Written by Meghan Daum | 15 June 2012

Just finished a week of teaching at the Nebraska Writers Conference in Lincoln. My class "Finding Your Authenthic Voice in Creative Nonfiction" went for three hours a day, every day. I think I have about exactly 15 hours of information in me to impart to students, so it was lucky the conference didn't go another day. I think a few students may have come close to finding their authentic voices. The others are doing a good job of faking it, which is half the battle, if not even more impressive.

It's my fourth year teaching here, though it's been ten years since I moved on from my adventure in Nebraska. Here's a road near the little farmhouse I lived in during my time here. I know this landscape isn't for everyone, but it just undoes me everytime. It is so austere and stunning and beautiful to me.

Oh, and I made my students watch this video of the brilliant and kickass Fran Lebowitz talking about Jane Austen. Actually she's talking about the whole nature of writing and reading and responding to literature (and why Austen is loved for all the wrong reasons.) This has nothng to do with Nebraska. But, like the Conhusker State, listening to Fran Lebowitz is one of my favorite things. (Bet you've never seen those two mentioned in the same sentence before.)

Fran Lebowitz. Not a Nebraskan.

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Written by Meghan Daum | 02 March 2012

Longreads recently linked to an interview I did with Steve Martin for The Believer several years ago. It reminded me what a fun conversation it was. Steve talked about his novels, his writing process, and that sweet spot of celebrity when you're "famous just right." He even played the banjo for me.

Read it here.

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Written by Meghan Daum | 29 February 2012

Recently I made a virtual visit to the Hub City Book Club in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It's run by the clearly awesome Hub City Book Shop, which has apparently hand sold ("hand selling" means, like, actually knowing what customers might like and recommending books accordingly) many dozens of copies of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House. I hope I get to visit Hub City in person someday but, meanwhile, it was fun to chat via Skype and hear about  people's house fantasies, extra room dreams, and all ways  their lives would be perfect if . . .

If you'd like me to talk with your book club via Syke or old fashioned speaker phone (or in person in you're in Southern California) send me an email.

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Written by Meghan Daum | 13 January 2012

Over the last few years, I've found myself reading a lot of internet comments. Not necessarily the ones I get on my column, which I've resolved not to read anymore lest I waste a lot of time and gas money trying to hunt down the person whose screen name is "BigH8R26" and who shows up every week to remind everyone that I'm a moron and a hack, not to mention hideously unattractive. But unfortunately I do too often read comments about things I've read (or watched or listened to) online and they are often so vituperative and abusive that I wind up in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

So after years of thinking about all this stuff much too much, I sat down and wrote an essay about the whole phenomenon. It's called Haterade. It's not just about commenting itself but about the way the culture of "instant response" has changed the way we read and write, and even just go about living our lives.

Haterade is in this month's issue of The Believer Magazine. It's on the long side, so if you're going to read it I'd advise you to set aside a little time. It also starts with a fairly lengthy, embarrassing anecdote from my early career that might at first seem unrelated to the subject matter, but stick with it, if only to snicker over the embarrassing anecdote.

Opportunities for publishing long, juicy essays like this are fewer and farther between than ever and this is one of those pieces that I wrote on my own with no idea of where (if anywhere) it might be published. And while some more mainstream magazines were willing to publish it at a quarter or less of the length, I kept shopping around until I found a publication that was willing to print all 5000-plus words of it. So I'm very grateful to The Believer, which is a wonderful magazine you should be reading anyway. Oh, and you'll notice they don't have a comment board, though for better or worse this blog does.

Once again, here is is: Haterade. Enjoy!

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