MacNeil
Starting October 14 at 6:30 PM
MASTER CLASS
Tuesday Evenings with Reneé Bibby
Starting October 15 at 6:30 PM
If you’re too far away to take an in-person class, consider taking one online.
Not sure what level you should be on? Contact Reneé Bibby at renee@writerstudio.com
“The Writers Studio has grown into one of the best creative writing programs I know, at once serving excellence and inspiring the individual. The ambiance is warm and invigorating, making it joyful to be there.”
GRACE SCHULMAN, author of Days of Wonder: New and Selected Poems
Writers Studio at 30 Anthology
Published December 16, 2018 by Philip IvoryThe WRITERS STUDIO AT 30 anthology, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of the landmark school for creative writing and thinking founded and directed by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz, is now available for purchase at Amazon.com.
The 400-page volume is a compilation of fiction and poetry by current and former faculty and students, as well as The Writers Studio’s Advisory Board members Jennifer Egan, Robert Pinsky, Edward Hirsch, Carl Dennis, Matthew Klam, Rosanna Warren, and others.
A fiction piece I wrote which originally appeared in The Airgonaut, titled “Probably Last Meeting of the Bluebell Ridge II Homeowners Association,” is featured in the volume, along with work by other teachers from the Tucson branch of The Writers Studio including Reneé Bibby, Lela Scott MacNeil and Eleanor Kedney.
CLICK HERE to order your copy of WRITERS STUDIO AT 30 today.
The Stupidest Tea Party, Or Lewis Carroll Helps Interpret the Trump Administration
Published November 7, 2018 by Philip Ivory
(with apologies to Lewis Carroll … and no one else)
EXPLANATORY NOTE: Forty-five years ago, just as Watergate was slowly but surely evolving from a two-bit burglary story to a full-blown national scandal, Mad Magazine published a brilliant piece of satire: “Malice in Wonderland, or Watergate Through the Looking Glass as predicted by Lewis Carroll.”
The article juxtaposed statements by the likes of President Nixon, John Dean, H.R. Haldeman, and John Erlichman with quotations from Carroll’s two nonsense masterpieces, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking- Glass and What Alice Found There (published, respectively, in 1865 and 1871.)
Which brings us to 2018. President Trump assures us he only hires the best people, with the best ideas. But sometimes the things he and his people say defy conventional logic.
Calling upon the two Alice books and Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, I’ve put together the following bit of satire. It’s my tribute to the original Mad piece and my attempt to see if Carroll’s upside-down logic can be used to decipher the words of Donald J. Trump and his revolving retinue of rogues and rascals.
ON WORDS
“I know words, I have the best words.”
Donald J. Trump, Dec. 30, 2015
“They’ve a temper, some of them–particularly verbs: they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however I can manage the whole lot of them!”
Humpty Dumpty, Through the Looking Glass
ON FEAR
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. …They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Donald J. Trump, June 15, 2016
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!”
“Jabberwocky,” Through the Looking Glass
ON COHERENCE
“Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world … nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right — who would have thought?”
Donald J. Trump, July 19, 2016
Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter’s remark seemed to have no sort of meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. “I don’t quite understand you,” she said, as politely as she could.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON CERTAINTY
“He (President Obama) is the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder of ISIS, okay? He’s the founder.”
Donald J. Trump, August 2016
“What I tell you three times is true.”
The Bellman, The Hunting of the Snark
ON MANNERS
“If I were running ‘The View’, I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say ‘Rosie, you’re fired.’”
Donald J. Trump, Aug 27, 2016
“You should learn not to make personal remarks,” Alice said with some severity. “It’s very rude.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON THE WALL
“Mexico will pay for the wall, one hundred percent. They don’t know it yet, but they’re gonna pay for the wall.”
Donald J. Trump, August 31, 2016
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
The White Queen, Through the Looking Glass
ON FACTS
“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.”
Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary, January 21, 2017
“You’re saying it’s a falsehood … Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”
Kellyanne Conway, White House advisor, January 23, 2017
“I know what you’re thinking about,” said Tweedledum. “But it isn’t so, nohow,”
“Contrariwise,” continued Tweedledee, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t.”
Through the Looking Glass
ON THE WORK ETHIC
“This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.”
President Trump, April 27, 2017
“It was much pleasanter at home, when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down the rabbit-hole — and yet — and yet — ”
Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON VOCABULARY
“Despite the constant negative press covfefe …”
Unexplained tweet by President Trump, May 31, 2017
“I think the president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant.”
Sean Spicer, later that day
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”
Through the Looking Glass
ON COMMUNICATION
“Reince (Priebus) is a fucking paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac… I’m not Steve Bannon, I’m not trying to suck my own cock.”
Anthony Scaramucci, White House Communications Director, July 2017
The miserable Hatter dropped his teacup and bread-and-butter, and went down on one knee. ‘I’m a poor man, your Majesty,’ he began.
‘You’re a very poor speaker,’ said the King.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON HUMANITARIAN AID
“We cannot keep FEMA, the Military and the First Responders, who have been amazing under the most difficult circumstances, in P.R. (Puerto Rico) forever!”
President Trump, October 12, 2017
“Take some more tea,” the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.
“I’ve had nothing yet,” Alice replied in an offended tone, “so I can’t take more.”
“You mean you can’t take less,” said the Hatter: “it’s very easy to take more than nothing.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON TURNOVER
“This is an intense place, as is every White House. And it’s not abnormal that you would have people come and go.”
Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary, March 7, 2018
“I want a clean cup,” interrupted the Hatter: “Let’s all move one place on.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON MOVING ON
“I’ll now return to private life, to private citizen as a proud American, proud of the opportunity I’ve had to serve my country.”
Rex Tillerson, March 12, 2018, after being fired as Trump’s Secretary of State
“At any rate I’ll never go there again! It’s the stupidest tea-party I ever was at in all my life!”
Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON ACCOUNTABILITY
“The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t, or why it wouldn’t be Russia’ instead of ‘why it would.’”
President Trump, July 17, 2018, correcting an earlier statement about Russian interference he made while standing alongside Vladimir Putin in Helsinki
“The cause of lightning,” Alice said very decidedly, for she felt quite certain about this, “is the thunder — no, no!” she hastily corrected herself. “I meant the other way.”
“It’s too late to correct it,” said the Red Queen: “When you’ve once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.”
Through the Looking Glass
ON GEOGRAPHY
“I have great respect for the U.K. United Kingdom. Great respect. People call it Britain. They call it Great Britain. They used to call it England, different parts.”
President Trump, August 2, 2018
“London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome, and Rome — no, that’s all wrong, I’m certain!”
Alice, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON SANITY
“He’s gone off the rails. We’re in Crazytown. I don’t even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I’ve ever had.”
John F. Kelly, White House Chief of Staff, quoted in “Fear: Trump in the White House” by Bob Woodward
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “We’re all mad here.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON THINKING
“I know you’re not thinking. You never do.”
President Trump to Cecilia Vega, ABC News, October 1, 2018
‘Really, now you ask me,’ said Alice, very much confused, ‘I don’t think—’
‘Then you shouldn’t talk,’ said the Hatter.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
ON MATURITY
“I mean—I’m not a baby. I know these things.”
President Trump to Leslie Stahl, CBS News, October 14, 2018
‘If it had grown up,’ she said to herself, ‘it would have made a dreadfully ugly child: but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think.’
Alice reflecting on a baby turned into a pig in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
— Philip Ivory, 11/7/2018
New Fiction: Miss Brompton Falls 1938
Published October 26, 2018 by Philip Ivory
For years I’ve been interested in Menacing Hedge, which identifies as “a quarterly journal of poetry, fiction and artwork, which is committed to fostering access to emerging and experimental poetry and prose.” This month, I”m excited that Menacing Hedge is featuring my 11th published piece of fiction, a short story called “Miss Brompton Falls 1938.”
I’m not really sure if this story is a feminist fable, or an old-timey stew of sex and violence. Maybe you can let me know. Either way, it’s my third published piece that originated from my participation in the NYC Midnight online challenge, which requires you to concoct a story within a limited time frame based on a number of parameters that are arbitrarily assigned.
In this case, I was given drama for my genre, a beauty pageant for a setting, and a cash register as an object that had to be included. Sometimes it’s really difficult to incorporate all these elements, but in this case they came together in a fairly organic way.
The cash register suggested a general store, and that made for an odd but interesting setting for a beauty pageant. I hit on a Depression-era setting, which brought with it associations with economic desperation and the era’s fascination with outlaws. As I continued to revise the piece, the original parameters became less important, and the story took on a life of its own.
I had fun writing a period piece, trying to make sure the slang and the cultural and consumer references were as true as possible to this era. Mostly, though, I was concerned with the idea of portraying a woman whose inner state is in deep conflict with the situation she finds herself in, although circumstances make it impossible for anyone but the reader to understand why.
Click on the picture above to read it. You can also choose to listen to the audio file of me reading the story.
My thanks to Menacing Hedge, NYC Midnight and a number of loyal writing friends, including Alice Hatcher, Bryn McFarland and Renee Bibby’s Writers Studio Master Class, who provided invaluable feedback that helped me fully develop the story.
New Role at Writers Studio
Published October 20, 2018 by Philip Ivory
I’m pleased to announce I’ve been asked to assume a new role at the Tucson branch of Writers Studio. In addition to continuing to be a teacher on the intermediate level, I’ll be serving as assistant director and working closely with branch director Reneé Bibby.
Here’s some info about the program and its philosophy, from our web site at writerstudio.com:
“The Writers Studio, founded in 1987 by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz, offers ongoing writing workshops — both on site and online — designed to help students discover and nurture their own voices. We welcome students at all stages, from those who have only dreamed of writing fiction or poetry to those with MFAs hungry for additional serious, ongoing instruction. Students provide the desire to write and the willingness to learn, and we provide the structure, the technical know-how, the professional feedback and the friendly community to enable them to reach their full potential.”
Janelle Drumwright, who has done an amazing job as Tucson branch assistant director for years, is relocating to another city. I hope I can carry on in her spirit and continue to bring the Writer Studio discipline and devotion to craft to students looking to expand and improve their skills. I’ll also be involved in outreach to potential students and planning of special events.
I started as a student in the program, and its emphasis on craft and the importance of creating a distinctive persona narrator for every piece of writing has been extremely helpful to me. It jump-started me after a long period of non-writing and put me on the road to getting work published. I can definitely attest to the program’s effectiveness.
New classes will be starting in January. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. Online classes are available as well as our in-person classes here in Tucson. Feel free to send me any questions about the program at philivory@writerstudio.com.
New Scary Fiction: Keep Me Company
Published October 12, 2018 by Philip Ivory
In keeping with the season, I have a new scary story published. It’s called “Keep Me Company,” and it’s about an emotional bond between brothers that endures beyond the divide of death. And it features walkie-talkies!
The story’s featured in the 2018 Samhain edition of Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly, a literary magazine “dedicated to folk religion, spirituality, and paganism of all paths and stripes.”
This issue showcases ten tales of terror, including mine, which were entries in the journal’s 2018 Spooky Samhain Contest. (My story tied for third place.)
My thanks to the Horror Writers Association, which ran a competition earlier in the year which I didn’t win but which inspired me to write this story.
The Samhain issue of Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly, which features other spooky content including ghost hunts, interviews and recipes, should make for great Halloween reading. So please check it out.
Click Here to Order through Amazon today.
Spooky Samhain 2018 Contest
Published September 24, 2018 by Philip Ivory
I’m excited to announce that a scary short story I wrote earlier in the year called “Keep Me Company” has tied for third place in the Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly’s Spooky Samhain 2018 Contest.
Click on this partial list to see all the winners:
My story will appear in the fall issue of Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly, which should be available soon in print and digital form. I’ll post more when the issue is available.
My thanks to Oklahoma Pagan Quarterly for selecting me as a winner and publishing my story. Consider buying an issue or — best deal! — getting an annual subscription.
New Story: Dr. Marsh’s Final House Call
Published September 8, 2018 by Philip Ivory
I have a new short story appearing at Two Cities Review, titled “Dr. Marsh’s Final House Call.”
Read it here.
Some back story: This piece originated from my participation in the NYC Midnight Short Story Contest earlier this year. In this contest, you are given a random challenge and deadline to complete it by. The challenge includes three randomly assigned elements that you need to use to create your story: a genre, a thing or object, and a person.
The genre I was assigned was Ghost Story. The thing was a Power Outage, and the character was a Physician. You can judge for yourself how well I integrated these diverse elements.
If you subscribe to the philosophy, as I do, that limitations and parameters force a writer to be more creative, the NYC Midnight contests (short stories, flash fiction and screenwriting) are fun and useful. I didn’t win with this story. But by participating, I have produced two stories that have gone on to be published, which more than makes the contest worthwhile. (The other story was “How We Cured Racism,” published late last year.)
My thanks both to NYC Midnight and to Two Cities Review. I’ve written dark fiction before, but never a ghost story, so this was a great challenge for me and a lot of fun.
Public Reading: “The Wonder That Was Ours” by Alice Hatcher
Published September 8, 2018 by Philip Ivory
I just attended a public reading by my friend Alice Hatcher of selections from her debut novel “The Wonder That Was Ours” at the east side Barnes and Noble here in Tucson. Alice did a fantastic job talking about her writing process and the evolution of her novel, which includes a wily set of cockroaches who provide outrageous narrative voices … hence the giant inflatable cockroach (see below) gracing the ceiling at B&N!
If you missed the reading but want to sample her novel, check out the generous excerpt in the current edition of Tucson Weekly. Buy the book at Barnes and Noble online.
Kudos also to Stephen Russell, seen standing in the last photo, another friend to Alice and manager at Barnes and Noble who along with his staff set up a wonderful community event. Stephen also celebrated his last day at Barnes and Noble today. Best wishes, Steve!
The event was a great success, standing room only with all of the available in-store copies sold. An exciting start for a significant new literary talent: My friend, Alice Hatcher.
Write Yourself Sane 