When Deborah Treisman was 11 years old, she received her first literary rejection, for a short story she sent to the The New Yorker. Flash forward about 20 years ...
Fast forward to a recent literary panel discussion in New York sponsored by the New Yorker Magazine Festival, an annual literary event featuring novelists and poets from many countries.
A well-attended cli-fi panel discussion on October 11, titled "Dark Days Ahead," featured novelists Lauren Groff, N. K. Jemisin, Nathaniel Rich and Claire Vaye Watkins, with the event moderated by New Yorker magazine editor Deborah Treisman.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2019/10/18/remembering-his-hometown-from-across-the-world/
"Climate change and its parade of horribles is our biggest threat," Treisman said.
They took the time to tweet about the panel discussion he sat in on, quoting Nat Rich as saying: "The great climate novel may not mention weather or climate, but captures the mood of it."
He also quoted Lauren Groff as saying on stage: "Why aren't we all writing cli-fi? (Climate fiction)."
Treisman asked the panelists and the audience: "Can the stories matter?"
Claire Vaye Watkins, the author of the cli-fi novel "Gold Fame Citrus asked: ''Is there hope?''
N.K. Jemisin said: "The abuse/exploitation of resources is not new to humanity. It's just mainstream now."
Groff: ''I don't know if humans will survive."
Claire Vaye Watkins: ''Well, maybe there's something escapist in the end of the world.''
Lauren Groff replied: "Well that's doesn't remove our culpability in our extinction."
Nat Rich said: "There's a range outcomes in climate change. Worst case scenario is nuclear war as tensions rise. Joy!"
"But, but, but, there are range and we can talk about them as adults and accept it's not a choice between hope and despair," said another panelist quoted by Mr. Szafranski, who hails from my hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. [Hi Matt!]
Groff said: "What if entertainment is the way to get this virus of change in our system?"
Rich: ''Climate debate has shifted from appeals to reason (to denialists) to more personal, urgent climate activists.''
Jemisin: ''Literature can ask personal questions related to climate change (e.g. should I have kids, as
Nat Rich notes) that can have impact."
Watkins: "We're learning from our pants!"
Groff added: ''Without arts that is engaging with our world, it's not worth it. Entertainment is pushing us away from the world. Art should engage it.''
Jemisin said: "Is calling something 'disaster porn' bad? Porn can be 'disturbingly effective.' Entertainment can make a difference."
Who's who?
Dan Bloom blogs at:
https://www.sdjewishworld.com/2019/10/18/remembering-his-hometown-from-across-the-world/
Based in Florida, Lauren Groff is a frequent contributor of short stories to the magazine; her story collection “Florida,” published in 2018, won the Story Prize and was also a finalist for a National Book Award.
N. K. Jemisin, a writer of cli-fi and speculative fiction, is the author of ''The Broken Earth'' trilogy. “The City We Became,” the first novel in her new series, will be released next year.
Nat Rich is a novelist and a writer-at-large for the New York Times Magazine. His most recent book was “Losing Earth: A Recent History,” a nonfiction account of the earliest efforts to prevent catastrophic climate change. One of his other books include the cli-fi novel “Odds Against Tomorrow.”
Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of the cli-fi novel GOLD FAME CITRUS.
Deborah Treisman has been the fiction editor of The New Yorker magazine since 2003 and has worked at the magazine since 1997. She is also the host of The New Yorker’s monthly Fiction Podcast and its weekly podcast The Writer’s Voice.
A major draw for advertisers?
[ By the way, the annual New Yorker Festival has become the biggest consumer-facing event for its parent company Conde Nast, not to mention one of the buzziest cultural events of the year, period. With speakers, performers and panelists, this year’s program reads like a who’s-who of the literary arts. But The New Yorker Festival isn’t just about must-see programming. It’s also a major draw for advertisers looking to reach the magazine's well-read audience. ]
NOTE about the Live-Tweeter:
Matt Szafranski is the Editor-in-Chief and founder of WMassP&I,
an attorney and a writer in Springfield, Massachusetts
=========
Deborah Treisman, 32
Fiction editor, The New Yorker
When Deborah Treisman was 11 years old, she received her first literary rejection, for a short story she sent to the The New Yorker. Flash forward about 20 years, and now Ms. Treisman is doing the rejecting and accepting. As the new fiction editor of the venerable weekly, she heads up a team that sifts through some 2,000 submissions a month, searching for prose worthy of The New Yorker's reputation as a literary tastemaker.
It's a job with extraordinary clout. Even previously unpublished writers have been known to receive $500,000 book advances once they've had a story published there. "The New Yorker occupies a completely exclusive spot in the world of short fiction," says literary agent Amanda Urban.
Ms. Treisman tries not to be preoccupied with her magazine's standing among the literati. "I'm surprised by how many see it as a sacred artifact," she says. "This is a great job, but it's a job."
Her groundedness comes from having little to prove. She graduated from college at 16, and joined The New Yorker's fiction department at 27. She's the youngest person to hold the fiction editor title, and the first woman to do so since Katharine White established the department in 1925.
Ms. Treisman comes from a family of high achievers. Both siblings and both parents are noted professors. Late last year, she traveled to Stockholm to watch her stepfather, Daniel Kahneman, receive the Nobel Prize for economics. She says she easily gave up the notion of being a writer, with its life of solitude and massive hurdles to publication. "If you have a choice, it's probably not right for you," she says.
Early Life
Deborah was born and raised in the city of Oxford until she was about 8 years old. She later moved to Vancouver, Canada where she decided to suppress her English accent in order to avoid being bullied. [2]
She grew up in a family of academics and scientists. [11]
Education
At the age of 16 years old, she attended the UC Berkeley and studied liberal arts for about a year. She graduated with a degree in Comparative literature. [11]
Career
During and after college, she had worked as a writer. She began her post-college career as an editor at The Threepenny Review, then earned an internship at Harper's Bazaar. [12] At 23, Treisman became the editor of Grand Street, a now-defunct quarterly literary magazine. [12]
In 2002, after an introduction to Bill Buford, she joined The New Yorker as a deputy fiction editor. When Buford left to pursue his writing career, Treisman took his place. [12] [6]
The Gatekeeper For Literature Is Changing At New Yorker ...
2002年10月21日 - New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick appoints Deborah Treisman to succeed Bill Buford as short-story editor; her standards and criteria ...
2002年10月21日 - New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick appoints Deborah Treisman to succeed Bill Buford as short-story editor; her standards and criteria ...
Deborah Treisman - The New York Times
2003年1月28日 - Public Lives profile of Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker; photo (M)
2003年1月28日 - Public Lives profile of Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of The New Yorker; photo (M)
No comments:
Post a Comment