Takeaways from Slushpile Sifting

  • Alzheimer’s and parents’ deaths lose their force as plot devices/ emotion tweakers after the 100th read or so;
  • Plagiarizing premises’ from famous short stories dilutes their power;
  • Using graduate school as a setting or graduate students as characters seems lazy and boring;
  • Plot remains paramount – well-written plotless stories dominate slushpiles;
  • The ability to convey emotion through words is rare;
  • You get one premise free, the others you have to earn;
  • After completing a draft, figure out what the story is (the story making machinery) and then write it again;
  • Having a PhD in English/CompLit etc. doesn’t mean you can write things people want to read;

    • Published on January 5, 2010 15:48.
    Filed under: Columbia, Fiction, Uncategorized Tags: , ,

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    C.V.

    N.B. for privacy reasons this is usually out of date. Contact me for the latest version.

    EDUCATION

    Columbia University School of the Arts, New York, NY
    MFA, Writing, Fiction, Oct. 2011.
    Thesis: Fly the Black Flag of Himself.

    Columbia University School of General Studies, New York, NY
    BA, Cum Laude, May 2007.
    Major: Literature/Writing
    Thesis: Indian Made Foreign Liquor

    TEACHING EXPERIENCE

    2018 Guest Lecturer, University of California Santa Cruz
    Lectured on journalism for a Kresge Core Class.

    2017-2018 Public Fellow, Oklahoma Center for the Humanities
    Homelands Seminar.

    Instructor in English, Northeastern State University
    Fall 2015-2017 (as instructor)
    Fall 2014-Spring 2015 (as adjunct)
    Courses include: Teaching Travel and Adventure Writing (ENG3013) – an upper-division writing class focused on nonfiction; Intro to Creative Writing (ENG3043); Composition II (ENG 1213) and Composition I (ENG1113).

    Workshop Instructor, Oklahoma City University
    January 2015
    Taught a one-day graduate workshop called “On knowing when to steal and make things up.”

    Adjunct Professor, University of Tulsa
    Fall 2014
    Taught two sections of ENG1033, Exposition and Argumentation. 

    Adjunct Professor, Bacone College
    Spring 2014
    Teaching two courses of English 1113, Composition I.
    One section of SPCH1713 Speech and Critical Thinking.

    Teaching Assistant, Columbia University
    Fall 2010
    Worked with Prof. Heidi Julavits to develop curriculum for Fiction: A Primer, the introductory graduate survey course for Columbia’s graduate fiction students. 

    Fiction Editor, Columbia University
    Fall 2009—May 2011
    Edited the fiction pages of Columbia University’s premiere literary journal, Columbia Journal of Art and Literature. Solicited authors and edited manuscripts. Four direct reports.

    TEACHING COMPETENCIES, INTERESTS

    Contemporary fiction
    Contemporary non-fiction
    New media / Internet
    Publishing / communications
    Writing fiction / non-fiction
    Journalism / editing
    Globalization
    Fine Art / Contemporary Art History

    PUBLICATIONS

    Novel/Book-length CNF

    A Grand Theory of Everything, Amazon Publishing, Sept. 2015.
    American Outlaws, Amazon Publishing, Oct. 2014.
    The New Flesh in progress.
    Indian Made Foreign Liquor. (2013) Sold to Chiasmus Media.

    Anthologies

    Forthcoming collection of 3quarksdaily essays.
    “The Op in the Expanded Field” &Now Vol 3: Innovative Fiction Awards. Lake Forest College, NC: &Now Books, April 2015. Anthology.
    Various pubs. A Voice Was Sounding 3 & 4. Tulsa, OK: This Land Press, November 2014. Anthology
    “Claire Accelerates.” Todos Somos Migrantes. Eds. John Washington and Daniela Ugaz. Mexico City: Sur +, forthcoming 2013. Anthology.
    “Dominion.” Thesis Anthology. New York City: Columbia School of the Arts/Writing, 2011. Anthology.

    Magazines and Journals, Fiction.

    “The Plastic Ship.” Under submission.
    “Through a 3D Scanner Darkly.” 3quarksdaily.com
    “3 Buboes.” 3quarksdaily, Aug. 2013. Online.
    “The Godling of Greater Kailash.” Manhattan Magazine Jan/Feb 2013. Print.
    “The Op in the Expanded Field.” NNATAN. Issue 0. Nnatan.org, Aug. 2012. Online.
    “Memory Scraped onto Landscape with Smell.” 3am magazine.
    3ammagazine.com, Jun 2012. Online.
    “Kim Jong-un contemplates his failed launch.” 3quarksdaily.
    3quarksdaily.com, Feb 2012. Online.
    “Armour Brand Desiccated Thyroid bottle (C. 1900).” Gigantic. Issue 3. “Gigantic Indoors.” Thegiganticmag.com, Sept. 2011. Online.
    “The Tramp Steamer.” The Drum. Thedrumlitmag.com, May 2011. Audio Magazine.
    “The Garbling.” Fence Magazine, Winter 2011. Print. 

    Magazines and Journals, Nonfiction.

    “Has Satoshi Vision of the Future been Corrupted?” 21Crytpos.
    “Predicting the Next Bull Market” 21Cryptos.
    “The Future of Blockchain – Predicting the Future” 21Cryptos.
    “Bitcoin in Venezuela” 21Cryptos.
    “Vaporwave” Angeles Review.
    “Oklahoma’s Class System.” This Land Press.
    “Growing up as an Expat.” Oklahoma Humanities Magazine. Forthcoming.
    “The Horror of the Ouachita Mountains” THIS LAND PRESS
    “Restaurant Reviews: Muskogee, Tulsa, Tahlequah.” Oklahoma Today. Forthcoming.
    “Art, Literature and All the Crude in America.” Lithub.com. May 2015. Forthcoming. Online.
    “My Grandfather’s Imposter.” Roads and Kingdoms. Aug. 2015
    “Oklahoma Beards.” Oklahoma Today. April/May 2015. Print.
    “Profile: Jenks Football Coach.” Oklahoma Today. January/February 2015. Print.
    “Beauty, Purpose, and Preservation.” This Land Press. Nov. 15, 2014. Print.
    “Satan Comes to Oklahoma City.” The Paris Review (daily). Theparisreview.org. Nov. 1, 2014. Online.
    “Tulsa Modernism.” Oklahoma Today. November/December 2014. Print.
    “Heavy Heart, Empty Heart.” Columbia Magazine. Fall 2014. Print.
    “Ancestry Days.” Oklahoma Today. August/September 2014. Print.
    “The New Nepal.” Roads and Kingdoms. Roadsandkingdoms.com. August 2014. Online.
    “Google’s John Hanke.” Wired. July 2014. Print.
    “The Surprisingly Strong Case for Colonizing Venus.” CITYLAB. The Atlantic. Online.
    “How-to Campfire Cooking.” Oklahoma Today. June/July. Print.
    “Beauty, Purpose, Preservation” This Land Press. Print. Forthcoming Aug 15. 2014
    “The New Nepal” Roads and Kingdoms. Online. Forthcoming Jul/Aug.
    “Kickstarter Equation” Wired. Print. July.
    “Inside the Studio: Troy Jackson” Art Focus Oklahoma. Print. May/Jun 2014.
    “Indian Country’s Neuromancers” This Land Press. Print. Mar. 2014
    “Datastream” Wired. Print. Mar. 2014
    “Petrostate” This Land Press. Print. Dec. 1, 2013.
    “An Ethnography of the Elite.” Forthcoming. Print.
    “Manhattan and the Mephistophelean Mind.” 3quarksdaily. Nov. 2013. Online.
    “When the Rodeo Clowns Came.” 3quarksdaily. Sept. 2013
    “Moving Down Yonder to the Indian Nation.” This Land Press. Sept. 15, 2013. Print.
    “Doomsday Preppers and Reddit Pizza.” Wired. July 2013. Print.
    “The Metropolitan Trilogy.” 3quarksdaily. July 2013. Online.
    “The Dazzling Debut is Dead.” Newsweek-DailyBeast. Forthcoming June 4, 2013. Online.
    “The Cherokee Nation Constitutional Crisis.” This Land Press, May 2013. Print.
    “Remote Viewing in the Sooner State.” The Paris Review. Theparisreview.org, May 2013. Online.
    “The Great Spy’s Dream.” 3quarksdaily, 3quarksdaily.com. May 2013. Online.
    “Inside the Abbatoir.” This Land Press. April 15, 2013. Print.
    “Remembering Life in Arcosanti.” Wired. Wired.com, Apr. 2013. Online.
    “The Game of (Not) Life.” 3am magazine. 3ammagazine.com, Mar. 2013. Online.
    “The State of Cherokee Nation.” TIME. Time.com, Mar. 11, 2013. Online.
    “Destination: Oklahoma.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Mar. 2013. Online.
    “A Battered Bag of Memories.” Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle Review, Feb. 25, 2013. Print.
    “Silicon Valley: Literary Capital of the 21st Century.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Feb. 2013. Online.
    “Writing and the World of Tomorrow.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Jan. 2013. Online.
    “A Universal History of Online Iniquity.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Dec. 2013. Online.
    “Jesse Ventura Suspects a Conspiracy Against His Show About Conspiracies.” The Atlantic. Theatlantic.com, Dec 17, 2012. Online.
    “M.F.A. Madness.” Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle Review. Nov. 12, 2012. Print.
    “Art World Apostate.” Oxford American. Oxfordamerican.org, Nov. 2012. Online.
    “A Libertarian Paradise in Honduras.” Los Angeles Review of Books. Lareviewofbooks.com, Nov 2012. Online.
    “A Republican Literature of the Americas.” Newsweek-DailyBeast. Thedailybeast.com, Nov. 5, 2012. Online.
    “Literary Magazines: Read All About It.” The Economist. Prospero blog. Theeconomist.com, Oct. 2012. Online.
    “The Q&A: James Ellroy.” The Economist. Prospero blog. Theeconomist.com, Oct. 2012. Online.
    “The Smug Technocrats who will Rule Tomorrow.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Oct. 2012. Online.
    “Common People: Class and the ’80s.” The Awl. Theawl.com, Aug. 2012. Online.
    “A Requiem for Roscoe.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Aug. 2012. Online.
    “Google on the L Train: Sci-fi, Wifi and the MTA.” The Awl. Theawl.com, Jul. 2012. Online.
    “The Romance of Mayhem and High Explosive.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Jul. 2012. Online.
    “Our First Expatriate President.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, May 2012. Online.
    “Translit is Neither New nor Subversive.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Jun. 2012. Online.
    “Nobody Wins.” The Economist. Prospero. Theeconomist.com, Apr. 2012. Online.
    “Diabolical Women.” The Economist. Prospero. The economist.com. Mar. 2012. Online.
    “Solving the Inequality Equation.” Columbia GSAS SuperScript. Spring 2012. Print.
    “The Different Dialects of Serial Murder.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Feb. 2012. Online.
    “Will the Maine Coon Become an American Icon?” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Jan. 2012. Online.
    “Thing Writing.” 3QuarkDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Nov. 2011. Online.
    “Gripes and Halloween Horrors.” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily.com, Oct. 2011. Online.
    “Marco Polo in Boulder, Colorado.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Oct. 2011. Online.
    “The Last MFA Essay I Will Ever Write.” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily.com, Sep. 2011. Online.
    “A Dose of Bile.” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily.com, Aug. 2011. Online.
    “The Thirty-Third Internet Connection in New Delhi.” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily.com, Jul. 2011. Online.
    “Writing for Machines.” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily.com, Jun. 2011. Online.
    “Imagining an Expat Aesthetic.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, May 2011. Online.
    “After the Internet was Shut-off.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Apr. 2011 Online.
    “The Starter Gallery.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarkdaily.com, Mar. 2011. Online.
    “An Attempt at Unraveling Ridgewood, Queens.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Feb. 2011. Online.
    “Could Student Loan Debt Spark Insurrection?” 3QuarksDaily, 3quarksdaily, Jan. 2011. Online.
    “Spark Gaps and Circuits.” 3QuarksDaily. 3quarksdaily.com, Dec. 2010. Online.
    “Baptism by Soda.” 3QuarksDaliy. 3quarksdaily.com, Nov. 2010. Online.
    “A Brief Reflection on Czar Guiterrez’ Bombardier,” HTML Giant. Htmlgiant.com, Oct. 2010. Online.
    “The Q&A Tom McCarthy.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Sep. 2010. Online.
    “The Q&A Lorin Stein.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Apr. 2010. Online.
    “Whitney’s Tepid Biennial.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Mar. 2010. Online.
    “Can You Really Rank Writing Programmes?” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, Dec. 2009. Online.
    “Strange Breeds.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Oct. 2009. Online.
    “The Q&A: Kurt Kauper, Artist.” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, Sep. 2010. Online.
    “Art And (Gauche Breaches Of) Etiquette.” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, Aug. 2009. Online.
    “Another New York Peep Show.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Aug. 2009. Online.
    “A Bandit On The High Line.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Aug. 2009. Online
    “Harlem’s Rising Artists.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Aug. 2009. Online.
    “Charles Saatchi Has An Addiction.” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Aug. 2009. Online.
    “CIA Assassinations,” The L Magazine. Aug. 2009. Print.
    “The Life And Death Of A Hipster King,” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, Jul. 2009. Online.
    “What Is An Alien Artist To Do?” More Intelligent Life. Moreintelligentlife.com, Jun. 2009. Online.
    “An Artfully Disjointed Venice Biennale.” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, Jun. 2009. Online.
    “Iggy Pop’s Ambient, Literary Jazz Album.” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, May. 2009. Online.
    “The Q&A: Sasha Grey, Performer.” More Intelligent Life, Moreintelligentlife.com, May 2009. Online.
    “Why Attack Hotels?” Culture 11, Dec. 2008. Print.
    “Ironclad Closet.” Long Island City Magazine, 2008. Print.
    “The Madness of the Upperclass.” The L Magazine, Jul. 2008. Print.
    “Cyberpunk Is Not Dead.” The L Magazine, Jul. 2007. Print.
    “Ben Jonson’s Rebus.” Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism, May 2007. Print.

    Art

    Art 365 Artist Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 2016-2017
    “Faculty Show” 2014, photography display at Bacone College in Fall 2014.
    Photo Essay, Stevehuffphoto.com, July 2014.
    “Untitled (Over the Void)” 2012, video stills from a 6 min 35 second video. James McGirk and Jaret Vadera.

    Public Events

    American Anthropological Association, Nov. 2018
    Art 365 Events, various, May 2017-Jan. 2018
    Readings, NSU Writing. Dec. 2017
    This Land Press, July 2017
    Chickasaw Literary Festival 2017
    This Land Press, July 2016
    Art on the Hill, Roger State University, Sept. 2015
    Arts on the Avenue, Nonfiction Panel, Jun. 2015
    Readings, NSU Writing. Dec. 2014
    Bumpkinitis 12, OSU Creative Writing, Nov. 2014
    Tahlequah Writers Club, Aug. 2014
    “Literary Death Match,” Tulsa. Judge. Oct. 2013
    “Columbia Faculty Selects.” KGB Bar. Jan. 2013. Reader.

    Published on August 29, 2015 13:47.
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