Jesmimi: Janelle Monae, more talking to myself

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Janelle Monae, more talking to myself

I have wonderful book-related news, but who feels like writing about these things right now? Not me. Instead, I'd rather post links. I know that's what you don't come here for, but um...that's what you're getting. If you're even there. Mostly, this blog has become my own cyber experiment in schizophrenia. "Let's see how long Jesmyn can sit in this virtual room and talk to herself." Oh, I was a weird kid, Internet; I can do this for a long, long time.

I'm going to see this lovely android in San Francisco on March 21. I heard that she kills in concert.

Her voice isn't as smooth when she sings live, I guess dancing makes that difficult, but she has ridiculous energy and charisma that make up for that.

What I've Been Working on in my Lonely Rooms (or we got it for cheap)

My second novel, Salvage the Bones (Bloomsbury) is available now. The novel follows a teenage girl, Esch, and her family during the ten days preceding Hurricane Katrina and during the immediate aftermath of the storm. Here in these Mississippi coastal backwoods, there are motherless children, beautiful pit bulls, lost girls, boys who ride bikes without seats, fights in basketball gyms, births, deaths, and more. Sit with me on the lip of this ditch. Come on: let me tell you a story.

My debut novel, Where the Line Bleeds (Agate Bolden) is available now on Amazon.com, or you can find it at your local bookstore. Essence magazine chose the novel to be an Essence Magazine Book Club Selection, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association chose it as a 2009 Honor Award recipient. It was also an honorable mention for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Fiction, and a finalist for the VCU/Cabell First Novelist Award.

I have a small essay titled "Obama I: Blood Dread and Hope" in issue number 64, which is on Race, of The Oxford American literary magazine. I also had an essay called "We Do Not Swim in Our Cemeteries" published in issue number 62 about Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of the storm.

An excerpt of my novel is in issue 105 of BOMB magazine. This includes audio of the excerpt on their web site. Go to www.bombsite.com and check it out.

My short story, 'Cattle Haul,' appeared in A Public Space literary magazine. If you go to http://www.apublicspace.org/back_issues/issue_5/cattle_haul.html , you can read it online. It's in issue number 5.

I'm a former Stegner Fellow (Stanford University). I was the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. In the fall, I'll be an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama.

If you're into wasting hours by reading inane, sometimes funny banter, you can find me on twitter under the username: jesmimi.

Jesmimi

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Janelle Monae, more talking to myself

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Me in a Book

What I've Been Working on in my Lonely Rooms (or we got it for cheap)

You'll Like It, Mikey (or some links)

Cake for my Brain (or what I'm reading or have read recently)

Sonically Challenged (or what I'm listening to)

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