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Latimer
First Time Poster
Username: Latimer
Post Number: 9
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 05:00 am: | 
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Whatever became of Z.Z. Packer? Doesn't she write anymore? Three years since her collection, Drinking Coffee Eslewhere.
Also whatever became of Junot Diaz, the author of Drown. Are these guys first books flukes? |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 423
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 03:06 pm: |
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Good question, I have not thought about these two in sometime let me look into this and get back to you... |
Latimer
First Time Poster
Username: Latimer
Post Number: 10
Registered: 06-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 05:11 pm: |
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Let me ask another questions Troy, has celebrity gotten the better of them? If this is the case, it's very sad indeed. I think celebrity status is better for a writer or any artist for that matter when they have done the bulk of their work or has already produced a substantial body of work. I say this because I do believe that anybody has got enough experience in him/her perhaps from the age of let's say nineteen to write a reasonably good first book. But the test of any writer is to continue, to go on and produce, to dig deep, cut all distractions and write on. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2790
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, October 01, 2006 - 03:01 pm: |
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Packer is a product of the Iowa Creative Writing Program--those people believe in intense planning and rewriting--they do not churn books out quickly. She is probably working on something but do not look for it soon--it took her years to put together the short stories for her book.
I met Junot Diaz soon after he published "Drown". There was all this buzz about his next book, etc. He told me "Don't believe the hype." He wondered aloud how he could be considered a hot writer on the basis of one story he published in Granta. He further led me to believe that his first joy and priority was in teaching and he wasn't worried about getting on the career track as far as writing.
Not everybody is interested in playing the game or playing it the way the industry wants one to play it. |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 425
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, October 05, 2006 - 07:13 am: |
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This is from buddy Ron Kavanaugh over at Mosaicbooks.com:
"I would not classify them as flukes. Both books were so well received that they tend to win a lot of awards and live well off their laurels.
Junot Diaz, I understand, just completed his next novel. he's shared it with a few people -- not me. I would assume the pub date would be late '07 early '08. he's also a professor of literature at MIT.
ZZ Packer won a Guggenheim Fellowship last year, and teaches in California. Not sure what she's working on.
Chris' assessment about writers is true true in a lot of cases, but some good writers (ex. Walter Moseley) have the ability to "churn books out" in a short period of time.
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Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 427
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 02:55 pm: |
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This is from Kola Boof:
"Z.Z. Packer has been working on her first novel since before her short story collection came out. The novel is about the Buffalo soldiers and it features a black woman who looks like a man and pretends to be a man in order to fight as one of the soldiers. This is her first novel and there's an enormous amount of pressure riding on her as she was so acclaimed for the story collection, so it's no surprise she's taking years to get the book absolutely perfect. Toni Morrison and Alice Walker's novels usually take at least five to six years to come out for the same reason."
Kola
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5417
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 08:03 pm: |
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Gee, that was wonderful of you to share that with use, Troy. I wondered why had happened to Kola... Not! LMAO. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5418
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 08:06 pm: |
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Make that "what" had happend to Kola. Although "why" is a pretty good question too. heh-heh. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 5419
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, October 06, 2006 - 08:14 pm: |
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Gee, that was wonderful of you to share that with us, Troy. I wondered what had happened to Kola. But, somehow, I just didn't miss her. I don't know. It was like she never left us. LMAO. |
Linda
Regular Poster
Username: Linda
Post Number: 174
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 30, 2006 - 10:40 am: |
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Just received a new anthology from the University of Georgia Press which features ZZ Packer, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Henry Dumas, Lerone Bennett Jr, and numerous others. The title: Short Stories of the Civil Rights Movement, edited by Margaret Early Whit. I plan to start it this evening, so I'll let you know with a review by the weekend. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1383
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 30, 2006 - 02:21 pm: |
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Linda, are the stories in that anthology original short stories, or excerpts from novels and longer works? It sounds very interesting--looking forward to your review. |
Linda
Regular Poster
Username: Linda
Post Number: 175
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 02:13 pm: |
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Yvette
The stories are original short stories, reprinted for this anthology. It consists of twenty-three stories from twenty writers-eleven black and nine white. Ten stories were written during the 1960's, the others after the movement has passed it's heyday. |
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