literature

I haven't blogged here in a while since all the hubbub with Motown Mojo and the Bee. Looks like the site is still running and people are still about forming an online community.

I represent a new literary magazine for the Central Valley, the Noveltown Review. If there are any venues out there who would like a couple of copies for their store or office, please contact me: nick@noveltown.net. You can also order online.

Well Hello fellow Modestans!

Having recently been turned on to Modesto Famous, I felt it appropriate I bring my message concerning the City of Modesto's Culture Commission to this space. And who am I? My name is Brian Haddix and I am the Chairman of the City of Modesto's Culture Commission.

You should all buy this slim (and inexpensive) book of poetry at Amazon.com or click here (POETRY BOOK!) especially if you think you hate poetry. It'll make you tickle inside (and I can arrange to tickle you on the outside).

"My advice to all young writers is quite simple. I would caution them never to evade a new experience. I would urge them to love life in the raw, to grapple with it bravely, to attack it with naked fists." --Arturo Bandini.

Summer school starts tomorrow and I am teaching an English 101 class, but instead of sticking with the same old issue-based stuff, I am gonna shove some great literature down my students' throats and see if they shit gold dust or erupt in diarrhea. I think we'll meet outside most mornings under a tree and suck in some Redwood penumbra. It's the only way I think I'll get through those mornings when the sun is a child at the door waiting for me to come out and play. These are very good Modesto days before the hell of summer really begins to hammer us into submission. If you care for some light reading and a vicarious classroom experience, try these fine titles: Ask the Dust, John Fante; Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri; The Effects of Knut Hamsun on a Fresno Boy, Gary Soto.