Show Notes for Ep. 38 "Escape From Turkey City"
Mary Anne, Ben, and Jed open the episode with a discussion on writing workshops. They explore the kinds of people and critique you can find within them, as well as the hierarchies that can form between student and teacher, between the unexperienced and experienced writer. In the second half of the episode the trio react to some of the writing terms and axioms found in Bruce Stirling’s “Turkey City Lexicon.”
Link to Turkey City Lexicon: https://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/18/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops/
Recorded December 6, 2020 / Published February 21, 2022
Contents
- 0:00:00: Start of episode and the types of advice you’ll hear from workshops
- 0:05:53: On MFA creative writing courses and the hierarchy within
- 0:13:24: On the types of people and critiquing within workshops
- 0:27:29: Mary Anne critiques Ben’s critiquing
- 0:37:39: Responding to Rilke on writing
- 0:45:43: Intermission, followed by discussion of the Turkey City Lexicon
- 0:57:13: Reacting to “call a rabbit a smeerp”
- 1:16:57: On the experience of re-reading childhood favorites
- 1:27:54: Reacting to “show don’t tell”
Notes and Links
- Turkey City Lexicon
- Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
- Time’s Arrow, Martin Amis
- A Fire Upon the Deep, Vernor Vinge
- Jed’s 2004 blog post on fictional translations
- XKCD comic 483
- Milk Street Podcast
- Jenn Reese, artist and writer
- Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino
- Tom Reamy, writer
