I asked some of my favorite writers and lit types to contribute lists of recommendations. Bookslut's fabulous editor Jessica Crispin, a fellow Chicagoan and former Austinite, came through with flying colors. Thanks, Jessa!- Erin
Top 5 Books for Wallowing by Jessa Crispin
Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
There's something about Bowen's writing that makes me want to take to my bed for three days and languish in her prose.
The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis
It's a book to be read slowly, and repeatedly.
The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James
More than just a (friendly) philosophy book, it can reorder your entire brain. After all that, you might need a nap.
Troubles by J. G. Farrell
Farrell's description of the decay of an Irish big house, overrun with cats and madness, will cause you to lose days at a time.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The ultimate wallow book.
*Tomorrow -- no more wallowing for you! Jessa's Top 5 Books for Getting Off the Couch will be here!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Silver Lining short: Anna Price
The Silver Lining is a classic-rock-inspired band from Cambridge, Mass., and their 2006 album Well Dressed Blues is out on EYE-CON Records. I spoke with lovely vocalist Anna Price.
ERIN: How did you choose the name The Silver Lining for your band?
ANNA: So much of rock is really nihlistic and a-melodic these days, which is why I think it's lost so much of its audience. We wanted to say something a little bit more positive. The name the Silver Lining aknowledges that sometimes life can suck, but there's always a bright side too.
How do you find a silver lining when band life gets rough?
The important thing is to have other stuff in your life that makes you happy. If you count on the band as your sole reason for happiness, you'll put all kinds of pressure on yourself and you won't be able to enjoy the good parts. In other words, being in a band is really fucking hard so just try to have fun and don't take it so seriously.
What advice to you have for readers who need to kick a dark cloud in the ass?
Count your blessings. Most likely you're better off than 90 percent of the people on the planet, and the things that suck in your life are probably not so bad as they seem. Figure out what you can't change and accept it, and work to change the things that you can.
(I couldn't agree more. Thanks, Anna!)
ERIN: How did you choose the name The Silver Lining for your band?
ANNA: So much of rock is really nihlistic and a-melodic these days, which is why I think it's lost so much of its audience. We wanted to say something a little bit more positive. The name the Silver Lining aknowledges that sometimes life can suck, but there's always a bright side too.
How do you find a silver lining when band life gets rough?
The important thing is to have other stuff in your life that makes you happy. If you count on the band as your sole reason for happiness, you'll put all kinds of pressure on yourself and you won't be able to enjoy the good parts. In other words, being in a band is really fucking hard so just try to have fun and don't take it so seriously.
What advice to you have for readers who need to kick a dark cloud in the ass?
Count your blessings. Most likely you're better off than 90 percent of the people on the planet, and the things that suck in your life are probably not so bad as they seem. Figure out what you can't change and accept it, and work to change the things that you can.
(I couldn't agree more. Thanks, Anna!)
Monday, January 7, 2008
Silver Lining interview: Ariel Gore! Pt. 2
Silver Lining presents the second part of our interview with author and zine inspiration Ariel Gore. Her hard-won, entertaining, motivational, and gutsy insights begin in the previous post.
Erin: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career as an indie writer and publisher?
Ariel: Well, that's a hard question to have follow the last one, because now I am all worked up about how HORRIBLE it is. But it's not! It's amazing and excellent to be able to make an (albeit very modest) living doing what I like to do. I just read Anne Lamott's new book and interviewed her for our community radio station, and I am of course just so freakin' jealous because she makes enough money to have a lot more leisure time in it all than I do, but then I look around at my life and just breathe in my appreciation, because I trusted that if I worked really hard at doing what I love the world would somehow support me and that has been true. Through much poverty and other gloop--but always liveable poverty and other gloop.
What's the latest in Hip Mama world? Has your pregnancy given you a ton of new material to work with? (Of course, this interview was months ago, so it's not quite the latest now. Check out her website for more.)
I don't know. Not so much yet. I just found out IT'S A BOY. That's something new for me. But I'm not sure if the baby thing feels totally real to me yet. (Although, I can say, I really don't know why they discourage the teen mom thing SO much, pregnancy is really very uncomfortable when you're 36). Anyway -- my daughter is headed off to college in the fall, which is just head-spiningly amazing to me. Being the parent of a teenager is hard, hard in a lot of ways, but one thing I love is being reminded that as a parent I am dispensible. I have been important, but through all of my triumphs and fuck-ups, she is her own person with her own destiny. There were things that always came naturally to me that she is no good at, and there are whole worlds I have been terrified to even ENTER that she has, simply, mastered.
You were a big inspiration for the Silver Lining zine. Would you share with us some of your inspirations as a writer, a mom, or just in general?
Diane DiPrima, Katherine Arnoldi, Anais Nin, Micelle Tea, Anne Lamott, Mary Waters, China Martens. Well, that looks like a very femme list. I'm sure that some men should be on it, but they don't pop into my mind just now.
You talk about this in your book, but can you sum up your advice for women who think "I don't have time to be a lit star" or any other kind of star?
Well, a woman--any woman--has to make a real effort not to dissolve into everything that needs her. We are trained to put the thing that we want to do last--and with writing it's also WORK, so if we manage to carve out a couple of hours in the week for ourselves, we might as well just go get a drink and relax. So we've got to learn to put writing up there at the top of our to-do lists, and not let everyone else's wants and needs cut in line.
And lastly, is there anything on your mind these days that you think more people should be aware of or thinking about? Consider this question free reign to spread the word!
There's a lot of jealous meanness going around. There's a lot of frustration and grief on the planet right now. There's a lot of arrogance. Just don't get sucked into that. You are a unique and amazing genius -- and so is everyone else. Share some love, man. I know I sound like a freakin' hippie, but what are you going to do? Avoid everyone who has gotten sucked into that mean jealous arrogant thing, because it's super toxic and contageous. Don't try to save them or anything. Share the love, and then MOVE THE FUCK ON.
Erin: What has been the most rewarding aspect of your career as an indie writer and publisher?
Ariel: Well, that's a hard question to have follow the last one, because now I am all worked up about how HORRIBLE it is. But it's not! It's amazing and excellent to be able to make an (albeit very modest) living doing what I like to do. I just read Anne Lamott's new book and interviewed her for our community radio station, and I am of course just so freakin' jealous because she makes enough money to have a lot more leisure time in it all than I do, but then I look around at my life and just breathe in my appreciation, because I trusted that if I worked really hard at doing what I love the world would somehow support me and that has been true. Through much poverty and other gloop--but always liveable poverty and other gloop.
What's the latest in Hip Mama world? Has your pregnancy given you a ton of new material to work with? (Of course, this interview was months ago, so it's not quite the latest now. Check out her website for more.)
I don't know. Not so much yet. I just found out IT'S A BOY. That's something new for me. But I'm not sure if the baby thing feels totally real to me yet. (Although, I can say, I really don't know why they discourage the teen mom thing SO much, pregnancy is really very uncomfortable when you're 36). Anyway -- my daughter is headed off to college in the fall, which is just head-spiningly amazing to me. Being the parent of a teenager is hard, hard in a lot of ways, but one thing I love is being reminded that as a parent I am dispensible. I have been important, but through all of my triumphs and fuck-ups, she is her own person with her own destiny. There were things that always came naturally to me that she is no good at, and there are whole worlds I have been terrified to even ENTER that she has, simply, mastered.
You were a big inspiration for the Silver Lining zine. Would you share with us some of your inspirations as a writer, a mom, or just in general?
Diane DiPrima, Katherine Arnoldi, Anais Nin, Micelle Tea, Anne Lamott, Mary Waters, China Martens. Well, that looks like a very femme list. I'm sure that some men should be on it, but they don't pop into my mind just now.
You talk about this in your book, but can you sum up your advice for women who think "I don't have time to be a lit star" or any other kind of star?
Well, a woman--any woman--has to make a real effort not to dissolve into everything that needs her. We are trained to put the thing that we want to do last--and with writing it's also WORK, so if we manage to carve out a couple of hours in the week for ourselves, we might as well just go get a drink and relax. So we've got to learn to put writing up there at the top of our to-do lists, and not let everyone else's wants and needs cut in line.
And lastly, is there anything on your mind these days that you think more people should be aware of or thinking about? Consider this question free reign to spread the word!
There's a lot of jealous meanness going around. There's a lot of frustration and grief on the planet right now. There's a lot of arrogance. Just don't get sucked into that. You are a unique and amazing genius -- and so is everyone else. Share some love, man. I know I sound like a freakin' hippie, but what are you going to do? Avoid everyone who has gotten sucked into that mean jealous arrogant thing, because it's super toxic and contageous. Don't try to save them or anything. Share the love, and then MOVE THE FUCK ON.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Silver Lining interview: Ariel Gore! Pt. 1
*In 2008, the Silver Lining zine goes online here at Just Eat The Cat! I'll be posting interviews, poems, essays, and other writings from friends around Chicago, Austin, the U.S., and the world at large. It's great stuff -- and better late than never! To kick things off, here's my interview with Ariel Gore, the author, zine publisher/editor, and Hip Mama who largely inspired Silver Lining (the zine and the Chicago writers group by the same name). Thank you, Ariel! And thank you to the contributors and readers for their talents, support, and patience. Viva 2008! - Erin
Erin: The Silver Lining zine's theme is making delicious, hilarious, rockin', and generally badass lemonade out of the lemons life inevitably hurls at us. Can you think of a specific silver-lining situation in your past, where you went from feeling downtrodden to feeling triumphant?
Ariel: Well, that's what it's ALL about, isn't it? I mean, you are born! What a fuck over! You get this human existence and you're wailing about it for a few minutes, and then you just have to say, well, all right, looks like I'm going to be here for a while, and the landscape IS strangely beautiful, I guess I might as well see if I can spread some love around. For me, success has been ALL about taking what the world told me was my handicap and turning that into my strength. Being a teen mom, you learn that real fast. When you have a kid as a teenager--ever an older teenager like I was--you can either be what the world tells you you can be, which is nothing, or you can just pack up and run away in the night and go to college and do your thing and be a bad-ass--sometimes awesome and sometimes tired and messed up--mama. The world told me I should be ashamed of myself, but I flaunted it: Yeah I'm a teenage welfare mother.
Your latest book is one of the best guides for writers I've ever read (and I've read tons). Would you give us a tidbit of writing advice you wish someone had given you along the way?
I'm so glad you like it! I think writers have to reimagine themselves as BOTH artists AND entrepreneurs. We have to dream big and work harder. We have to CREATE a context in which our work matters and makes sense. If you think of the beat writers or any creative community like that, they invented that grouping for themselves--they didn't wait around for some publisher to say, Hey, this might fit into a new little sub-genre I've been thiking about...
What do you think is the best advice for writers that, alas, must simply be learned the hard way?
Well, most writers are very sensitive. We dream of publishing and we dream of our work being loved and appreciated and accepted--and often our work is very personal so we interpret that love and appreciation and acceptance as being very personal, too, and when it all works we are happy and fufilled, but taking the praise personally sets us up, because someone is going to hate what we put out there. They are going to write shitty reviews of our genuine effort. And how can we not take that personally? Worse, someone is going to suddenly feel like it is his freaking CALLING to take us down a notch, and they're really going to get personal and ugly. This is more about being a public person than being a writer, but when you publish--even if only ten people read your work--you have become a public person, and humans are very, very cruel to each other.
Erin: The Silver Lining zine's theme is making delicious, hilarious, rockin', and generally badass lemonade out of the lemons life inevitably hurls at us. Can you think of a specific silver-lining situation in your past, where you went from feeling downtrodden to feeling triumphant?
Ariel: Well, that's what it's ALL about, isn't it? I mean, you are born! What a fuck over! You get this human existence and you're wailing about it for a few minutes, and then you just have to say, well, all right, looks like I'm going to be here for a while, and the landscape IS strangely beautiful, I guess I might as well see if I can spread some love around. For me, success has been ALL about taking what the world told me was my handicap and turning that into my strength. Being a teen mom, you learn that real fast. When you have a kid as a teenager--ever an older teenager like I was--you can either be what the world tells you you can be, which is nothing, or you can just pack up and run away in the night and go to college and do your thing and be a bad-ass--sometimes awesome and sometimes tired and messed up--mama. The world told me I should be ashamed of myself, but I flaunted it: Yeah I'm a teenage welfare mother.
Your latest book is one of the best guides for writers I've ever read (and I've read tons). Would you give us a tidbit of writing advice you wish someone had given you along the way?
I'm so glad you like it! I think writers have to reimagine themselves as BOTH artists AND entrepreneurs. We have to dream big and work harder. We have to CREATE a context in which our work matters and makes sense. If you think of the beat writers or any creative community like that, they invented that grouping for themselves--they didn't wait around for some publisher to say, Hey, this might fit into a new little sub-genre I've been thiking about...
What do you think is the best advice for writers that, alas, must simply be learned the hard way?
Well, most writers are very sensitive. We dream of publishing and we dream of our work being loved and appreciated and accepted--and often our work is very personal so we interpret that love and appreciation and acceptance as being very personal, too, and when it all works we are happy and fufilled, but taking the praise personally sets us up, because someone is going to hate what we put out there. They are going to write shitty reviews of our genuine effort. And how can we not take that personally? Worse, someone is going to suddenly feel like it is his freaking CALLING to take us down a notch, and they're really going to get personal and ugly. This is more about being a public person than being a writer, but when you publish--even if only ten people read your work--you have become a public person, and humans are very, very cruel to each other.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Where am I?
Just after my last post, I began my new job as literacy director for Open Books. I love this job like I love chips and salsa (but with the added satisfaction of making the world a better place instead of just making my stomach ache). I am not giving up on this site -- stay tuned for guest blogs from writers around Chicago and beyond! But for now, I just wanted to let my readers know that I haven't forgotten you, I wish you a wonderful holiday season with your families and friends, and until I write more original content again, I hope you will keep up with me in the following places:
Open Books
Open Books blog
The Hidden Mitten
All things Erin
LOVE & ADVENTURES,
Erin
Open Books
Open Books blog
The Hidden Mitten
All things Erin
LOVE & ADVENTURES,
Erin
Thursday, September 13, 2007
AUSTIN: The most adorable, rewarding half hour of your life!
Other potential subject lines for this post: "Won't someone think of the children?" and "This post is not about a rock show." ;)
Anyway, friends, have I got some fun for you! School has been in session now for three weeks, and teachers know enough about their students now to utilize volunteers. At Travis Heights Elementary, where I was a first grade teacher before I moved, they have a wonderful program called HOTS (Helping One Thunderbird Soar). It pairs an adult (YOU!) with a kid (GUARANTEED TO BE CUTE AND HILARIOUS AS HELL!*) who needs practice reading. All you do is show up for half an hour each week to sit and listen to your "reading buddy" in the colorfully cheerful yet suitably peaceful school library. (Remember how nice it was to be read to as a kid? It's still awesome as an adult.)
I was a HOTS mentor the year before I got my teaching certification and it was the best half hour of my week, every week. And you will be a highlight of your reading buddy's week -- giving a young child something extra to look forward to at school and, in some cases, the only grown-up who will give them undivided attention all week long. Think about that.
You don't have to be a teacher or anything remotely related -- you just have to be there for a kid. And in the end, I swear, you will feel like they're the ones helping you as much as vice versa. It's a truly crazy world we live in -- a world where Britney Spears somehow gets more attention than nuclear warheads accidentally flown over our country -- and this is a small but vital way to put your time into something that truly matters.
FYI, Travis Heights is located just south of downtown (between 35 and Congress, around Woodland/Annie) -- easy to get to and from on a lunch hour or before work. Oh, and the librarian who runs the program is a badass member of the Texas Rollergirls, so any friends of mine will probably love her. :)
If you're remotedly interested, you can message to ask me questions or just call the school at 414-4495 and ask for librarian Julie Underwood (AKA rollergirl Vendetta Von Dutch!). You can also go to my Myspace top friends and message Amber or Sarah -- both of them are going into their 3rd year as HOTS mentors and I know they love it!
The kids need y'all, and at the risk of sounding like a Texas car salesman (I can hear the voice in my head), you'll be glad you made the call! I gay-ron-tee!
LOVE & LITERACY,
Erin
P.S. -- CHICAGO folks, don't feel left out! I'll be back next week with info on how you can do your heart good by volunteering at Open Books. :) EVERYONE ELSE, call the school nearest you and ask how you can help. I'm sure they need you, too!
* Seriously, ask Amber about all the hysterical stuff her reading buddy told her this week during "getting to know you" time.
Anyway, friends, have I got some fun for you! School has been in session now for three weeks, and teachers know enough about their students now to utilize volunteers. At Travis Heights Elementary, where I was a first grade teacher before I moved, they have a wonderful program called HOTS (Helping One Thunderbird Soar). It pairs an adult (YOU!) with a kid (GUARANTEED TO BE CUTE AND HILARIOUS AS HELL!*) who needs practice reading. All you do is show up for half an hour each week to sit and listen to your "reading buddy" in the colorfully cheerful yet suitably peaceful school library. (Remember how nice it was to be read to as a kid? It's still awesome as an adult.)
I was a HOTS mentor the year before I got my teaching certification and it was the best half hour of my week, every week. And you will be a highlight of your reading buddy's week -- giving a young child something extra to look forward to at school and, in some cases, the only grown-up who will give them undivided attention all week long. Think about that.
You don't have to be a teacher or anything remotely related -- you just have to be there for a kid. And in the end, I swear, you will feel like they're the ones helping you as much as vice versa. It's a truly crazy world we live in -- a world where Britney Spears somehow gets more attention than nuclear warheads accidentally flown over our country -- and this is a small but vital way to put your time into something that truly matters.
FYI, Travis Heights is located just south of downtown (between 35 and Congress, around Woodland/Annie) -- easy to get to and from on a lunch hour or before work. Oh, and the librarian who runs the program is a badass member of the Texas Rollergirls, so any friends of mine will probably love her. :)
If you're remotedly interested, you can message to ask me questions or just call the school at 414-4495 and ask for librarian Julie Underwood (AKA rollergirl Vendetta Von Dutch!). You can also go to my Myspace top friends and message Amber or Sarah -- both of them are going into their 3rd year as HOTS mentors and I know they love it!
The kids need y'all, and at the risk of sounding like a Texas car salesman (I can hear the voice in my head), you'll be glad you made the call! I gay-ron-tee!
LOVE & LITERACY,
Erin
P.S. -- CHICAGO folks, don't feel left out! I'll be back next week with info on how you can do your heart good by volunteering at Open Books. :) EVERYONE ELSE, call the school nearest you and ask how you can help. I'm sure they need you, too!
* Seriously, ask Amber about all the hysterical stuff her reading buddy told her this week during "getting to know you" time.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Aug. 22, 2007: One of those perfect days.
Friends and readers, I am so excited I can scarcely sit still. My husband Patrick is almost done with his tour-de-force video game, John Woo Presents Stranglehold, the plumber has almost repaired the gaping black hole and corresponding rubble pile that has been my shower this week -- AND I JUST GOT A DREAM JOB!!!!!!!
I have known about the job possibility for months (and mentioned it around but didn't want to jinx it too much by writing about it). I wish I could tell all my friends about this face-to-face, but if I did, I'd pass out from the adreniline. So now that it's official, I can spill my guts! . . . (drum roll) . . . Yours truly is now the Literacy Director for Open Books! Excuse me for a second while I woo.
[WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!].
You may recall I wrote about my love of Open Books in a column for Chicago6Corners.com back in the spring, and I also worked with them on the recent blogathon raising money for Blue Gargoyle literacy center in Hyde Park. Quite simply, I love this organization. I am so thrilled to be joining the team as a full-time director. The mission -- fun with literacy -- is as close to my heart as it gets, and while I love writing peacefully in my lovely apartment, I'd rather do that as a side thing like I do my band. I'm happier that way, creatively. Less pressure (on my brain and my bank account). In the 8 years since I graduated from college, I have been (in order) a newspaper reporter, a day camp counselor in the Rocky Mts., a legal editor for the Texas Legislature, a 1st grade teacher, and a freelance writer slash uber volunteer all over Chicago. I had actually been crying to Patrick that, while it's been a huge blessing to have a year to work from home on my book and bands, I wished I could get paid to do the work I do as a volunteer. And then BOOM! I found this job a few days later.
Can you imagine my excitement when I first read the following online?! . . . Open Books, Chicago's first nonprofit literacy bookstore, is looking for the ideal person to create and direct our brand-new slate of unique literacy programs. Open Books is a two-storied vision: a funky, fun, colorful, and eccentric treasure trove of 50,000+ used books on the first floor, the sale of which fund a range of adult, family, and computer literacy programs upstairs. Our 8,000 sqft facility in the heart of the South Loop, including two state-of-the-art classrooms and a 15-seat computer lab, will open to the public in spring 2008. This is a dream way for me to combine my obsessions and experience with writing, reading, volunteerism, teaching, and community organizing!
The founders are two totally kickass women: smart, funny, creative, awesome co-workers-to-be. I could go on and on about what they've accomplished in a short time and what our dreams are for Open Books, but you'll just have to come see it for yourself as a volunteer! (Oh, the fun we will have in the name of a good cause! For example, inspired one afternoon by a whistling window on a U-Haul we'd just filled with donated books out, the executive director Stacy and I did nothing but sing songs with whistling in them -- or whose lyrics mention whistling, such as "Whistling in the Dark" by They Might Be Giants, which doesn't actually have any whistling, surprisingly. Thus I am going to have a boss with whom I've already harmonized on the chorus to G-n-R's "Patience." Yep. Rad.)
On top of everything, after I got the official job offer today, Stacy, Becca (the PR director), and I went over to see our new office at Chicago and Franklin. It's so cool! Hardwood floors, TONS of windows, a shower in the restroom (so I won't smell so bad after riding my bike to work every day), walls painted lots of gorgeous bright colors, and MY VERY OWN OFFICE (with its own window, too) for the first time in my life (since reporters just get desks in the middle of the bustling newsroom and teachers share their "offices" with a couple dozen kiddos, both of which have their charms, but still). I even got to pick out paint colors for each wall today (shades of sunshine yellow, tropical reddish-pink, and periwinkle blue, of course), and on Wednesday the three of us are going to IKEA in the bookmobile to buy whatever furniture we want! It's our choice because the place is new. AHHHHHH!!!!!! What is the word for being so completely beyond stoked that you could explode? (We'll also be stopping to pick up a giant, old-fashioned card catalogue that a library is donating. We'll keep our pens and post-it-notes in it, but mainly we want it around as a reminder of how much we love libraries and gloriously nerdy stuff like the Dewey Decimal System.)
My first project will be to work with a group of autistic teenagers who want to volunteer with us. We will teach them how to sort and categorize the boxes of donated books -- a task they chose because it's well-suited to their particular needs and skills. They'll get the satisfaction of contributing to their community and we'll get help with one of our biggest tasks (organizing the slew of storage units full of donated books that will eventually become the Open Books store). I'll also be helping Blue Gargoyle revamp their computer lab and, most importantly, creating a kickass slate of literacy programs for Open Books itself. I want our facility to be as beloved and beneficial on the south side as 826CHI is in Wicker Park.
Anyway, sorry this blog is so long. I just had to share my excitement about this next phase of my professional life. Plus I want a thorough record of this spectacular feeling -- that if you dedicate yourself to your passions and give your time and energy to your community, there is that wonderful chance that it can become your life's work.
LOVE & LITERACY,
Erin
P.S. -- CHICAGO FRIENDS, please come celebrate all this with me when I'm back from Seattle. Advance tickets for the Hidden Mitten shows in the first week of September -- marking mine and Garrett's birthdays, and the imminent birth of Melanie's son -- will be at doubledoor.com and Ticketweb for the show at the Note with Arks. Get your tix and put 9/4 and/or 9/7 on your calendar! AUSTIN FRIENDS, I hope to see you at Club DeVille and Elysium on Sunday, Sept. 9 for more revelry. Did I mention I will be STOKED and CELEBRATING? XOXOXO :)
I have known about the job possibility for months (and mentioned it around but didn't want to jinx it too much by writing about it). I wish I could tell all my friends about this face-to-face, but if I did, I'd pass out from the adreniline. So now that it's official, I can spill my guts! . . . (drum roll) . . . Yours truly is now the Literacy Director for Open Books! Excuse me for a second while I woo.
[WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!].
You may recall I wrote about my love of Open Books in a column for Chicago6Corners.com back in the spring, and I also worked with them on the recent blogathon raising money for Blue Gargoyle literacy center in Hyde Park. Quite simply, I love this organization. I am so thrilled to be joining the team as a full-time director. The mission -- fun with literacy -- is as close to my heart as it gets, and while I love writing peacefully in my lovely apartment, I'd rather do that as a side thing like I do my band. I'm happier that way, creatively. Less pressure (on my brain and my bank account). In the 8 years since I graduated from college, I have been (in order) a newspaper reporter, a day camp counselor in the Rocky Mts., a legal editor for the Texas Legislature, a 1st grade teacher, and a freelance writer slash uber volunteer all over Chicago. I had actually been crying to Patrick that, while it's been a huge blessing to have a year to work from home on my book and bands, I wished I could get paid to do the work I do as a volunteer. And then BOOM! I found this job a few days later.
Can you imagine my excitement when I first read the following online?! . . . Open Books, Chicago's first nonprofit literacy bookstore, is looking for the ideal person to create and direct our brand-new slate of unique literacy programs. Open Books is a two-storied vision: a funky, fun, colorful, and eccentric treasure trove of 50,000+ used books on the first floor, the sale of which fund a range of adult, family, and computer literacy programs upstairs. Our 8,000 sqft facility in the heart of the South Loop, including two state-of-the-art classrooms and a 15-seat computer lab, will open to the public in spring 2008. This is a dream way for me to combine my obsessions and experience with writing, reading, volunteerism, teaching, and community organizing!
The founders are two totally kickass women: smart, funny, creative, awesome co-workers-to-be. I could go on and on about what they've accomplished in a short time and what our dreams are for Open Books, but you'll just have to come see it for yourself as a volunteer! (Oh, the fun we will have in the name of a good cause! For example, inspired one afternoon by a whistling window on a U-Haul we'd just filled with donated books out, the executive director Stacy and I did nothing but sing songs with whistling in them -- or whose lyrics mention whistling, such as "Whistling in the Dark" by They Might Be Giants, which doesn't actually have any whistling, surprisingly. Thus I am going to have a boss with whom I've already harmonized on the chorus to G-n-R's "Patience." Yep. Rad.)
On top of everything, after I got the official job offer today, Stacy, Becca (the PR director), and I went over to see our new office at Chicago and Franklin. It's so cool! Hardwood floors, TONS of windows, a shower in the restroom (so I won't smell so bad after riding my bike to work every day), walls painted lots of gorgeous bright colors, and MY VERY OWN OFFICE (with its own window, too) for the first time in my life (since reporters just get desks in the middle of the bustling newsroom and teachers share their "offices" with a couple dozen kiddos, both of which have their charms, but still). I even got to pick out paint colors for each wall today (shades of sunshine yellow, tropical reddish-pink, and periwinkle blue, of course), and on Wednesday the three of us are going to IKEA in the bookmobile to buy whatever furniture we want! It's our choice because the place is new. AHHHHHH!!!!!! What is the word for being so completely beyond stoked that you could explode? (We'll also be stopping to pick up a giant, old-fashioned card catalogue that a library is donating. We'll keep our pens and post-it-notes in it, but mainly we want it around as a reminder of how much we love libraries and gloriously nerdy stuff like the Dewey Decimal System.)
My first project will be to work with a group of autistic teenagers who want to volunteer with us. We will teach them how to sort and categorize the boxes of donated books -- a task they chose because it's well-suited to their particular needs and skills. They'll get the satisfaction of contributing to their community and we'll get help with one of our biggest tasks (organizing the slew of storage units full of donated books that will eventually become the Open Books store). I'll also be helping Blue Gargoyle revamp their computer lab and, most importantly, creating a kickass slate of literacy programs for Open Books itself. I want our facility to be as beloved and beneficial on the south side as 826CHI is in Wicker Park.
Anyway, sorry this blog is so long. I just had to share my excitement about this next phase of my professional life. Plus I want a thorough record of this spectacular feeling -- that if you dedicate yourself to your passions and give your time and energy to your community, there is that wonderful chance that it can become your life's work.
LOVE & LITERACY,
Erin
P.S. -- CHICAGO FRIENDS, please come celebrate all this with me when I'm back from Seattle. Advance tickets for the Hidden Mitten shows in the first week of September -- marking mine and Garrett's birthdays, and the imminent birth of Melanie's son -- will be at doubledoor.com and Ticketweb for the show at the Note with Arks. Get your tix and put 9/4 and/or 9/7 on your calendar! AUSTIN FRIENDS, I hope to see you at Club DeVille and Elysium on Sunday, Sept. 9 for more revelry. Did I mention I will be STOKED and CELEBRATING? XOXOXO :)
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