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Loading... First Person Intense: A Prose Anthology (1978)3 | None | 4,089,380 | None | None | First Person Intense is a collection of first-person writing in a variety of styles - although "style" may be the wrong word for the integrity of the writing. First person writing means that someone is speaking directly to you, not crafting a story for your entertainment. And that's the power of first-person "intense," a face-out manner of writing that abandons much of the traditional structure of fiction (the arc of the narrative, omniscient viewpoint, dialogue, character development, denouement, beginning, middle, and end) and nonfiction (which often seems to be written by nobody or a committee, carefully refraining from bias or personal opinion). This anthology was originally published in 1978, and was popular with creative writing classes as well as the general market, as a study in writing with honesty, authentic voices speaking without the mask of characterization. This second printing retains most of the original pieces, including a Vietnam vet's powerful stories, a voyage across America in search of meaning, a prison letter, an excerpt from an as yet unpublished Charles Bukowski novel (by permission of the publisher), the admission by Fielding Dawson of first ambitions to be a writer (a young man wishing to be complicated). A few additions include a schizophrenic, a Peace Corps teacher, a story from junior high. None of these are perfect - perfection is not sought in real first-person writing - but all give plenty of taste of personality, vulnerability, openness. If you like, you can call this a "school of writing." First Person Intense was originally assigned an ISBN number by Mudborn Press. After the dissolution of that partnership in 1981, one of the partners, Sasha Newborn, established a new publishing operation, Bandanna Books. Although the original ISBN number is retained for the reprint of FPI, this book is now available only from Bandanna Books. A publication akin in spirit to FPI is Berlin (www.createspace.com/4329110), a bilingual anthology, guest edited by Mitch Cohen, who lived in the divided city of Berlin in the 1970s and 80s, gathering stories and poems from East Berlin and West Berlin. An inside look at a place of high art and high tension. A new chapter in publishing direct works has opened with TimeWell, an online litmag that mixes up contemporaries with classics. Subscribe at www.timewellsp.net, or submit stories or poems.… (more) |
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) No current Talk conversations about this book. » Add other authors Author name | Role | Type of author | Work? | Status | Newborn, Sasha (editor) | Editor | primary author | all editions | confirmed | Drake, Albert | — | main author | some editions | confirmed | Anderson, Holly | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Berne, Stanley | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Brown, James | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Bukowski, Charles | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Clifton, Merritt | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Cook, Geoffrey | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Cuelho, Art | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Currey, Richard | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Dailey, David G. (Riverat) | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Dawson, Fielding | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Fox, Hugh | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Grayson, Richard | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Kostelanetz, Richard | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Livingston, Gary | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Mackay, P.D. | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Middendorf, Ingeborg | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Myers, George Jr. | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Ossman, David | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Peabody, Richard Jr. | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Prado, Holly | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Sklar, Morty | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed | Wicklund, Millie Mae | — | secondary author | all editions | confirmed |
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Dedicated to those who dare to be vulnerable | |
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Listen, you haven’t been paying attention, We’ve been writing right at you for years, I brought these writers together so that you can see the difference, academic prose is dead, most magazine lit is phony and I’ll tell you why, and what we’re doing about it. You won’t see right away but by the time you finish this book, you won’t settle for the crap being packaged as literature, I mean, some books are commissioned! I’m talking about the change that some of us have been making in our writing that even we didn’t notice until after our so-called experimental stories were published side by side with the best of the constructed stories. I believe in mythologies of writing, and I think we just outlived one—which is exactly why the older stories seem constructed to us. The new wave of writing that I’m talking about—face-out writing—hasn’t been analyzed and criticized to death because our audience, the people who’ve listened, don’t think that way, we/they don’t read Bukowski or Grayson or Hugh Fox for elegance of structure or three-dimensional characters or plot. | |
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I had forgotten where my room was, which floor it was on. All I wanted, finally, was to get back to my room. I tried all the doors again, this time silently, very conscious of my shorts and stockings. No luck. “The greatest men are the most alone.” (Charles Bukowski) | |
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I looked around the kitchen. Everything could be cleaned tomorrow. No use getting frantic now. I got another bottle. My head still wandered with Gloria and Friday night. Friday night. I climbed out the window. I was tired but it was a contented tiredness, and I could have slept but I wanted to stay up and take advantage of the good feelings. (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.) | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in EnglishNone ▾Book descriptions First Person Intense is a collection of first-person writing in a variety of styles - although "style" may be the wrong word for the integrity of the writing. First person writing means that someone is speaking directly to you, not crafting a story for your entertainment. And that's the power of first-person "intense," a face-out manner of writing that abandons much of the traditional structure of fiction (the arc of the narrative, omniscient viewpoint, dialogue, character development, denouement, beginning, middle, and end) and nonfiction (which often seems to be written by nobody or a committee, carefully refraining from bias or personal opinion). This anthology was originally published in 1978, and was popular with creative writing classes as well as the general market, as a study in writing with honesty, authentic voices speaking without the mask of characterization. This second printing retains most of the original pieces, including a Vietnam vet's powerful stories, a voyage across America in search of meaning, a prison letter, an excerpt from an as yet unpublished Charles Bukowski novel (by permission of the publisher), the admission by Fielding Dawson of first ambitions to be a writer (a young man wishing to be complicated). A few additions include a schizophrenic, a Peace Corps teacher, a story from junior high. None of these are perfect - perfection is not sought in real first-person writing - but all give plenty of taste of personality, vulnerability, openness. If you like, you can call this a "school of writing." First Person Intense was originally assigned an ISBN number by Mudborn Press. After the dissolution of that partnership in 1981, one of the partners, Sasha Newborn, established a new publishing operation, Bandanna Books. Although the original ISBN number is retained for the reprint of FPI, this book is now available only from Bandanna Books. A publication akin in spirit to FPI is Berlin (www.createspace.com/4329110), a bilingual anthology, guest edited by Mitch Cohen, who lived in the divided city of Berlin in the 1970s and 80s, gathering stories and poems from East Berlin and West Berlin. An inside look at a place of high art and high tension. A new chapter in publishing direct works has opened with TimeWell, an online litmag that mixes up contemporaries with classics. Subscribe at www.timewellsp.net, or submit stories or poems. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description |
FPI was published simultaneously as issues #7 and #8 of Rockbottom Magazine, and as First Person Intense (book). The entries of Fielding Dawson and Charles Bukowski are used by permission of Black Sparrow Press; the Bukowski entry in the original printing predates BSP publication by a few months. | |
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