Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Making Sense of Detroit

On-line I stumbled into an excellent essay, "Making Sense of Detroit," by David M. Sheridan which originally appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review in the summer of 1999. The essay, despite a smidgen of academic jargon, gives a feel for that beaten-down town, and among other things references and quotes from an essay of mine, which happens to be one of the stronger pieces I've written. Sheridan's essay is worth checking out, and can be found here:
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?cc=mqr;c=mqr;c=mqrarchive;idno=act2080.0038.301;rgn=main;view=text;xc=1;g=mqrg

In the summer of 1999 I was living in a Cass Corridor apartment building that'd been half-gutted by a fire the previous February. I was working a decent-paying job along Detroit's riverfront, but simultaneously making plans with other underground writers which were to result in the infamous decade of experience of the Underground Literary Alliance. One could say that as a writer I've bounced around.

The essay of mine Sheridan quotes from isn't available on-line. As he suggests, it's quite impressionistic, with my view of the city then perhaps mediated by alcohol and other things. I led a wild and tough lifestyle in the 90's. But what I wrote was also completely true. Possibly some of that same style of tough impressionism has made it in to my new e-novel, THE TOWER, now available for a Detroit-style price at Nook or Kindle. If you like the excerpts of my Detroit essay, you might consider purchasing my ebook. You'll find more unflinching and truthful writing noplace.

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