Tag: The Temple of Air

The Greatest Show ~ A National Short Story Month Recommendation

Did you know that May is National Short Story Month? Did you? Well, it is. And despite what publishers say about these things, there are many, many readers of the short story out there, and many, many fine writers and collections of short stories. Lately, a number of short story collections have gotten the recognition […]

On Politeness (and its Absence) In A Writing Life

Years ago, when I was a recent graduate from the MFA program in Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago, I sent my newly minted thesis out to a small (but not tiny) press. I’d met the managing editor at a conference, and shared a nice conversation with him about books, writers, and the nightlife of […]

The Week that Was

A quick glimpse back at the week just passed:    MONDAY Work.   TUESDAY Interview by Alison Cuddy on Chicago’s NPR station WBEZ for the morning news and culture show 848. Tuesday Funk at Hopleaf, with fellow readers Emile Ferris, John Klima, Hanna Martine, Jody Lynn Nye, and Bill Shunn.   WEDNESDAY Work.   THURSDAY […]

Reading at The Stag, Hampstead, London ~ Thanks to Daunt Books

Philip Hartigan, my trusty photographer, uploaded this album of pictures from my reading at The Stag, a literary pub in Hampstead, north London, on Wednesday evening. Great event, great hosts (yay! Daunt Books Hampstead!), great fellow writers, great audience. Click on the picture below to open the album. Patricia Ann McNair, The Stag, London, 11/9/11

On Being a Colum Alum

Today starts Columbia College Chicago’s Alumni Weekend, and I am delighted to be part of the event. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 24, artist and adjunct faculty member Philip Hartigan and I will be teaching a workshop (Story and Sketchbook) based on a class we teach in the Fiction Writing Department, Journal and Sketchbook. But that’s not what […]

The Pointer Sisters and Me ~ I’m So Excited!

Today is the day! Tonight I will read from THE TEMPLE OF AIR in front of friends and family and perhaps–if I am lucky–some new acquaintances who enjoy listening to writers read their own work. I am very, very excited about this event to be held in this lovely place, Women and Children First Bookstore in the Andersonville neighborhood […]

On the Shelf with THE HELP

  It would be hard to express how very exciting it is to see my book, THE TEMPLE OF AIR, in the window of Women and Children First in Chicago– a bookstore I have admired and supported for many, many years. And look, it is right next to the New York Times Best Seller THE HELP. What […]

The Whacky World Wide Web and A Book’s Launch

So a little less than one day in advance of the book launch of your debut story collection, you find yourself trolling the internet, Googling yourself (!) and the book’s title. This is how you discover that the interview you did with that gentleman from the news service that includes 500 small papers is out, […]

On Loneliness, Friends, Tweets, Circles, and THE BOOK

I heard on NPR the other day that you can buy yourself followers on Twitter. True story. There is speculation that some of our “popular” politicians are doing just that. Stuffing the ballot box, in a way. And you know, I’d be lying if I said I don’t look at the following/followers numbers when I […]