 Posted: January 23rd, 2010
 Topics: canoeing, conservation, film
Posted: January 22nd, 2010
Topics: twitter
Posted: January 15th, 2010
Topics: esker  A hawk sits watching
Nervous mice in grassy ditch
Nest in winter’s sand
This new 90 page magazine-book hybrid, subtitled “Nowhere Else But Here,” is based on a project I undertook last June, writing every day for the whole month (one of Minnesota’s finest months).
For the project, I observed the progress and passing of June using the Japanese form haibun. That’s a fancy word for something that is simply, beautifully, the combination of prose and haiku poetry (you know, three lines of five, seven and five syllables, respectively).
In this collection, the prose tells of the journey through the season, and the haiku are images captured on that journey.
I think I’ve produced a high-quality publication and I’d love it if you’d buy a copy. I am hoping it would be good for your soul during these dark winter months to read these daily entries about days of sun and swimming in the river, nights of fireflies and driving home with your hand out the window in the cool, damp air. The tales find me traveling from Minneapolis to the St. Croix River, from the northern forests to simple morning walks around the lake.
In addition to the the 30 haibun, “Nowhere Else But Here” also features my photos on the front and back cover, both taken in June in the St. Croix River valley. And, as a bonus, there is a prologue to the chapbook that includes some of my favorite previous writings on summer in Minnesota.
You can get your own copy for just $12. Ordering online is quick, easy and safe. Thanks!
Posted: January 13th, 2010
Topics: books   I’ve been a fan of Sam Shepard for a while, and not just because he and his wife the actress Jessica Lange lived in my town for 10 years (and when I was in high school he read a few of my stories, long story).
Shepard is out with a new collection of stories, Day Out of Days. He has had two stories published in The New Yorker in the last few months (here is one) and they have been subtle, wry tales of relationships and aging, written with his usual imagination and precision.
“Have you got a girlfriend?” she asks me out of the blue.
“A girlfriend?” I say, checking to see if our daughter has overheard this, but she, too, has been lulled to sleep by the heat.
“Yes, that’s right. A girlfriend,” my wife repeats.
“Where did this come from?”
“Don’t act so surprised. You could very easily have a girlfriend and I’d never know it, would I? How would I know?”
“I’m sixty. Those days are over.”
Read the story on newyorker.com »
This is not the Sam Shepard of the 1960s, ’70s and 80s, when he wrote edgy plays like “Buried Child” and “Fool for Love.” Those were the works of a young writer pushing the envelope of art, challenging convention, and expressing a dark, modern vision.
Today, his work seems to have mellowed in subject matter, as he is a father and husband and getting a bit older. His last collection, Great Dream of Heaven, was well-written, but the subject matter frankly focused a bit too much on his time in Stillwater, shuttling the kids to school and the such.
This review of Day out of Days on NewWest.net gives me the idea that his latest effort has more in common with his 1997 collection Cruising Paradise, and finds him returning to the western U.S. and its cowboys, con men, cheap motels and long open highways:
Day out of Days is a road trip of the spirit through the American West, a book that should cure anyone’s mental rut with its quirky tales and unexpected observations. In this collection, Sam Shepard has proved himself an enormously inventive writer, working in territory that seems familiar, but that proves to be surprising and revelatory.
Posted: January 10th, 2010
Topics: photos, winter Temperatures climbed out of the single digits today from where they have been stuck since Christmas, into the 15-20 degree range. A Sunday blessing. We celebrated this afternoon with a snowshoe hike at some DNR land up by Forest Lake. We all had some pent up energy from a couple weeks of weather that does not encourage outdoor recreation, though I think Lola most of all.
As we hiked away from the car, we could feel a breeze at our back and Katie remarked it would be in our faces on the way back. Our hike took us along the edge of a woods of mixed hardwoods with rolling corn fields to our left. As we trekked along, the sun came out and we reveled in the feeling of it on our faces. The woods narrowed and then jutted out like a peninsula into a large wetland. When the woods terminated, we set out across the marsh, aiming for more woods on the other side.
We didn’t make it that far. About halfway across it suddenly became apparent that the dog was flagging. While she had a lot of energy from not getting much exercise, apparently she was also out of shape. She was no longer bounding through the snow and when I called her back she struggled along slowly, pushing through the chest-high snow. Since she’s not smart enough to just slow down, we turned back.
The breeze was on our faces like Katie predicted, but the sun and blue sky was out too, and that more than made up for it.
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Esker  I have published two volumes of a chapbook titled "Esker." The most recent volume, "Nowhere Else But Here," was released in January 2010. It features writings from every day of June 2009 in an old Japanese form called haibun.
Learn more and purchase for $12 »
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