Susan Petrone is a fiction writer, playwright, and freelance writer and editor. Her fiction has been published by Glimmer Train, Featherproof Books, Muse, and Whiskey Island. Her plays have had performances and/or readings at the Cleveland Playhouse, The Lamb's Club (New York, New York), St. Johns College (Annapolis, Maryland), and several smaller non-Equity houses in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, she is a regular feature contributor to Cool Cleveland. She holds a master's degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Cleveland State University and lives with one husband, one daughter, and three dogs in Cleveland, Ohio.

Other hobbies that may be of nominal interest:

June 4, 2008

New article

I have the lead article in this week's issue of Cool Cleveland. It's an interview with Cathy Boyle, the Director of Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, which is a regional arts and culture district funded by revenue from a tax on cigarettes. It's a controversial tax to some, even though it was passed by the voters. Read more about it HERE

 

May 6, 2008

What happened to the oral tradition?

I did a reading last night with my friend and fellow fiction writer, Toni Thayer. We read at Heights Arts (Cleveland Heights, OH) as part of Dobama Theatre's First Mondays series, which usually features play readings and occasionally poetry readings. We were the first fiction writers to be featured. There were only about 15 people, but they were incredibly attentive and receptive. We each did a short question and answer after each story and people actually asked questions. All in all, it was a good evening. I only knew a couple of people in the audience, so it's always nice to have your work be introduced to new people.
 
I've gone to a number of readings in the past few months as an audience member. Most recently, I went to a reading/book signing with Mary Doria Russell at The Lit in Cleveland. Now this is a woman who's published four novels that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. She's been nominated for a Pulitzer Prizer. And I think there were about as many people at her reading as there were at mine. Why is it that you can get a ton of people for a play reading or a poetry reading but only a handful for a fiction reading? Is it because we think of fiction as a solitary occupation? I admire poets' economy of language, but personally I'd rather hear fiction read than poetry. I think that's because I "get" fiction in a way that I don't "get" poetry.
 
I wish I had some amusing anecdote to share about the reading, but I don't. I guess that's probably best, since amusing anecdotes frequently involve personal humiliation, and personal humiliation is kind of a drag, you know?
 
Enough listening to me whine and babble. I'd much prefer if you went HERE and read some of my work. If you like it (or if you don't), feel free to drop me an email.
 


April 13, 2008

Easy suggestions to help new authors and save literature at the same time

The more I look at the publishing world, the more I realize what a closed world it is. The mid-list hardly exists anymore, and unless you're one of the handful of huge names, you don't have a publishing contract and have to hope and pray each time you write a book that your agent can sell it (if you even have an agent).

There seems to be this resistance on the part of much of the book-buying public to move beyond the big names published by the major publishing houses. I wonder if part of the problem is that there isn't really a proving ground for young/new authors like there is for young bands (bars/festivals) or new filmmakers (film festivals). People rarely go to readings, you don't hear new literature read when you're waiting in the dentist office (and while they might have Rolling Stone or Entertainment Weekly, they don't have Glimmer Train or Tin House other lit journals). There isn't the public forum for writers to test the waters, see if they're any good, and polish their craft. And in most cities, there really isn't a culture of going to readings or of reading new voices in literature unless they've been recommended by the NY Times Book Review.

Herewith, a few suggestions you can do to help rectify the situation: