Everything Will Be Alright

Musician Cristóvam offers a soundtrack for the surreal movie we’re in, a song to carry us across the raging sea of Covid-19 and deliver us to the opposite shore with our humanity deepened. Thank you, artists and musicians everywhere, for making us better people.

Meditation Class

As our uncharted journey through the Covid-19 pandemic unfolds, I am offering a free online 6-week Intro to Meditation Class for anyone looking to find their bearings. The course is part of a practicum for a 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program I am doing with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. In addition to Tara and Jack, here are a few of the teachers I turn to for wisdom and insight: Adyashanti, Pema Chodron, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Byron Katie, Ruth King, Konda Mason, Eckhart Tolle, and Spring Washam. All offer free resources on their websites.

Photo by Matt Benson

The Writer’s Brush inteviews Tess Callahan

Grateful to be interviewed by Donald Friedman for The Writer’s Brush:

“The constraints we rail against may be the very ones we need.” ~ Tess Callahan

Tess Callahan Writer's Brush

A short story writer and essayist whose work has appeared in such prestigious venues as AGNI, Narrative Magazine, and the New York Times Magazine, Tess Callahan’s widely praised, multiply translated, debut novel April and Oliver was declared by The Boston Globe to place her “in the delicious tradition of Jane Austen.”

Her Creative Life on Canvas

She began her creative life as an art student and she credits artist Roy Kinzer, her painting teacher, with painting instruction that ended up being the best writing lessons she’s gotten. “Roy taught me to work the whole canvas at once, to step back and squint, and relate one color to another across distances—lessons that seeped into my writing process.

“Now, when stuck on a particular phrase, I reread the chapter, letting the larger organism deliver the words I need. Roy taught me to stay loose, work fast, and give the work its own volition rather than impose mine.”

She cites a documentary of Picasso that “reveals his ruthless non-attachment to preconceived ideas,” obliterating one image to put it “in the service of what it wants to be.”  That, says Callahan, “is the kind of artistic honesty I strive for when I write. “

Creating Under Pressure

Like the geniuses of OULIPO who insist on a creativity born out of constraints, Callahan recognizes their everyday utility in her own art. She points to this lovely portrait sketch, noting that it was produced under most inhospitable conditions:

Tess Callahan Writer's Brush

“I was late for class, with little room to set up my easel, and ten minutes left on the pose. There was nothing to do but dive in. In art and in life, the constraints of time and circumstance we rail against are often the very ones we need.”

Check out additional Writer’s Brush insights from Borges, Ken Kesey and Annie Proulx, as well as YouTube interviews with Kurt Vonnegut, Derek Walcott, and Tom Wolfe. Donald Friedman’s book The Writer’s Brush: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers features 400 plates of artwork by great writers and the stories behind them. 

Ignite Writing Passion: Ways to Create a Culture of Writing

Tess Callahan NAIS Independent TeacherAs the Creative Writing Coordinator at Newark Academy, Tess Callahan recommends four unconventional approaches for inspiring student writers—from launching a joint student/teacher writing challenge with the intent of sharing first drafts to teachers modeling their writing and revision strategies for students, from showcasing student and teacher writing on an in-house school blog to providing information about writing contests, publishing opportunities, and writing circles within the wider community. Find the article in the Spring 2018 Issue of the NAIS The Independent Teacher.

2 Booklovers, 8 Days, 9 States, 2,500 Miles: Next Stop: The Bookworm of Edwards

indie bookstoreToday our cross country bookstore odyssey included the Bookworm of Edwards Colorado, part of the busy Riverwalk shopping center, which offers readers excellent book club and staff pick selections. Of these offerings, we purchased a First Edition signed copy of Roxane Gay’s compelling new memoir, HUNGER.

This little dynamo of an indie bookstore, founded in 1996, came from humble beginnings. It started in a retro-fitted van that traveled between coffee shops selling new books to “down-valley” readers. In 1997, a 700-square-foot store opened in Edwards Village Center.  In 2002, Nicole Magistro was hired as a part-time bookseller, and, in 2005, she bought out one of the original owners.  In 2007, the Bookworm moved to its current Riverwalk location (and opened the cafe), and it expanded again in 2010!  Read the full story (with more details on store founders Kathy Westover and Neda Jansen, and cafe founder Kristi Allio) here.

indie bookstore

2 Booklovers, 8 Days, 9 States, 2,500 Miles: 1st Stop: King’s English in Salt Lake City

The King's EnglishBooklovers Tess Callahan and Flannery James are embarking on an 8-day cross country journey into the land of bookstores. Each day we will offer staff picks from some of the nation’s finest, most curated and eclectic booksellers. Our only frustration in planning this odyssey is that there are so many more wonderful bookstores we cannot reach in 8 short days. We may have to make it an annual event!

Betsy Burton and Anne Holman, booklovers always, have owned The King’s English in Salt Lake City since 1977. Over the years they’ve made it their mission to match books to readers and remember their reading preferences each time they visit the store. The bookstore offers book groups, events, staff picks, movies, music & gifts. In addition, they offer a newsletter called The Inkslinger filled with reviews of the staff’s favorite books and authors. There’s something for everyone—fiction, nonfiction and children’s books—plus a calendar of upcoming events, special features and author interviews. Of their excellent staff picks, we purchased a signed First Edition copy of THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by Arundhati Roy. Additional staff picks include books by Margot Singer, Laura McBride, Derek B. Miller, Nina George, Francis Spufford, Jamie Harrison and Alexandra Fuller. We thank The King’s English for making our first bookstore stop a delightful one.

Train Your Eye for Better Writing

Writer's Digest Better Writing Tess CallahanMy article in the September 2017 issue of Writer’s Digest Magazine explores three ways to add color to the canvas of your manuscript by using techniques adapted from traditional visual arts training: emulations, thumbnail sketches and underpaintings. It also offers bits of wisdom gleaned from artistic masters and gurus John Gardner, Natalie Goldberg, Stephen King, Roy Kinzer, Ann Lamott, Pablo Picasso and Francine Prose.  You can find the article on newsstands or here Feel free to contact me with questions or comments. I’m always looking to expand my ideas. Happy writing!

QWERTY’s Interview with Tess Callahan

from the Managing Editors of Qwerty Magazine

Author Tess CQwerty Interview Tess Callahanallahan challenged herself to write three hundred pages in three months. She successfully completed a draft of a sequel to her novel April and Oliver, and plans to send it to her agent this spring. Qwerty conducted an email interview to ask her about her creative process and what she calls “The love affair between creativity and constraint.” Click here to see her TEDx Talk on the subject.

When you gave yourself the constraint of writing a 300 page draft in three months, did you ever feel discouraged, and if so, what did you do to overcome it?

Discouragement is not something I allow in the door until the second draft, when it can be a useful tool. The first draft is a time to let the thing spill out like an unformed blob of clay. It’s hard to feel discouraged about something that’s only meant to be a blob. The second draft is when the shaping begins. At that point I reread what I’ve written, see the chasm between what I’m hoping for and what’s actually there, and start sculpting. If in the first draft the clay itself is not forthcoming, I let the thing combust and germinate in my head, mostly through walks in the woods, until I see it unfold cinematically on the screen of my mind and race home to write it down. Read More »

APRIL & OLIVER Find their Way into Hallie Shepherd’s Heart

Hallie Shepherd Tess CallahanGrateful to writer, actress, producer, and book-lover Hallie Shepherd for drinking deeply from APRIL & OLIVER and sharing. Find more book, music and movie reviews on Hallie’s blog.

HOW THE CHARACTERS APRIL AND OLIVER FOUND THEIR WAY INTO MY LIFE

April and Oliver is one of those truly special reads. It’s the debut novel of author Tess Callahan (and to date, her only novel). Four years ago, I happened upon this book by chance, and it was a memorable read that landed itself on my keeper shelf. If you are looking for a moving novel about love, grief, growing up, messing up, moving on, and letting go, this subtle yet effective character piece may be one of the best books you’ve probably never heard of.

First, how did I even end up reading this gem of a novel? Well, here’s the story: It was 2011 and as my fellow booklovers out there might recall, Borders Bookstore was going out of business. I wasn’t even aware that was happening until one day when I drove past the Borders store near my house while running other errands and I saw huge signs advertising up to 90% off. Um, hello? NINETY PERCENT off books? All other errands were quickly abandoned as I pulled my car into the Borders parking lot. I entered the store and grabbed a basket and proceeded to wander the store in shock, because the shelves were still quite full, yet almost everything was 90% off. That meant books were ranging mostly from 70 cents to $2.00. Let’s just say I was in heaven.

Tess CallahanBecause of that impossible-to-beat price and because my fellow shoppers were plucking books off the shelves and putting them into their own baskets (meaning now I couldn’t buy them!), I decided that I could not be as discerning as I usually am about my book choices. I was going to pick books based on cover art, the back of the book description, and the first several sentences of page one. If I liked it well enough, it would go into the basket.

About thirty minutes later, the basket was getting heavy, so I called my husband. The conversation went something like this:

Me – “Ohmygod, you won’t believe this. Borders is going out of business -”

Him – “The bookstore?”

Me – “Yes, the bookstore. I’m here now.”

Him – (upset) “They’re closing it?”

Me – “Yes, I know. That part sucks. But just listen. The books are NINETY percent off. Nine zero.  That’s like a dollar a book. So I have a basket of, like, fifty books. I’m going to buy these now and we’ll come back again tonight to get more.”

Him – (excited) “Totally.”

Tess Callahan Hallie Shepherd April & OliverWe did go back to Borders get more that night, and we also drove to other nearby cities to check out their sales. No other bookstore dropped their prices to ninety percent off until the shelves were almost empty, so it turned out that we were very lucky that our Borders happened to slash prices while so many books were still available. We bought well over one hundred books, many of which are still on my bookshelves waiting to be read.

On one of these book-buying excursions, April and Oliver ended up in my shopping basket. I loved the dreamy blue cover art and the opening lines:

“Buddy had been lost for some time, his wipers whisking in the thick Maine snow, when he spots a missed turn in his rearview and brakes. The car fishtails, rocketing into a spin. The faster it pivots, the slower time moves. Buddy is the fixed point, the world careening around him.”

I thought to myself, Uh, oh, things aren’t looking so good for Buddy. But I think I’m hooked.

Here’s what the story is about: The book’s main characters – April and Oliver – have been best friends since childhood, but they’ve always had an undeniable chemistry. At one point they were completely inseparable, but they have now become practically strangers as adults, leading very different lives. Oliver is the responsible law student and April is the reckless one.  Their paths cross once again though when April’s brother Buddy dies in a snowy car crash. As Oliver is drawn back to the mysterious April, it poses a threat to both his own carefully constructed life and his recent engagement to a woman who is much more sensible and responsible than April.

Tess Callahan April & OliverThis might sound like a classic love triangle story, except it’s not. Romantic love and sexual attraction and tension certainly does factor into the story but it’s ultimately a story about how our past and present connections and obligations collide. At times, it’s sweet. At times, it’s dark. And at times, it’s heart-wrenching. Callahan’s beautiful prose creates such imagery and mood, and the characters are well-drawn in their strengths and their flaws.

I was lucky to find this book at the Book Sale of the Decade (or perhaps the Book Sale of My Lifetime), but I’ve since purchased it full price to give as a gift. If you’re looking for a novel that is poignant, bittersweet, and well-written, I highly recommend April and Oliver.

Happy reading!

Drop me a line and let me know what some of your favorite lesser-known novels are. And let me know what you think of April and Oliver.

Hallie Shepherd is a writer, actress, and film producer. Follow her on Instagram where she celebrates the stories we tell.

Inner Work for the Outer Storm

Tess Callahan Sebastien Gabriel

This article was originally published in SwaayMedia on March 16, 2017.               

Keeping Focused & Calm in a Turbulent World by Tess Callahan

If you wake up these days feeling the tone and outlook of the world around you has taken a surreal shift, you’re not alone. Like many of us, I have enlisted my feet and hands in fuller engagement in our democracy. It feels good. But as much as that outer expression helps, I’ve felt a parallel need to process these changes inwardly.

SIX FRIENDS AND I TOOK TWO HOURS ON A RECENT FRIDAY NIGHT TO GROUND OURSELVES IN THE NEW REALITY THROUGH A SERIES OF SHORT WRITING EXERCISES FOLLOWED BY HONEST CONVERSATION. WE EXPLORED QUESTIONS ABOUT OURSELVES AND SHARED WHAT WE CAME UP WITH IN THE HOPE OF FINDING A PATH FORWARD. Read More »

Using Night Dreams to Navigate Life Dreams

This article originally appeared in Chicago-Woman on March 11, 2017.

What Jung Taught Me about Using Dreams for Personal Growth

In his book, Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson offers a blueprint for using dreams to achieve personal goals. I’ve used this method for more than 15 years and it has never failed me. The nightmares we prefer to ignore are often the ones with the most potential to help us. The key is to become attuned to our own unique dream symbols and to learn to interpret them as we would a new language. Once versed in that language, the meaning of dreams becomes apparent with little effort.

Step 1: Making Associations

Begin by writing the dream down and noting the images that stand out. These may be people, objects, situations, colors, etc. Write down every association you have with each dream image. For example, an empty blue vase may remind you of a time when you felt “empty and blue.” Be sensitive to colloquialisms. The subconscious likes word play. Every symbol in your dream has a connotation that belongs to you alone. Read More »

Interview with The Writer’s Bone

In this interview with Daniel Ford of the Writer’s Bone podcast, we explore writing process, craft, and advice for aspiring writers. I also describe how my new novel came to me like a fly ball.