30 Days of Writing

Tomorrow begins the first day of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a time of year when unpublished writers attempt to hammer out a classic within 30 days. The Independent has an interesting article on some famous novelists throughout history who’ve managed to create a classic in under a month.

Included on that list, naturally, is Jack Kerouac.

The Spirit of the Female Beats

“Women of the Beat weren’t afraid to get dirty. They were compassionate, careless,charismatic, marching to a different drummer, out of step. Muses who birthed a poetryso raw and new and full of power that it changed the world. Writers whose words weavespells, whose stories bind, whose vision blinds. Artists for whom curing the disease of artkills.” – Women of the Beat Generation (Brenda Knight, 1998)

Six Gallery Reading

It’s odd. I woke up today and thought about the Six Gallery Reading. I’m not sure why I thought about it. I guess I’ve never really considered the date; only the reading and its consequences. I picked up a book about Kerouac (Jack’s Book, Gifford and Lee) to continue my reading into Kerouac’s love life, and stumbled upon a few stories about Kerouac before and during the reading. “Weird,” I thought. “I keep coming back to the Six Gallery Reading.”

George Washington Reading “Howl”

Banned Books Week & the Beats

For those of you who don’t know – and that won’t be many in this age of Twitter & Facebook – it is Banned Books Week. This valuable celebration of the First Amendment was begun in 1982 Judith Krug, and is celebrated annually in the last week of September.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Tribute

On October 2nd, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and his Beat bookstore and publisher, City Lights, will receive Litquake’s 2010 Barbary Award at Herbst Theater.

The celebration will be attended by Tom Waits,  Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Winona Ryder, Michael McClure and Eric Drooker.

First Thought, Best Thought?

It could be argued that immediacy was the style of the Beats. Certainly it was Ginsbergs’, and Kerouac professed to be driven by “Spontaneous Prose.” In the years following World War II improvisation and free-flowing first thought were integral to art. Jackson Pollack, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie… It wasn’t just the Beats. These artists were screaming in the face of a crushing conformity, and it was their apparent spontaneous creations that inspired the freedom of thought that characterized subsequent generations, movements and scenes.

Howl is Here

Ah Pook is Here: Graphic Novel

Following on the heels of Eric Drooker and Allen Ginsberg’s  Howl and Illuminated Poems, is William S. Burroughs’ foray into the world of the graphic novel is set to be made public by Fantagraphics Books. It should be released in the summer of 2011.

In the 1970s, before the term “graphic novel” was coined, Burroughs and artist Malcolm McNeill collaborated on Ah Pook is Here.

The Beat Generation, Gonzo Journalism, and Crap Writing

Over at Charles Montgomery’s Korean Literature in Translation website, there is a small discussion on “weird” or “strange” writing. He was discussing a Korean novel that – whilst not entirely awful – seemed only to be strange for the sake of strangeness. I commented that this is something I see a lot as an editor, particularly as an editor of a Beat Generation-themed literary journal.