John Lane's blog

In 1984 a short story of mine called "Before the Chicken's Fried" won a South Carolina Fiction Project prize. Recently it was chosen by C. Michael Curtis for inclusion in Expecting Goodness: The Essential Fiction of Spartanburg, just out from Hub City Writers Project in time for Christmas.

My biggest literary news of late is that Mercer University Press has accepted ABANDONED QUARRY: NEW & SELECTED POEMS to be published in spring/summer 2011. This collection will pull back into print all of my previous poetry collections (AS THE WORLD AROUND US SLEEPS, AGAINST INFORMATION, DEAD FATHER POEMS, etc.) plus add about 20 new poems. 

THE HUB CITY WRITERS PROJECT has just published STARS FELL ON SPARTANBURG and it contains a poem of mine called "Outlaw Presences" (about seeing the car Bonnie & Clyde were shot in). The book also contains a short memoir piece of mine about seeing Hank Williams Jr. at the local legendary honky tonk The Walnut Grove Opera House back in the 1970s.

Check out the newest issue of WOFFORD TODAY, the college's magazine for a poem I wrote many years ago. Read the article that goes along with it for the context. The poem's called "Stubborn" and it's the story of one of my ancesters who died in the Civil War:

Recently several new interviews with me have appeared on-line:

 If you're interested in my book CIRLCING HOME you'll enjoy the interview that's now up for download from New Dimensions Radio: "Practice of Settlement, Finding a Place." (http://www.newdimensions.org/program.php?id=3254 ) The hour-long piece was recorded last April in California and ran the week of October 1st, 2008, on 600 radio stations (mostly public) world-wide. Legendary interviewer Michael Toms is the host. Over the past 20 years he's interviewed thousands of authors including several early important Joseph Campbell pieces and even the Dalai Lama! Here's Tom's description of the program:

Several new anthologies including work of mine in both poetry and prose have arrived in my mail box recently. I thought I'd highlight them here in case anyone wants to check them out:

 John Lane standing with his 1200 pounds of paper bound for Texas!

This morning I've been thinking about how last May my literary archives went to Texas. All my papers (letters to and from me, journals, notebooks, drafts and fragment of work both published and unpublished, contracts, bank statements, phone bills, you name it) had lived with me for over 30 years, and it was sad to see them all go, though Betsy was excited to have the boxes out of the basement.

This week The Hub City Writers Project published The Best of the Kudzu Telegraph, a selection of 48 of the 150 columns that have appeared so far in The Community Journals. Monday night we had a reading at The Show Room here in Spartanburg and 100 people came out and bought 38 books. Many thanks for all who showed up and added support! It meant a great deal to me. The book is available on-line (Hub City website & Amazon.com) and at selected stores around Spartanburg. Get a copy if you have a chance.