The Less United States of Kudera: Search results for fight for your long day

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

URL links for Fight for Your Long Day

In theory, a book isn't alive unless it's snuggled comfortably in the reading bin in the bathroom at Oprah's or any sitting President's, so to speak, but here is an imperfect list of URL links to news or mouthings about Fight for Your Long Day:

http://chronicle.com/article/Considering-Adjunct-Misery/138085/?cid=vem

https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/journal/2022/1/10/fight-for-your-long-loud-laughs

Fight For Your Long Day, by Alex Kudera (review) – W.D. Clarke’s Blog

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-domino/working-poor-professor_b_4994393.html

http://articles.philly.com/2011-01-30/business/27091272_1_adjunct-college-teaching-college-students

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2011/JF/br/br3.htm

http://southeastreview.org/2011/01/review-fight-for-your-long-day.html

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/09/21/kudera

http://chronicle.com/article/Novel-Academic-Novels/127748/

http://contemporaryhorizon.blogspot.com/2010/12/american-perspectivesperspective.html

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/17/article/892931

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/dec_10.htm#Fiction (no separate page possible, not much here)

http://www.neworldreview.com/vol_5No_36/kudera.php

with reprint at American Studies, Kansas:

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/book-reviews/82789100/fight-your-long-day

and Adjunct Justice tumblr:

http://adjunctjustice.tumblr.com/post/41900677804/book-review-of-alex-kuderas-fight-for-your-long-day

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/radical_teacher/v093/93.gaboury.html

with reprint at Chicago COCAL:

http://www.chicagococal.org/downloads/Radical-Teacher-review-of-FFYLD.pdf

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Book Reviews for Fight for Your Long Day

W.D. Clarke's Blog

"Fight for Your Long Day, by Alex Kudera" by W.D. Clarke (January 13, 2025)

Genealogies of Modernity

"Fight for Your Long Loud Laughs" by Jeffrey Wald at Genealogies of Modernity (January 2022)

The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Considering Adjunct Misery" by William Pannapacker at The Chronicle of Higher Education (March 25, 2013)

American Book Review

"Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera" by Peter Faziani at American Book Review (Winter 2022)

Neworld Review
“The Scholar/Pauper Fights the Good Fight” by Joseph A. Domino at Neworld Review (January 2013)

Philadelphia Inquirer
“Should College Teaching Be a Full-Time Job?” by Joseph N. DiStefano for the Philadelphia Inquirer (January 30, 2011)

The Southeast Review
“Review: Fight For Your Long Day” by Charles Dodd White, The Southeast Review (January 7, 2011)

E. Patrick's Blog
"Book Review: Fight for Your Long Day" by Eric Gilliland at E. Patrick's Blog (April 17, 2014)

Caustic Cover Critic
“Rummaging Around in the Atticus” at Caustic Cover Critic (April 11, 2012)

When Falls The Coliseum
“Book to ponder: Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera” by Michael Leone at When Falls the Coliseum (Jan. 8, 2012)

Small Press Reviews
“Fight for Your Long Day” by Marc Schuster at Small Press Reviews (June 10, 2011)

Inside Higher Ed
“An Adjunct’s Novel” by Scott Jaschik at Inside Higher Ed (September 21, 2010)

This Blog Will Change Your Life
“This Book Will Change Your Life—Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera” by Ben Tanzer at This Blog Will Change Your Life (February 13, 2011)

Contemporary Literary Horizon
"A Debut Novel: Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera” by Don Riggs at Contemporary Literary Horizon (December 23, 2010)

Academe
“A Novel Departure” by Isaac Sweeney, Academe Magazine (January-February 2011)

Michael James Rizza's Gleanings in Literature: a Blog
Alex Kudera's Fight for Your Long Day by Michael James Rizza (July 26, 2013)

Karen the Small Press Librarian
“Guest Review: Alex Kudera reviewed by Joel Thomas” by Joel Thomas at Karen the Small Press Librarian (March 14, 2011)

Author Exposure
“Book Review: Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera” by Shawn Edwards at Author Exposure (March 14, 2011)

Midwest Book Review
“Fiction Shelf: Fight for Your Long Day” by Small Press Bookwatch, Midwest Book Review (December 2010)

Shelfari
“Fight for Your Long Day – A Novel” by Fran Lewis at Shelfari (November 16, 2010)

Steve Himmer
“Fight for Your Long Day” by Steve Himmer on his blog (October 9, 2010)

Freedom from Things
“Book Review: Fight for Your Long Day by Alex Kudera” by Nick Mazzuca at Freedom from Things (December 25, 2010)

Lumpen Professoriat
“Fight for Your Long Day” by LumpenProf at LumpenProfessoriat (September 21, 2010)

Radical Teacher
“Fight for Your Long Day” by Jennifer Gaboury at Radical Teacher (Spring, 2012)

Foreward Magazine
“Fight for Your Long Day” in ForeWord Magazine

You're a Real Live Animal That Lives in My House
“Fight for Your Long Day” at You’re a Real Live Animal That Lives in my House Blog (March 22, 2012)

The New Dork Review of Books
“Fight for Your Long Day: Adjunct Hell” by Greg Zimmerman at The New Dork Review of Books (August 1, 2011)

The Next Best Book Blog
“Review: Fight for Your Long Day” by Lori Hettler at TNBBC’s The Next Best Book Blog (July 23, 2011)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Videos, Voice, Excerpts, and Graphic Novel Interpretations for FFYLD

Nathan Holic's graphic-novel interpretation at Atticus Review:

http://atticusreview.org/a-comic-adaptation-of-fight-for-your-long-day-episode-1/

http://atticusreview.org/fight-for-your-long-day-a-comic-adaptation-episode-2/

http://atticusreview.org/fight-for-your-long-day-a-comic-adaptation-episode-3/

http://atticusreview.org/fight-for-your-long-day-a-comic-series-adaptation/

http://atticusreview.org/still-fighting-for-your-long-ass-day/

Radio:

http://nhpr.org/post/fight-your-long-day

Videos:

http://writing.upenn.edu/wh/multimedia/tv/reruns/watch/108019

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fah_s1XHswo

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/42577902 (first speaker's paper partly concerns FFYLD; I start speaking around minute 48 minute, but the middle paper is a penetrating look at how adjunct concerns intersect with Jesuit college mission statements)

Excerpts:

http://atticusbooksonline.com/blog/2011/05/16/fight-for-your-ippy-gold/

http://atticusbooksonline.com/books/2010-releases/fight-for-your-long-day/excerpt/

Friday, March 18, 2011

more reviews

It was a good week for reviews of Fight for Your Long Day from people I don't know. I think this solid one from Author's Exposure makes some valid points about the (mostly) pros and cons. I understand the lack of "logic" he speaks of, and yet, possibly there is some literary misfiring, so to speak, at play in the ending that is.

And then, Aaron at goodreads gave it 3 stars but called it a 3.5 star book. I noticed that he's stingier with the stars than I am, and he even has some 2-star ratings for books seen as respectable to great by just about everyone (Richard Ford's The Sportswriter, for example, although admittedly that's no Independence Day).

And finally, I got the 1-star special from a "reader" who stops on page 75, calls the author "racist," "classist," and then proves doctoral credentials by using the word "problematic" and the phrase "socially structured privilege and oppression." Well, "I'm returning this," why yes, as a matter fact, I am about to enjoy some scrumptious, finger-licking fried chicken on my subway ride back to work. And truth be told, one star is on the mark here, as it was the fried chicken fumes and advertisements all over Seoul, South Korea, where I was writing the first draft, that no doubt led to this inclusion in a Philadelphia story. Anyone with eyes or nose or stomach can clearly see that in a perfectly polished final draft, the fried chicken would of course be chicken cheesesteaks and the kisses Cyrus then procures from the bottom of his satchel in fact would be frayed remnants of salty soft pretzel marooned at the bottom of the bag. Everyday, I know more and more why some "real novelists" never read customer reviews or return to their books that are already in print.

Well, if you're out there "I'm returning this," to be fair, I could reimburse you personally if the book has been such a burden. Alas, as you know or surmise, I can't offer you fair compensation for the contract labor you are about to embark upon, but I could send you up to $14.95. This would not be a problem although I'd prefer you give Fight for Your Long Day a few more hours of your precious time. It is a novel worth reflecting upon, or at least that's what the vast majority of reviewers seem to indicate. The Robert Watts review on amazon could be a good place to start.

And years from now, one star, when we are both safely ensconced among the forgotten millions, and with time on our hands, we can sit down and break biscuits and grumble about white meat, wings, legs, and thighs, and all else beyond the plate.

Peace.

And good luck.

And, well, fight for your long day!

Sunday, March 27, 2011

yes, lawrence, i know i shoot myself in the foot. . .

Yes, Lawrence, I wish I could book readings in all of the hip independent bookstores all over the country, and it does seem like the natural alliance could or should be between indy publishers and indy stores. And sure, why we're at it, I could or should also wish I were you, Mr. Ferlinghetti, and I guess the lone drawback here is that you're quite a bit older than me, and so perhaps destined to leave this life sooner. Of couse, one could easily twist that into a positive as well.

But my limited experience as a "published author," so far, has shown me that the Indy bookstores in cities don't have a lot of space for a small-press title like Fight for Your Long Day. The shops are small, and they have to stock a lot of mainstream, established stuff they know they can sell, and then they already have their allegiances in place and must help their loyal local author friends and customers, too. And of course, there are just too many millions of books to choose from, so I'm incredibly naive to think any store would put a big stack of my novel near the front door.

In one indy in Philly, I thought I was doing a favor by signing the single copy of my novel in the store, and then I thought I was having a great, engaging conversation with the clerk that would lead to an Ingram order of all Atticus titles in print, at least a single copy of each. But when I returned a few hours later, I was told that they would not be able to commit to such an order or to anything more for my Philly novel. I was disappointed, and even felt some regret that I had signed the copy they had (I know that sounds bad, but it's true). Of course, later in the visit, at another independent, the friendly store owner didn't want me to sign the single copy in case it had to be returned.

Meanwhile, one franchise in Philly that is part of a smaller chain has displayed and already sold 23 copies of Fight for Your Long Day, and in general, the chains are ordering multiple copies--from 5 to 36--and moving them. And they had space for me to sign and read and discuss, and, well, I felt welcome at Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and Faber, and I'm very grateful for everything they did for me last week.

Also, how antichain could I possibly be when just after college I worked at a Borders as a seasonal temp. It was the only job I could get in a bad economy years ago, and I then even managed a seasonal remainders-only store a couple years after that. It was part of a smaller chain, National Book Warehouse I believe, and that $8.50 per hour manager's job existed temporarily due to recession (dollar books moved well that holiday season), and it's a sad week because the Borders I worked in is closing and a friend who stayed on there and helped sell books for 20 years could be out of work and of course, the focus there has been on reducing inventory so the store I worked in has never carried my book and never will. In fact, the store will become just another empty husk in another American downtown until another chain, with another kind of product, is crazy enough to try to operate at a profit despite the gigantic overhead, city taxes, etc.

Indy bookstores, and independent brick and mortar stores and restaurants in general, are wonderful, and I wish I could afford to patronize them regularly. Regardless, my saying or not saying this has not helped me gain much shelf space in these stores. I'd love for that to change.

Fight for Your Long Day, Lawrence Ferlinghetti!

Friday, March 17, 2017

College English Association in Hilton Head, South Carolina

COFFEE ON THE COMMONS Contingent Faculty Caucus │ Bayleaf │Saturday, April 1, 9:15-10:45 a.m.

On Writing The Original Adjunct Novel:

A Discussion of Contingent Faculty Issues with Alex Kudera

Alex Kudera's Fight For Your Long Day (Atticus Books) was drafted in a walk-in closet during a summer in Seoul, South Korea and subsequently won the 2011 IPPY Gold Medal for Best Fiction from the Mid-Atlantic Region. It is an academic tragicomedy told from the perspective of an adjunct instructor, and reviews and interviews can be found online at The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Psychology Today, Inside Higher Ed, Academe, The Southeast Review, and other locations. His second novel, Auggie's Revenge (Beating Windward Press), and a Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day (Hard Ball Press) were published in 2016. Kudera's other publications include the e-singles Frade Killed Ellen (Dutch Kills Press), The Betrayal of Times of Peace and Prosperity (Gone Dog Press), and Turquoise Truck (Mendicant Bookworks). Alex has taught college writing and literature classes since 1996, and he currently teaches at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

“Because, yes, if he can reach Frank before he disappears, if he can hang on and finish up the shift the right way, if he can wake up tomorrow, not hit the snooze button, make the coffee, hop in the shower, remember to shave, get off his ass in a timely fashion, he’ll have the chance again, yes, on a shorter day even, to teach his classes all over again. Yes, all over town in an encore performance, Adjunct Duffleman rises to the occasion in the age of terror, a lone soldier of the subway, bus, and elevated line and a failure of many in God knows how many ways. And yet from the bottom of his heart, he wants to believe that the outcome remains possible that for some student from his past, or perhaps one on the way, Cyrus Duffleman, educator, could make the difference. Yes, if he could reach Frank now.”

~~ from Fight for Your Long Day

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

spoken words

This is the first audio book review of Fight for Your Long Day, courtesy of Author Exposure; the reviewer used CinchCast to deliver the spoken goods. Meanwhile, the first European reviewer, with my encouragement, posted on amazon.fr and amazon.de and responded quite favorably.

Last night, the novel got trashed on American amazon by someone who reduced the whole effort to "Bush bashing"; I found this "review" particularly questionable because there is so much satire in the novel of people and ideas that one would associate with opposing our last Bush and his views and actions (such as unions, academics, "guilty liberals," urban mayors, universities, therapists, Afrocentrists, etc.). An irony here is that at least a couple favorable reviews suggested there should have been more directed and consistent "Bush bashing," which I suppose, is just another reason it's all hopeless.

But right after finding that negative review, no doubt lurking late at night to make me feel the full misery of an exhausted sleeplessness, I then chanced upon John McNally's "advice from an unrepentant novelist" on how to treat negative reviews on amazon. Perfect timing, John; thanks! In a nutshell, he advises not to reply to reviews at all, but to encourage more friends who enjoyed the book to post positive reviews so that casual amazon browsers will see many more positive than negative reviews. His idea seems based upon the good sense that, alas, many of us, even when we are looking for something that will take some time to read, will quickly move on if we don't like the very first thing we see.

OK, following McNally's advice, friends (and why not throw in "and fellow countrymen"), if you're reading, and I haven't recently bugged you about some sales shit you could do to support my novel, not yours, please do take a moment to give Fight for Your Long Day that extra star on amazon. Or goodreads. Or shelfari. Or that groovy library thing you do. Or.

Good. Accomplished, John. Thanks for the tip. Me enjoying your self-help for novelists, as impossible as you know that sounds, and in particular the section where I read that you were at one time an adjunct even more unfavorably employed and poorly paid than Cyrus Duffleman. Well, "enjoy" isn't the right word. And I didn't enjoy the part where you tell us that despite the largely rotten deal you've gotten from life from undergrad to age 35, you still have six published books. You're supposed to be encouraging us, not making us feel like lazy incompentents who have wasted too much of our time on public-speaking and freshman-comp course overloads!

But back to spoken news, word on the street is that an audio book of Fight for Your Long Day is at least agreed to in principle by all who might agree to such.

So I guess that's it. We won't make you read ever again.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

blurbs added, sales stalled

More blurbs were added to the amazon link for Fight for Your Long Day, but once more, after the great Chronicle of Higher Ed rush of early June, 2011, sales seem to have stalled. So, yes, please don't rush out to buy a second copy (or a fifth, Mom), but if you're currently sans Duffler and looking to make this Daddy happy, don't be afraid to Indy-up or point and click in some other soft Cyrus place (in fact, there's free shipping direct from the Atticus Books online store).

''[A]n expose of academia and the labor that sustains it, the kind of novel one learns from and rallies behind. Eyebrow-raising and wry, Kudera's take on the ivory tower certainly makes it look less pearly white.'' -- ForeWord Reviews

''Cyrus Duffleman and Fight for Your Long Day cast light on [the] situation in which many contingent faculty members find themselves ... I hope the novel is popular enough to make a big change; it has already changed me.'' -- Isaac Sweeney, Academe

''[I]t is not unfair to call Fight For Your Long Day a protest novel, in much the same category of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. And like Sinclair's book, it sounds a note of genuine disgust at economic injustices ... Kudera is an extremely talented and driven novelist. The authenticity of the experience he writes about burns through on each page. The story of Duffleman and his many similarly suffering peers in the real academic world is a plight long overlooked finally getting its deserved attention.'' ---- The Southeast Review

Product Description

2011 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Award - Gold for Best Regional Fiction (Mid-Atlantic)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Duffleman Does Academe

And so begins Isaac Sweeney, writing for Academe, the journal of the AAUP, in his review of Fight for Your Long Day:

"I laughed at parts of Fight for Your Long Day, a new novel by Alex Kudera. At other parts of the novel, I felt inspired. But most of all, Fight for Your Long Day made me sad. Part of my sadness came because Kudera writes elegantly and has created an insightful, tragic, sometimes comic protagonist (I dare not call him a hero) named Cyrus Duffleman, whom the narrator calls “Duffy.” He reminds me of Hamlet—a bit of an introverted whiner, but the kind you love to hear whine. I’m sad when Duffleman is sad. I’m even sadder when he has bits of hope, like when there’s the prospect of an affair with an attractive student, because I know it won’t work out for him. As with any other effective tragic character, there’s something satisfying in watching his tragedy unfold."

Thanks, Isaac.

Cyrus Duffleman is a fictional character. The real tragedies in America concern people like Isaac Sweeney--good teachers and hard workers who risk the worst consequences if they try to defend themselves.

Follow this link for the full review: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2011/JF/br/br3.htm

And check out Isaac's short fiction here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/35484

or here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36908

Friday, June 10, 2016

Interview for Auggie's Revenge and the Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day

Interview for Auggie's Revenge and the Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day: https://t.co/mGd3xjmSf2 #academic #novel #adjunct #awp
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) May 26, 2016

Part II of interview for Auggie's Revenge and the Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day: https://t.co/sC1ImXySJt #adjunct #fiction
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) June 1, 2016

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Interviews (Answer and Ask)

Answer:

American, British and Canadian Studies Journal
"An Interview with Alex Kudera, Author of Fight for Your Long Day" by Merritt Moseley (June, 2016)

Chronicle Vitae
"The Novelist Who Chronicles Life as an Adjunct" by William Pannapacker (January 8, 2014)

Word of Mouth (New Hampshire Public Radio)
"Fight for Your Long Day" by Rebecca Lavoie (April 4, 2013)

Foreward Reviews
“One of a Kind: A ForeWord Interview with Alex Kudera” Atticus Books Online (May-June 2011)

The Next Best Book Blog
"In Conversation: Lavinia Ludlow Interviews Alex Kudera" by Lavinia Ludlow (April 26, 2016)

This Podcast Will Change Your Life
"This Podcast Will Change Your Life is the Alex Kudera" by Ben Tanzer (August 17, 2016)

Psychology Today
“Darkly Funny Debut Novel Exposes Adjunct Abuse” by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D., Creating in Flow (January 7, 2012)

Karen the Small Press Librarian
"Writer on Writer: Dave Newman Interviews Alex Kudera" by Dave Newman (September 8, 2013)

Clemson University
“English lecturer’s book explores the plight of the adjunct professor” by Angela Nixon, Clemson University media relations (October 11, 2011)

The Chronicle of Higher Education
“An Award-Winning Author on Adjuncts” by Isaac Sweeney, The Chronicle of Higher Education (June 1, 2011)

When Falls the Coliseum
“The Life of an Adjunct: An Interview with Novelist Alex Kudera” by Robert Anthony Watts, When Falls the Coliseum (November 1, 2010)

We Who Are About to Die
“We who are about to breed: Alex Kudera” by Patrick Wensink, We Who Are About to Die (September 27, 2011)

Smarts and Culture
“How One Author Finds an Audience: Part 1″ by Maryann Devine, smArts and Culture (October 27, 2010)

“How One Author Finds an Audience: Part 2″ by Maryann Devine, smArts and Culture (October 26, 2010)

Atticus Books
“Interview with Alex Kudera, Part 2 of 2′” by Dan Cafaro at Atticus Books Online (August 2, 2010)

“Interview with the Author of ‘Fight for Your Long Day, Part 1′” by Dan Cafaro at Atticus Books Online (July 22, 2010)

The New Dork Review of Books
“The Blogger/Novelist Relationship, with Alex Kudera (Part 2)” by Greg Zimmerman, The New Dork Review of Books (August 8, 2011)

“The Blogger/Novelist Relationship, with Alex Kudera (Part 1)” by Greg Zimmerman, The New Dork Review of Books (August 4, 2011)

And Ask:

"Chinese Gucci: The Interview": Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, The Less United States of Kudera,
May 12, 15, 19 and 22, 2020

"An Interview with Rebecca Schuman" When Falls the Coliseum, April 13, 2017

"Bay Area Blues: An Interview with Lavinia Ludlow" JMWW, February 29, 2016

"Writer on Writer: Part Two, Alex Kudera Interviews Dave Newman" Karen the Small Press Librarian, September 16, 2013

"An Interview With Nancy Peacock" plus Part 2, and Part 3, The Less United States of Kudera, March 31, 2013 to April 3, 2013

"John Warner on Frederick Exley" When Falls the Coliseum, May 13, 2011

"The Exley Influence: A Riff Between Two Authors 'Falling Inward'" Atticus Books Online, February 25, 2011

"Exley, Clarke, and Eleanor Henderson" When Falls the Coliseum, November 9, 2010

"Interview With Mark SaFranko" When Falls the Coliseum, October 19, 2010

"Interview With Dan Cafaro of Atticus Books" When Falls the Coliseum, August 9, 2010

"An Interview With Lee Konstantinou" When Falls the Coliseum, May 13, 2010

"An Interview With Jean-Philippe Toussaint" When Falls the Coliseum, April 19, 2010

"Returning 'Home': An Interview With Jayne Anne Phillips" The South Carolina Review, Spring 2010 (link to table of contents but not the interview)

"Interview With Olga Gardner Galvin" When Falls the Coliseum, June 22, 2009

"An Interview With Author Dan Fante" When Falls the Coliseum, May 21, 2009

"The Writing Life Starring Iain Levison" The Less United States of Kudera, May 4, 2009

"An Interview With Cassendre Xavier" The Less United States of Kudera, March 15, 2009

"Don Riggs on Writers and Writing" The Less United States of Kudera, March 9, 2009

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

once more. . .

Fight for Your Long Day is again compared to Joyce 's writing:

"In a review of Fight for Your Long Day, William Pannapacker
judges Kudera’s “depiction of the life and psychology of an
adjunct teacher” to be “realistic.” But Pannapacker balks at the
repellent quality of Kudera’s protagonist: 'Fight for Your Long
Day is not without problems. The sexual and digestive
preoccupations of the protagonist seem like distractions from
the larger message of the novel. One could argue that they
relate to Maslow’s hierarchy; in any case, they are revoltingly
described," which "undermines any sympathy the reader might
have for him as a representative of adjuncts.' Perhaps it is the
rare artist who can craft gastrointestinally challenged
characters with high literary merit — James Joyce, Samuel
Beckett, and Monty Python come to mind. Pannapacker
recognizes that Kudera’s novel participates in a significant shift
in the representation of faculty on the contemporary campus,
but he misreads its 'sexual and digestive preoccupations' as
distractions. On the contrary, they are the abject essence of the
novel.

"Duffleman’s musings on and fantasies about bathrooms, bowel
movements, and farts parallel the abject conditions of his
employment as an adjunct who moonlights as a security guard.
His search for a clean public restroom at the close of his
evening security shift at Liberty Tech is, as Pannapacker
complains, a bit of a slog. The nearly 30 pages through which
Duffy carefully considers his routine evening toilet break — its
time, location, and stall — also signal his “overworked adjunct
state” and his equally routine shame that he “hasn’t written
anything beyond email in several years.” Soon the reader, too,
begins to long for relief from his digestive issues. Duffleman’s
lack of gastrointestinal and professional movement reflects
another common quality of the Adjunctroman — neither the
protagonist nor the narrative progresses."

Saturday, December 25, 2010

two new reviews

Here are two new reviews of Fight for Your Long Day. Both writers have experience teaching college-level classes, but they are about 1000 miles away from each other, three decades apart by age, and have led radically different lives thus far. (For example, one knows tenure whereas the other knows Philadelphia.) Here's a quote I found to be highly relevant:

"Indeed, this middling nature reflects Duffy’s life as a whole. He exists purely in the middle, unable to move upward, terrified of sliding down."

OK. Here: http://freedomfromthings.com/post/2458438021/book-review-fight-for-your-long-day-by-alex-kudera

and the more recent "Steve" review at goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8612461-fight-for-your-long-day

And yes, "Muriel" on goodreads is the author's mother, but please don't hold that against her.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

new review of Fight for Your Long Day

Fight for Your Long Day review from the prolific and talented Lavinia Ludlow: http://t.co/3x4kuQO5q4
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) July 15, 2014

Follow these links for complete lists of reviews, interviews, comics, videos, and more.

Please consider supporting small press by purchasing alt.punk or Fight for Your Long Day direct from the publisher.

Friday, February 4, 2022

a penny for your fiction

For the first time since publication, the original trade paperback of Fight for Your Long Day may sell for only a penny plus shipping at you-know-where. Bookshop remains the best way to get a discounted new copy of either Auggie's Revenge or the Classroom Edition of Fight for Your Long Day. Almost all of my short stories can be read for free online.

Friday, July 9, 2010

two cents on three dollars of Hollywood comedy

For the sake of full disclosure–it seems critical that you and Chris Bosh’s 2-week unreality camera crew have public access to my life although it bears no relevance to his impending border crossing pour le saison chaud de menage a trois in sunny Florida:

For the first time in months we rented movies, and I chose from our local shiny, red 1-dollar DVD drop box, the anti-tourist Daniel Kalder’s fav It’s Complicated along with a second choice, Youth In Revolt (being out of the film loop and choosing only by the cover displays no less!).

Yes, DK’s points (see his kind words at http://whenfallsthecoliseum.com/2009/10/28/trailer-review-meryl-streep-and-alec-baldwin-star-in-its-complicated/) are well taken (as well as commenter Sophie’s and I do pity the crew, yes I do, who had to stand around beautiful Santa Barbara and point equipment at Alec Baldwin), and yet long removed from this world of Hollywood comedy, we watched It’s C. first and laughed a lot! It was kind of like cathartic, just what the doctor ordered laughter.

But then again, we don’t have TV, stereo, or much else in a very quiet small town in the summer. There was one early scene where I feared the worst, the 50ish women gathering to nibble and discuss their lives and dismal prospects for love (I very much prefer my own 40ish clandestine nibbling here, alone with pretzels or ice cream or my own questionable choices in literature or chances for all kinds of things).

Youth in Revolt was more intriguing I suppose, and I’ve always been a sucker for pseudo-Indy teen-angst films, and then the topper is a week later, at this point positively addicted to the cinema of Hollywood comedy, I chose Four Christmases.

Four Christmases was okay--no doubt better than what 4 Kwanzas or 4 Channukahs would have been and I can't remember if I saw Four Weddings and a Funeral or not--but I did begin to get a bit burnt out on Hollywood comedies.

If there is a shared message of all three films, it seems to be that love is still possible in an age of plentiful and easy-access divorce and that divorce can be a funny topic too, not some taboo, "oh, that’s so awful, what those poor children or poor mother had to go through," etc. And also, that parents can be superfreaky, strange, and scary people (alas, another comedy we fall into, parenting). Then, I realized that perhaps my favorite comedy, The Daytrippers, has the same themes. And most of Woody Allen as well. And all of situation-comedy TV? I suppose.

Will I succumb once more to the DVD drop box and rent that Demi Moore–Parker Posey interlude with “Tears” in the title? Wouldn’t Chris Bosh’s camera crew like to know? No? Oh. Well, I suppose renting from the drop box is less exhausting than winning the NBA title.

And on a related note, please Phil Jackson (or Doc Rivers or Doug Collins or any other basketball coach who helps Oprah and amazon and borders sell books), when assigning literature to next season's team, consider selecting the film novelization of Fight for Your Long Day. Originally written for screen--as a Philip Seymour Hoffman "plot mule" and product-placement bonanza--this novel of urban angst and travail would make fine reading for any of the national basketball association's high school graduates.

TGIF, keep fighting the good fight, and keep Fight[-ing] for Your Long Day.

Peace.

(And yes, I almost wrote the whole thing without writing the word Lebron.)

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

National Novel Writing Month 2016

In November 2016, I am participating in National Novel Writing Month. Although it's easy to recognize that novels don't get completed in a month, some famous rough drafts were written in a literary sprint. Jack Kerouac's original scroll for the On the Road is said to have been written in less than a month, and Paul Auster's novella-length memoir "Portrait of an Invisible Man" is said to have been written in two to three weeks. It's possibly only rumor that Thomas Pynchon wrote a full draft of The Crying of Lot 49 in a few weeks.

For Fight for Your Long Day I used a period of significantly less than my usual workload combined with less access to the internet to write the full 90,000-word rough draft from late June through early August of 2004. Substantial editing was required before it was contracted in early February 2010 and then published on October 1 that year. Spark Park's 125,000-word rough draft was also written "on a roll," and I wrote many short stories that way years ago. Auggie's Revenge was written on and off from December 2004 through final edits in July 2015 without a sustained period of uninterrupted writing of more than several hours each day.

For #NaNoWriMo2016, I already have 37,000 words (135 double-spaced Word pages) for the sequel to Fight for Your Long Day, and my goal is to create a complete rough draft by November 30 and a good rough draft (something I could show a friend without too much embarrassment) by January 1. According to #NaNoWriMo's website the goal is a 50,000-word novel from November 1 through November 30, so what I am doing is similar, if not exactly the same.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Philadelphia wandering

I flew in on remarkably small planes from GSP to Dulles to Philly and a few hours later, I was visiting my older sister and her family in always sunny University City. After we all ate at an Indian restaurant, I walked back through Penn and Drexel's campuses and saw new buildings and construction all over. The University of Pennsylvania had a whole bunch of new restaurants where I used to frequent the other movie theater as a kid. It was either the Eric III on Campus across from the library on 40th or the GCC on Walnut. But that was so many years ago and now even the Marathon Grill that replaced the Burger King is long gone. It seemed like a happy, healthy, economically stimulated area on an early Saturday evening, far removed from any evidence that American median incomes have slipped by four grand over the past four years or that our median family is worth 77K. It's probably bad form to bring all that up, yeah, I know.

So I walked down Walnut in the colder-than-I-thought-it-would-be weather and popped in to the University of Pennsylvania Bookstore to make sure my same signed paperbacks of Fight for Your Long Day were still on the shelf. Yep, they were. Untouched and unread, so I took them out to check for my signature and then replaced them all save for one which I left open to display, leaning on the paperbacks on a higher state of shelf. Will someone find it and read or at least give it a quick glance? Will a reshelver take this as a clue that it's time for the books to be returned? There appear to be sales in new and used online, but it's a little unclear if the everchanging quantities of new and used available on amazon are genuinely indicative of such.

Who cares, right?

Yeah, so I sauntered over to the magazines and found the latest editions of Boulevard and The Paris Review. Boulevard had an Anis Shivani follow-up, a retort and reply, to the AWP/MFA gangs who've been dissing his disses on the question of whether creative writing can or cannot be taught, or is not or is a form of therapy. And, well, I must confess it is making me feel a little better right now, the writing is therapeutic I should say, but the whole thing seems like some ridiculous binarism than even kids who didn't write their first messages on IBM punch cards can easily debunk, deconstruct, or de-whatever-they-want-to-call-it.

For the average applicant, as talented as she or he may be, the programs themselves seem increasingly impossible to gain admittance to although evidence suggests that in some cases cheating and plagiarism can work for other elite programs. If I remember correctly, George Saunders reported almost 600 applications for 6 spaces at Syracuse, so there seems to be very little reason not to resort to criticizing them as part of one's own quest for readership. If I'm not mistaken, Roberto Bolano did worse than this kind of thing as a young poet in Mexico, and I'd suspect that this is part of how he established his "name" even if he wrote his long novels years later in Spain. The actual writing of the books would be the minor problem, right?

Hah!

But back to rejection and economic doom, Saunders's underlying economic message is that one is most likely to become just another rejected statistic who has lost hundreds of dollars in application fees so that a handful of select writers might indulge in tuition wavers and "generous stipends," all the while dreaming of healthy salaries, quality health benefits, and secure retirements that may prove to be entirely out-of-reach or nonexistent. The finances are most likely to be middling at best either and any way unless the poet is willing to resort to some other art for the sake of turning a buck. But aside from the fact that he is dying, just like the rest of us, and must endure such terminal pleasure in cold, dreary upstate New York, Saunders is doing quite fine.

Me? I played it warmer, if poorer, and stayed in South Carolina when my wife moved to Ohio for her good opportunity. I wanted to live with my daughter full-time this year, but there was no job for me, and I couldn't bring myself to apply for one of three sales positions advertised at Subaru of Dayton or return to begging for adjunct classes while some other "important" writers write the same books over and over again. (I'd love to see more of these capitalist repeaters show some cojones and say something public, and positive or negative, about Fight for Your Long Day. Books are being written on top of women with no benefits teaching six classes, and the higher-ups mostly ignore this situation.)

For the record, in car sales, the opportunities to write are even more fleeting than they are for the adjunct instructors of English comp, but health benefits are generally still available for full-time workers at the dealerships. When I sold Toyotas over 20 months in Philly, I'd drink beer and scribble in a bar late at night, but I never produced anything more than the roughest sketches. I was tired, naye, exhausted, most of the time, and it's as if nothing has really changed over time.

So I put down Boulevard, hoping Shivani is enjoying the fact that he has so many readers for "frenemies" (a term borrowed from this recent Alexander Chee), and although it's the one I'd prefer to be loyal to, and its editor was briefly kind to one of my rejected stories, alas, I'm just another writer with a kid who shouldn't be indulging in any full-retail-price literary journals, and so I felt like I was doing something wrong when I purchased The Paris Review instead, at a corporate-U. B&N no less, by slapping down a plastic amazon card. Its contents included a "novella" by Sam Savage, an interview with both a poet and fiction writer, and news of their $10,000 prize, which although I'll never win, I might enjoy indulging in dreams of such.

So that's it. Then I left the bookstore and walked home, through the mad, overbearing construction at Drexel University, buildings being built on what used to be the cement sidewalk, where I could likely still be an adjunct instructor if I hadn't made the decisive break in August, 2007. No novel and no little girl I'm almost certain, and now it remains to be seen as to whether this newish trajectory produces any more books or kids.

I'm feeling more optimistic about the second novel. A second child seems highly unlikely.

But one way or another, the second novel, the true first novel and the weirder and more original one, is going to come out.

For some crazy reason, maybe just the 45 minutes of editing I put in at 7 a.m., I know this to be true.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

philly bookstores, Christmas 2010

Bauman's Rare Books has left Walnut Street but still operates out of New York City. Larry Robin's has used books and speaking events but no longer carries new titles. Book Trader finally chased Big Jar off of Second Street, and the latter now operates a smaller store at the corner of 4th and Bainbridge. The Liberty Place Borders Express has been closed for months now, and the bookstore in the basement of the Bourse is long gone, closed down before I left Philly if I'm not mistaken. Skip at Giovanni's Room described holiday traffic as "slow," but he's open and would welcome a visit.

On the brighter side, as in, if there are bookstores in Philadelphia, there are likely more readers, jobs, etc., the chains I went into were bustling. Both Barnes and Noble and Borders downtown seemed to be moving plenty of "product," as in books, gift cards, games, etc. Joseph A. Fox on Sansom was quite busy too on the Tuesday afternoon before Christmas. Likewise, the Borders in Wynnewood had a long line of patrons waiting to purchase as part of Christmas-Eve routine. (It was tempting to stand outside and hawk discount copies of Fight for Your Long Day, but I resisted such extremes.)

In University City, House of Our Own and the Pennsylvania Bookstore, along with their own friendly deathstar neighbor, the University of Pennsylvania Barnes and Noble, are all open and selling new books, textbooks, and more. House of Our Own made my week because they are the first Philadelphia store to order, stock, and display Fight for Your Long Day. It was good to see familiar smiles in both of the independent locations. (When I grew up in University City, the bookstore scene was up on 38th Street, centered between Walnut and Locust, and you could move quickly from Pennsylvania Book Center to Encore Books to an older, smaller Penn Bookstore. House of Our Own came later, and there were also occasional attempts to book further west, such as Lame Duck Books on 45th Street, on the same side between Locust and Chestnut where used-everything Second Mile thrives today.)

And best of all, where I least remembered it, two underground bookstores in the Gallery seemed to be going strong or at least be ongoing. A Books-A-Million, a chain I associate with the Southeastern region has replaced what was a Walden's and then a Borders Book Express in the Gallery's basement, about where the main, middle escalator descends to a section of kiosks, some plants, and a newstand. And if you walk east toward the 8th and Market Elevated Blue Line stop, you'll see an African American bookstore, Basic Black Books, that looks like a lot of fun--positively an exciting place to book!

I may come back to this post and correct some of the details on names and dates. Feel free to drop me a line for adds or corrections if you like. OK, feel free to return to your Christmas kindle. Peace.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

tweeting about John Gardner like the wild and krazy guy i am

Raymond Carver said John Gardner, PhD Iowa, famous, if forgotten?, had a 4 or 5 course load of fresh comp at Oberlin: http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

maybe i should be anti-Gardner since i'm in w/the #Pynchon crowd & am known to dig caricature, distrust too serious http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

on the other hand John Gardner's Mickelsson's Ghosts got me back into writing fiction, would sit on Friday afternoons in Van Pelt, comfy 1/2
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

cushioned seat by big glass window, March, April, May 2004, never checked the book out of the library, used a clean dinner napkin 4 bookmark
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

returned the book to the shelf every single time, always read from same book although there was another exactly like it up there in stacks
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

first paragraph of Mickelsson's Ghosts led me to conceive of Cyrus Duffleman https://t.co/LEw2lAGnrF
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

although i think chapters 2 and 3 of Fight for Your Long Day were the first ones i wrote, pen on lined paper, skipping lines, June 2014
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

bought a used IBM ThinkPad to bring to Korea, once there wrote the whole thing from late June to early August, mainly lined paper in COEX
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

shopping mall corner Starbucks and then typing in, improving in evenings and mornings. did not grade papers that summer. Gardner was right!
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

so now Fight for Your Long Day is up there on the 3rd floor of Van Pelt w/ the 2 copies of Mickelsson's Ghosts; somewhat unbelievable to me.
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

i think you can still get into UPenn's Van Pelt library with a driver's license, as i would, although they take your photo at the entrance.
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

"He came to Chico in fall 1959, after having been fired from Oberlin for leading a faculty strike, and left in 1962." http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

so if you're a sucker for this kind of "writer's life" medium-to-long journalism, as i am, then i recommend: http://t.co/r6f6A2ILAk
— Alex Kudera (@kudera) January 12, 2015

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Friday, March 18, 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Friday, March 17, 2017

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Friday, June 10, 2016

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Friday, February 4, 2022

Friday, July 9, 2010

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Auggie's Revenge and Fight for Your Long Day