What's New in my Zoo

I know, I know...it's been almost a week since I've posted. But I've been working on a variety of projects, about which I'm pretty excited. Let's work backwards in time, shall we? Let's, indeed.

Yesterday, I finished a proposal for City Sages: Pittsburgh. All in the preliminary stages, mind you, but I put together a list of significant historical and contemporary writers, who have helped to define or are currently working to shape Pittsburgh's literary identity. It will be part of a series, published by Baltimore's City Lit Project, an organization headed by Gregg Wilhelm. Jen Michalski edited the first volume, devoted to Baltimore, and initially suggested the project's potential for Pittsburgh, which has a surprisingly rich and diverse literary legacy, even as a mosquito-infested frontier town. And while there are so many Pittsburgh poets I admire, who are making the city a literary hub, the focus will likely be on prose writers this time because of the shape of the series' inaugural volume. However, an entire volume about Pittsburgh poets is truly needed.

Now, backwards towards Friday. I finished my monthly 8-reference title LJ Review Column (<--if you click, you must scroll to the bottom to see my stuff). And on Thurday night, I completed a review of Helene Aylon's examination of the Torah, now on view at the Warhol Museum, for The Arty Semite. I undertook a fairly intense education in order to interpret the details because, when I did go to church as a child, it was to my Grandparents' Lutheran congregation (and later, in college, I attended several Episocpalian services with a boy I was dating...yet, a great deal of what i know about the Bible has come not from a pastor, but from Renaissance and Baroque art history courses. Perhaps this is something to be ashamed of, but I have a slightly different view of religion that likely aligns more with Emily Dickinson's conception than any traditional perscription. But this is another matter, somewhat private and much more complex. Not blog material, really.)

Anyway, I've got some other writing projects brewing, but we'll get to that soon. Very soon. In the meantime, check out a fascinating interview Helene Aylon conducted with legendary gallerist and champion of Abstract Expressionism, Betty Parsons, in 1977.