We first met Una McGeough at the Spring Writers Retreat last March. She was so lovely to have at the studio all weekend and I remember some great discussions about literature and reading and writing stories that have an importance beyond just imagination.
Una just let us know that’s her essay, Eating Healthy for the Planet, has been included in a new anthology called, Thoreau’s Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming. 
The book’s goal is to bring to light the changes Global Warming has brought and what changes we have/need to make in our lives. Una is in great company as the book’s forward was written by Barbara Kingsolver, who writes: to find hope in our future “we must radically reconsider the power relationship between humans and our habitat.”
The publishers write, “Thoreau’s Legacy is one step toward understanding this vital relationship, the latest entry in a history of moving reflections on America’s natural beauty.”
It’s published by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Classics. What’s really cool, is it’s an online book with some great graphics.
Congratulations Una!
And to the rest of us: Pay attention. It’s our job to save our earth.
Seth first came to the studio a couple years ago. I remember he stopped by one afternoon to register for class wearing bicycle leg guards and carrying a big, big bag. We started talking and he mentioned he was currently a bike messenger. My first thought of course was, wow, he must expend so many calories a day that he could eat anything he wanted! My second thought, after talking with Seth a little bit more, was, wow, this guy has some interesting stories to share.
Turns out, Seth has had a lot of jobs in a lot of wonderful locations, but more than that, he has a great imagination.
What brought him to StoryStudio was his desire to work on a series of science fiction and fantasy pieces he had been writing. He took Science Fiction/Fantasy and Fiction classes here at the studio, came to many Write-a-thons and built a nice writers network with other StoryStudio writers.
The big news is his collection of short stories was recently published, entitled What Rough Beasts.
Here’s what Seth has to say:
“StoryStudio has helped me develop my craft and form contacts within the writing community and I thank you! I am also promoting my latest book, entitled, What Rough Beasts. It is available from Amazon, among other places. Filled with strange visions and interesting characters.
In addition to being a really interesting guy, Seth has been an avid writer his entire life. His work has appeared in Aberrations magazine, Alien Skin and Storyhouse.org. He spent several years traveling the country, working in resorts, national parks and wilderness lodges. The past four years he’s settled in Chicago working as a bicycle messenger.
Congratulations Seth!
On June 16th, or Bloomsday, the day the action takes place in chapter 10 of James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses, Twitter found its literary side.
A videogame designer, Ian Bogost, and a colleague, Ian McCarthy, decided to utilize Twitter to celebrate their favorite book, rather than just as a social networking service and web of 140-character “tweets.” They set up Twitter accounts for 54 of the novel’s characters and re-created the chapter into a series of first-person statements. The characters then “tweeted” about what they were doing at the correct fictional time.
Bogost and McCarthy called the project a “viable and interesting option for long-term users of Twitter.”
War and Peace, anyone?
The judge in the case of a Swedish book that some are calling the sequel to The Catcher in the Rye has read both books and claimed that, while the Swedish novel contains no photographic illustrations or images of Holden Caulfield, it is a copy of the character in that it is “a portrait by words.”
“60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye” by Fredrik Colting was meant to be published in the United States on September 15. Recently, a ninety year old Salinger maintained his image as a hermit by filing a copyright infringement suit against the book, and subsequently refusing to appear in court. Salinger and his lawyer claim that the book is meant to be read as a sequel to the original, published in 1951, but Colting claims that the book, which details Caulfield’s life as a 74-year-old man in a retirement home, is meant to be an exploration of the relationship between Salinger and Caulfield.
Salinger, who is now famous for emerging from silence only to set up legal action to protect his works, has long defended his famous character. In his sixties, he was approached with the idea of adapting Catcher in the Rye into a film, which he called impossible, as he would be the only person right for the part of Caulfield, and was too far advanced in age to convince the audience. Now, at the age of ninety and totally deaf, Salinger is asking the judge to prohibit the U.S. release of the perceived sequel to his opus, a move some are calling a book ban. A final decision should be reached within the next two weeks.
In a 1980 interview with The Boston Globe, Salinger summed up his frustration with his constant fight against those wishing to reinvent and channel Caulfield by saying “There’s no more Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It’s all there. Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.”
StoryStudio Chicago fully endorses writers going on tour. Why not support seven from Chicago, including one of our very own teachers, Mary Hamilton? [Mary teaches our Quickies class - based on a reading series she co-created that runs the second Tuesday of the month at the Innertown Pub in Chicago.]
This summer, local Chicago indie publisher, featherproof, has decided to take their writing/reading series, The Dollar $tore on the road!! This Sunday, July 28th they will be hosting a Chicago BBQ party to help raise funds for the summer tour. All of the money is going to paying for a van and gas. Plus there’s a raffle to win a bike! And everyone gets a coupon to Eye Spy for $25 off glasses. The event costs $8 and you can check out all the other information on the Dollar $tore website.
Next Page
