Send My Love to Anyone | Issue 7
with Jonathan Ball & Michael V. Smith
Send My Love to Anyone is a newsletter on all things writing (and art and film) by Kathryn Mockler & guests. Subscribe here.
Hello friends,
Thanks so much for supporting this project!
Welcome to Issue #7 of Send My Love to Anyone.
This month’s micro interview features writer, filmmaker, and performer Michael V. Smith who tells us about the inspiration for his new poetry chapbook Grandma Cooper’s Corpse from Broke Press and we learn about a high school teacher who had a impact on his writing life.
Jonathan Ball shares his story “The Best Story Ever Submitted to Your Magazine” from his award-winning story collection The Lightning of Possible Storms published by Book*hug Press.
And I write about what we owe the real life people we write about in our fiction and nonfiction.
ICYMI here are the July Recommendations — a grab bag of calls, events, recommended reads, and links.
If you enjoy this newsletter, please share it or consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Kathryn
Micro Interview with Michael V. Smith
Kathryn Mockler: What is your first memory of writing creatively?
Michael V. Smith: The first memory is trying to write a little story to be made into a book. Grade 5. Only Chantal Theoret finished one, and I remember being very envious. “Who is she to be finishing a book? I’m the writer here.” That’s, uh, pretty par for the course in Canlit, ain’t it? But I think the more interesting story is Elaine MacDonald, my grade 10 high school teacher, who gave me 50% on two poetry essays. I wrote a second because I knew the first wasn’t very good, and handed them both in because I didn’t have confidence in either. I remember telling her I was so bummed because I wrote poetry, so how did I get it so wrong? She stayed after class to teach me how to make those essays better. So I wrote a third, and got a 90%. When she handed that last essay back to me, she asked if she might read some of my poems. So I gave her about 4 or 5. From that point forward, Ms. MacDonald gave me feedback on my work all through high school. She helped me meet my first poets from the Writers in the Schools program, and sent me high school contest info (which I won!). I think she changed my life, by simply being interested. I believed in myself, and this wild idea that I could be a writer, thanks to her. I dedicated my last poetry book to Elaine. A true hero in my life.
The Best Story Ever Submitted to Your Magazine by Jonathan Ball
This letter concerns the best story ever submitted to your magazine. I shall submit this story at a later date. Meanwhile, I write to prepare you for the submission, which shall come unbidden, in a private moment, after devastation.
Your eyes will circle the room, restless to keep dry, and fall upon the manuscript. Some word spied on that first page shall be the perfect word for that moment. It shall compel you to read on, and this reading will change your life forever.
What Do We Owe the People We Write About? by Kathryn Mockler
Early this month Kristen Roupenian’s 2017 short story “Cat Person” went viral again when it was revealed in a Slate article that Roupenian used real life details to create her protagonist — details she gleaned from the social media accounts of the ex-girlfriend of the man who inspired her story. If you are unfamiliar with this “controversy,” the Guardian has a great Q&A to catch you up.
Some people thought what Roupenian did was creepy or crossed a line or was unethical. Many fiction writers were not all that surprised and acknowledged that using details from life for a fiction writer is pretty much par for the course.
But there does exist a tension between a writer who writes about the world and people around them and how those people are affected by the writer’s words. This impact can depend largely on how widely the work is published, how it is received, and how the person being written about feels about their relationship with the writer and how they’re being portrayed in the work.
Issue #7 of Send My Love to Anyone
Micro Interview with Michael V. Smith
“The Best Story Ever Submitted to Your Magazine” by Jonathan Ball
“What Do We Owe the People We Write About?” by Kathryn Mockler
Connect
Twitter | Instagram | @themockler | Website | Questions | Subscribe
Copyright © 2021 | All rights reserved.