Henry Miller Memorial Library

Every couple of months I would pull out the briefcase and re-read the materials and each time I saw more of the story that threaded it.

What I heard was the voice of Henry busting into his life, sparks of genius and opinionated blustering, made audible by the white- space, a one-man audience named Emil whose heart and mind were generous and deep enough to hold the millions of imagined ‘others’ that Miller was addressing, even in his unpublished days. ‘Dear Emil ‘and the pipeline was open. Emil was the perfect audience, the oracle whose attention helped a gob of spit become a voice.

When I heard that the Henry Miller Library had purchased the Emil Schnellock collection I was curious- what part of the story was I missing? And that’s how I came to be driving up the Coast highway in late October 2011 after 3 days on the UCLA campus in the Charles Young Library Special Collections room where I perused the Henry Miller Collection. My drive north through fog was a continuation of the séance taking place in my head after reading through decades of letters between the two old friends- exquisite corpses both.

In my own reflection on posterity now that I’m around the age of Henry when he became known as the sage of Big Sur, I know that what we hold holds us. As a multi-media artist, who turned 40 with Henry (through his books, essays, and letters to Emil published in 1988/New Directions, which I dragged all over Paris looking for my own voice in 1996) and Emil (through his mysterious absent-presence and personal struggles around responsibility and freedom, as well as the legacy that came to me due to the fact that of the 4 Schnellock siblings, none had children and I became heir) I was compelled to mine this archive and put it through the art crucible. So much of what they wrote was earmarked for posterity – and here we are, posterity.

The Big Sur Writing Workshop for YA fiction takes place March 2-4, 2012 in Seaside, CA.

The esteemed faculty is comprised of editors, authors, and agents. So let’s take a closer look at who, exactly, these mystery people are. Specifically, the editors who’ll be in attendance.

Julie Romeis, Executive Editor at Chronicle Books. Based in San Francisco, she is building their fiction list for middle grade and teen readers as well as publishing picture books and non-fiction. This follows six years at independent publisher Bloomsbury USA where she helped build its children’s list.

Lisa Yoskowitz is an editor at Disney-Hyperion, where she works on fiction for the full range of ages. Her current projects include a picture book =about a preschool rock band; an illustrated chapter book series about a group of middle school misfits; a middle grade action-adventure trilogy; and a time travel romance for teens. Lisa is looking to acquire fresh, exciting, and fabulously-voiced picture books and novels.

She is most interested in short-texted, character-driven picture books that speak to children and wink at adults; humorous or action/adventure boy-oriented chapter books and middle grade; all genres of girl-oriented chapter books and middle grade; and all genres of literary YA, from historical to contemporary, angst-ridden to snarky.

Sharyn November is senior editor for Viking Children’s Books and the editorial director of Firebird Books. She is a two-time finalist for the World Fantasy Award for her editorial work, and Firebirds Rising: An Original Anthology of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which she edited for the imprint, was a finalist for Best Anthology. Her personal website is www.sharyn.org

You may recall, last week we let you know that Brandy Rivers was added to the faculty for our Big Sur Writing Workshop for young adult fiction writers, which’ll take place March 2-4 in Seaside, CA.

She’s a literary manager and producer who runs the book-to-tv/film department at Magnet Management. If you’ve seen her name around the web recently, it was probably in connection to Myra McEntire’s HOURGLASS, which she recently sold to Fox on behalf of Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency.

We’d like to call your attention this particularly cool interview with her in the blog Literary Rambles. In it, Brandy guides us through the confusing and exciting world of children’s publishing, licensing, and the process of turning a book into a movie.

Really cool stuff, and extremely applicable, as many Big Sur Workshop alumni have secured publishing deals from coming to our workshops and rubbing shoulders with agents like Brandy. Excerpt:

How does a book-to-film/tv deal come about? Walk us through a deal.

Book to film/tv deals can come about in a million different ways. Sometimes a studio head, network exec, or big star will fall in love with a piece of material they come across in their day to day lives and make a preemptive offer. Other times, an intern will be combing through the slush pile and find something amazing that works its way up the development chain until it turns into a deal….continued here.

Really fascinating stuff. See you in March – registration is still open!

Across the next couple of weeks, we’ll be running some guest blogs courtesy of Kathleen McCloud, a New Mexico based visual artist. Here’s the first installment!

When my Aunt Dorothy Schnellock-Greene died in 1995 I inherited her brother Emil’s desk, and personal memorabilia from his years as literary executor for his lifelong friend, Henry Miller.

Included were Emil’s personal copies of books gifted to him by Henry and a black briefcase filled with typescripts annotated by Henry and copies of early reviews of “Tropic of Cancer,” pamphlets, personal correspondence between Emil and British writer Claude Houghton as well as essays on the “Tropic of Cancer” (censored and banned at the time) written by Emil’s students at Mary Washington College (at the time an all girls school, now University of Mary Washington).

The original letters, and ephemera sent to Emil for safekeeping during the Paris years were turned over to Henry in 1938 at Caresse Crosby’s Hampton Manor house in Virginia while Henry was visiting there – many eventually made it to UCLA Special Collections.

The rich get richer, as they say, but not in the Mitt Romney stashing his cash in the Cayman Islands kind of way.

Rather, we’re talking about the Big Sur Writing Workshop for young adult fiction writers, which’ll take place March 2-4 in Seaside, CA, and the fact that our already-awesome faculty is now getting awesomer with the addition of Brandy Rivers.

She’s a literary manager and producer who runs the book-to-tv/film department at Magnet Management. If you’ve seen her name around the web recently, it was probably in connection to Myra McEntire’s HOURGLASS, which she recently sold to Fox on behalf of Holly Root at Waxman Literary Agency.

You can read up more about her below; in the meantime, go here to read up on the workshop and register. We’re still accepting registrations. Oh, and the Facebook thingie here too.

Bask in the bountifulness that is the Big Sur Writing Workshop! It’s a far more certain thing than expecting Mitt to release his tax returns.

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Brandy Rivers is currently a literary manager/producer working in both film and television at Magnet Management. In that capacity, she is responsible for representing authors, screenwriters, and directors as well as developing underlying material including novels, articles, blogs, video games and life rights for production.

Among her many clients, she currently represents: television writer Chris McKenna (Co-Executive Producer on NBC’s COMMUNITY), television writer Jeff Davis (showrunner for the MTV television series TEEN WOLF, and creator of CRIMINAL MINDS), screen and television writer Craig Titley (CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, PERCY JACKSON AND THE LIGHTNING THIEF, and NBC television series THE CAPE), author Robyn Harding (CHRONICLES OF A MIDLIFE CRISIS published by Berkley Trade and in TV development with ABC Studios), author and television writer Angela Nissel (Co-Executive producer on NBC and then ABC’s SCRUBS, as well as, Fox’s TIL DEATH, her book THE BROKE DIARIES is in development at Lionsgate with Oprah producing, and a MIXED is in television development at HBO with Halle Barry attached), and author Myra McEntire (HOURGLASS published by Egmont and in feature film development at Fox).

Our March workshop in Seaside, CA (March 2-4) is still taking registrations! If you’re an aspiring young adult fiction writer, this is the place for you. Read more about it and register here and Like it on Facebook here.

It will sell out, so let any remotely interested friends know.

At the least, it will be an incredible opportunity to meet like-minded writers in a gorgeous environment. Specifically, we got this great testimonial from a veteran from early December’s workshop.

And then there’s the news from last week where we announced that Lisa Yoskowitz, Disney-Hyperion, joined the faculty.

Which brings me to my next point. Let’s be honest with ourselves for a sec. We, as artists, don’t write, paint, or draw and then stuff it in a truck in the ceiling waiting for someone to discover it 100 years later. We ain’t Emily Dickinson or whatever.

We want people to read our stuff, and hey, if by coming to the Big Sur Writing Workshop you can also secure a publishing deal, well hey, that’s great. In fact, it’s a fairly common occurrence. The workshop is co-sponsored by the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and their army of publishers and editors will be in attendance, providing helpful feedback and yes, looking for new talent.

We actually have a fantastic track record of putting writers in touch with publishers. Read more about these “success stories” here, but we included a few below. And go register!

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* Congratuations to Kim Culbertson, Big Sur Writing Workshop alumni, her YA novel Songs for a Teenage Nomad was recently picked up by Daniel Ehrenhaft, the senior editor at Sourcebooks, to be reissued in hardback under their new young adult imprint FIRE for fall of 2010. The imprint will also publish her second YA novel Traveling Instructions for the spring of 2011.

* Jennifer Laughran from ABLA (and workshop faculty member) recently sold the middle grade mystery THE WIG IN THE WINDOW, by Kristin Kittscher, who attended Big Sur in 2010, to HarperCollins (to be edited by former Big Sur faculty editor Rosemary Brosnan!)”

* The adult fiction workshop in March: Congratulations to Rebecca Wolf, attendee from 2005 on her sale of Rockabye to editor Brooke Warner at Avalon Books, sold by agent, Laura Rennert.

The past few weeks, people walk in and say, “Are you having a show tonight?” And we look out the front door, at the glistening sun, and say, “no, we don’t have shows in the winter because of the weather. Too cold and rainy.”

The dichotomy is stark.

Well, we’re putting aside those rules tonight as the Bee Eaters perform indoors here at the Library. They’re a brilliant trio, featuring 6-time Grant National fiddle Champions Tristian and Tashina Clarridge, and are being joined by hammer dulcimer wizard Simon Chrisman.

They played here last night and it was awesome. Not your typical “bluegrass.” If I’m not mistaken, they covered the Beatles’ “You Won’t See Me.”

But don’t take our word for it:

“…chamber music’s finely calibrated arrangements with bluegrass’s playful virtuosity and pop music’s melodic resourcefulness,” sayeth the Boston Globe.

“Doors” at 6:30. A $20 suggested donation. See you there!

Hey. Last week we published a blog from our pal Stephanie V. Augello, a photographer and author in the Big Apple. You may recall, it was a photo-essay on Henry Miller’s childhood haunts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Below you will find part 2, in which Stephanie, in the spirit of Miller the artist, interviews an aspiring migrant musician working in a local bar (that bar would be Trash Bar; ironically enough, I got kicked out of that place three times in one night in 2009. Dangerous place.)

The parallels with Miller’s life, and the archetype of the struggling artist which he helped to embody (“I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive”) are striking, and we hope you enjoy it. And thanks again, Stephanie!

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Working as a music photographer and writer up and down the Eastern Seaboard has given me the opportunity to become acquainted with many bartenders and band members. I do not, however, only shove a camera their faces.

I actually talk to them, and most of the time, instantly consider them friends. Below is one such recent exchange, conducted at the Trash Bar in Williamsburg, located only a few blocks from Miller’s childhood home.

Me: So, what do you do when you’re not bartending?

Bartender: I’m here for acting. I do band stuff too. Well, I’m taking a break. I needed money. I want to do it again. Being in a band.
Me: You from New York?

Bartender: North Carolina.

Me: I lived in Asheville for a bit. I’m from here though. Random question. Do you know anything about Henry Miller?

Bartender: Well, yes and no. I’ve read Tropic of Cancer, but aside from that, I don’t know much.

Me: You know more than a lot of people. He grew up down the block. Right on Driggs.

Bartender: Huh. I had no idea.

Me: Yeah, he was a lot like us. Well, he…umm….tell me, if you had the chance…if you could do it all again…would you have chosen the artist’s life if you’d known it would be this hard?

Bartender: (pauses) Yes.

When given the opportunity, I will gladly pat the arm of a relocated sound guy from Kansas and say, “Streets ain’t paved with gold, buddy,”; and then empathically watch as his youth smiles a smile of hope, denial and premature disillusionment, that only the New York concrete can create. Everyone wants to leave where they’re from; and sometimes, that “where you’re from” is where everyone wants to be.

It’s true.

Our impressive childrens and young adult fiction workshop faculty has just gotten better.

Lisa is most interested in short-texted, character-driven picture books that speak to children and wink at adults; humorous or action/adventure boy-oriented chapter books and middle grade; all genres of girl-oriented chapter books and middle grade; and all genres of literary YA, from historical to contemporary, angst-ridden to snarky!!!

The workshop is March 2-4 in Seaside, CA (near Monterey.) There is still room, so go here and register, or call us at 831-667-2574!

Something that’s often lost in the world of artistic criticism is the provocative power of hyperbole.

There’s nothing more cowardly than saying, “in what may perhaps be the best book of the 1980s…”

It’s like, c’mon, just come out and say it. Man up! Take a stand! You can always change your mind. You’re free; existentialism taught us that.

So, that being said, “Sometimes a Great Notion” is *the* great American novel. The greatest American novel. Ever. At least of the ones I’ve read. (Order it here, from our store!)

It has everything a novel should have: a measured, compelling pace, staggering language, and subtle emotional complexity.

It’s uniquely American in its exploration of the kinds of themes your entry-level Boomer Literature professor talked about: city versus country, young versus old, East versus West, and good ol’ fashioned tormented Faulknerian family dynamics.

Most importantly, it deals with the most important theme of them all: freedom, and the role of the individual in society, his responsibilities to himself and others (like family), and the tensions that arise when such responsibilities collide.

Stunning stuff.