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06/17/24: Quiet Summer
Usually this space is for professional stuff – what’s coming out, going in. This summer is quiet, and I start feeling how nice it is to slow down, to keep the brain from its incessant buzz. The baby’s almost two, and language is coming on line: left, right, counting, letters. Toby’s rolling around in the […]
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booknotes: Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People
Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Heads of the Colored People. Simon and Schuster, 2018. This book, longlisted for the National Book Award, is smart, biting-funny, and at times really powerful. The first story, “Heads of the Colored People: Four Fancy Sketches, Two Chalk Outlines, and No Apology,” is a tour-de-force, at once hard-hitting and self-aware – I can’t […]
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2/6/20: Two Californias Release Party, Part Two
Super pleased to be teaming up with Rochester’s great Writers & Books for a second release party for Two Californias. The reading (snacks, pineapple erasers, etc.) will be in conjunction with a workshop that Saturday on exploring the flat spots in story. Let’s hope for good weather! Event details: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/two-californias-by-robert-glick-book-launch-tickets-86226205903 Workshop details: https://wab.org/event/opportunity-spaces-exploring-the-flat-spots-in-story-2/
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12/11/19: Algorhythm Fails
One fun thing with Two Californias is how search engines and booksellers try to algorithmically suss out the book’s (aesthetic or economic) kin. Here’s Amazon’s current best guess:
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10/14/19: Stereolab in Vancouver, CA
What a super show. Sometimes I forget the transformative power of music when it surrounds you, in a sweaty ballroom, each instrument building ebb and flow individually, in dialogue, between songs. Great musicianship, genrebusting, smarts…
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9/10/19: Saltwater
It is with deep sadness and ambivalence that I finally watched Saltwater, the final film by teacher, friend, and mentor Lise Swenson, who passed away in 2016. It’s an amazing achievement, a full-length, independently produced and funded film. But it’s hard not to watch what is clearly a labor of love and community-building through the […]
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9/2/19: Saltonstall Residency Week!
Saltonstall is beautiful. I’m here for a two-week residency. What to say? It is gorgeous here, in late summer, with all kinds of wildflowers, out in the countryside, 8 miles from the utterly charming Ithaca. Deer, chipmunks, mostly deer. I learned that wasps can have underground nests. I love my studio, which looks out onto […]
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7/12/19: Chautauqua Institution
Fortuitous last-minute opportunities: I’m excited to be reading/teaching/crafting next week at the Chautauqua Institution‘s Literary Arts Program. I’ve always loved their programming, their commitment to writing and justice. Looking forward to spending some time with Atom Atkinson and chatting about the tyranny of linear time! It’s also curious to be self-reflective about my own processes, […]
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6/16/19: Digital Storytelling in Portugal
When I was younger, I dreamed of going to Portugal. I had no idea why; perhaps it was my friend Tristen, who had Portuguese roots. 25 years passed. And now I’ve been lucky enough to come here three times in the last two years. What to say about Portugal, or at least about the bits […]
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5/24/19: notes towards (Tom Cruise)
an essay that revisits Top Gun as an exemplar of toxic masculinity hugely influential on men of my age; that evaluates how the mystique and popularity of Tom Cruise is built on that toxic masculinity; that establishes that the interlinking of us militarism and this toxic masculinity inoculates Tom Cruise against certain forms of critique. […]