My version of a TedTalk involves reading something I wrote! But if you’re interested in hearing about the professional changes that have taken place in the teaching of writing while I’ve been involved in the game, here’s a good chance. Plus, there’s a good story (true!) in there involving Tobias Wolff, a rickety printer, and the wisdom of Elmore Leonard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff8IivLu8nw
This story has always been close to my heart, and I’m so glad to see it in the Arkansas International, a truly fantastic new literary magazine.
Here’s the interview: https://www.arkint.org/scott-hutchins-qa
Here’s the link to the magazine: https://www.arkint.org/issue-three/
From Fiction Writers Review: http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/validation-is-the-curse-an-interview-with-christopher-hebert/
And lived to tell the tale, encouraging you other property owners in the city. Here’s my profile of Catherine Lee and her innovative process.
As a writer, I’m also fascinated by the serial way in which this was published.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/books/review/acceptance-by-jeff-vandermeer.html
Everyone is interested in process, so I offered a writing demonstration in the front glass at Mrs. Dalloway’s last Saturday. Thanks for hosting me!
Nothing is better than getting a few new books in the mail, and Viking UK delivers them with style. A man in a vest with an ascot delivered these to the house. Even their general disarray speaks to a certain flair.
The German Translation
Eine Vorläufige Theorie der Liebe, the German translation of A Working Theory of Love is out! It’s had some nice coverage in Der Spiegel and the Frankfurter Allgemiene Zeitung (FAZ to the cool kids). My favorite part is that the book comes with an orange bookmark sewn right into it.
Piper Verlag did such a wonderful job. Thanks to Thomas Tebbe and Eva Bonne!
Also, Richard Powers.
Stanford is debuting a joint major with Computer Science and English next year. Not a dual major or a double major, but a joint major which is more integrated. It’s a cool approach and I have a few thoughts about it (as does Richard Powers and Nick Jenkins). We are mostly correctly quoted in this interesting article in the Palo Alto Weekly….
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/04/04/the-art-of-science
Justin Tackett of the Stanford Report (and a doctoral candidate at Stanford) has written a thoughtful profile here of me as a teacher. He mentions one of my favorite classes of the past few years, Twitter Fiction/Future Forms.
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/january/novel-artificial-intelligence-012914.html
A piece I contributed to NPR’s PG-13 Risky Reads features stepmothers, Salman Rushdie, and Satan.
http://www.npr.org/2013/11/03/164348063/discovering-rushdie-s-masterpiece-during-the-satanic-panic
Bonus feature! I got to swap tweets with Salman Rushdie, who was miffed about NPR misspelling his name. I’ll humbly point out that I got in the last pun.
Paperback Row features, among other worthies, A Working Theory of Love.
Which links to the original terrific and illuminating Times review by James Hynes.
Admittedly, the only word I understand in this interview/review with a Dutch AI specialist is “IKEA.” But Google translate uncovers this gem:
“The result is an unexpectedly exciting for me playful novel that evokes recognition with my profession, without falling into attempts to want to explain about technology that allows for example the Millennium series with gusts as clumsy business.”
For more!
A thought-provoking and enjoyable review from Jose Solís at PopMatters:
“Without much fuss Hutchins turns the computer into a metaphor for books, as well. Are these characters truly alive because we’re enjoying them so much? Is their humanity as important as ours? A Working Theory of Love makes for a delightful satire that asks profound questions without making it look like a great effort. Hutchins’ writing is so simple and straightforward that the book often reads like a good conversation. It’s not hard to figure out that by the time we get to the actual Turing contest at the end of the novel, we have been so won over by Dr. Bassett that we don’t care if scientists think it’s human or not.”
His summary of the work aspects of AWTOL is so good I think I might start using it myself!
Feedbooks, a cool French book blog run by Bernard Strainchamps, has made word cloud art of A Working Theory of Love. Top words: ELLE, SAN FRANCISCO, and MOI. Pretty much sums up the novel!
For more: http://blog.feedbooks.com/fr/index.php/2013/10/14/elles/
So after long work, the website for A Working Theory of Love is live! Many thanks to Meadow for making it so cool. Please click around and enjoy the little features. It’s light on content right now, but if you look you can find a way to talk to Dr. Bassett. He’s very 1.0, but he’ll be evolving, as we all do!
www.scotthutchins.com
There were too many good pictures…
This gallery contains 8 photos.
