Revision reading list
Revision reading list
Prepping to shift projects in the new year
I know this newsletter is about novel writing, but I think I’ve mentioned once or twice that I also have this nonfiction project on a back burner.
Incidentally, my writing life has six main burners going right now:
The pond novel — front burner, hope to have a full draft this month
The glass house novel — back burner, begging for some more heat
The nonfiction project — back burner but about to be pulled to the front — more on that in a minute
A short story on submission — back burner, but gets swapped to the front for a day every now and then, when a magazine I love has an open reading period or when I amass enough rejections that it’s time to do another round
Grant, fellowship, and residency applications — front burner lately because there were some December deadlines
Book reviews, interviews, and other pitched pieces — front burner lately because I have a deadline in January, then back to the back for a while
And then there’s getting the word out when something does get published, which is currently off the stove completely but there’s a whole apparatus that must be kept warm by posting every so often on social media. (And social media is a whole other question right now — where are we consolidating our efforts, friends? I’m still on Instagram and I’ve been playing around with Substack’s Notes and Threads, but I haven’t decided if I like either…) Anyway, let’s call the marketing machine in the warming drawer.
This is all to say…
… that I’m gearing up for a big shift in the new year. As soon as I feel good enough about the pond novel to hand it off to readers, I’m going into revision mode on my nonfiction project, an account of my 2019 birth injury and postpartum experience. I’ll have some news to share about this project soon, but for now all I’ll say is that I’m working toward an external deadline, not a self-imposed one…
To get myself in the mindset for this revision, I put together a revision reading list. Some of these are books with which my project is in more direct conversation and for others the connection is not obvious but makes sense in my brain. Some are simply books that remind me why I wanted to tell this particular story, in this particular format. Most are re-reads but a few are new to me, titles saved in my notes app for this time, because I knew it would come. A couple are essays.
I’m trusting the reading to get me into the right headspace to do the work. So here they are, in no particular order:
Little Labors by Rivka Galchen
Ongoingness by Sarah Manguso
All About Love by bell hooks
Drifts by Kate Zambreno
Book of Mutter by Kate Zambreno
White Magic by Elissa Washuta
A Woman is a Woman Until She is a Mother by Anna Prushinskaya
The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde
I Love Dick by Chris Kraus
Splinters by Leslie Jamison
Black Milk by Elif Shafak
On Being Ill by Virgina Woolf
Essential Labor by Angela Garbes
Like a Mother by Angela Garbes
Stay True by Hua Hsu
Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li
Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution by Adrienne Rich
How to Sit by Tyrese Coleman
Girlhood by Melissa Febos
In Vitro by Isabel Zapata
Ill Feelings by Alice Hattrick
Knocking Myself Up by Michelle Tea
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk
Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
I Remember by Joe Brainard
Will I be able to read/reread all these while I’m working on revisions? Nope. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I am a painfully slow reader. I think of these more as the words I’ll be swimming in for the next few months. I’ll dip in and out; I’ll delight.
Am I missing a book that would be at home on this list? If so, please comment and let me know!