Discussing Gass on St. Louis Public Radio
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
I was honored to join Lorin Cuoco last week on Don Marsh’s “St. Louis on the Air” to discuss the life and work of William H. Gass. The audio is embedded in the station’s obituary.william h gass
On Meeting & Knowing William Gass
Monday, December 11, 2017
I wrote this piece, “Words of William H. Gass touched readers around the globe," for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was published this past Sunday. (The anecdote at the beginning — which in a way launched my relationship with Gass — almost didn’t happen. I went to that literary reading only after hemming and hawing about maybe staying home to watch “24.")The William H. Gass Symposium
Saturday, December 10, 2016
In September of this year, I was honored to be part of “The William H. Gass Symposium: International Writing” at Washington University in St. Louis. I joined Lorin Cuoco, who co-founded the International Writers Center with Gass in 1990 and was its associate director until 2001, in giving some opening remarks, then discussing Gass’s work with William H. Gass Fellow Matthias Göritz and Ignacio Infante, associate professor of Comparative Literature and Spanish at the university.Launched: TheGassInterviews.org
Saturday, June 7, 2014
"> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " style="max-width:500px;"> <div style="padding-bottom:56.400001525879%;" class=" image-block-wrapper has-aspect-ratio "> <img src="http://sschenkenberg.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/2b359-image-asset.png" alt="" /><img class="thumb-image" alt="" /> </div> </figure> </div> readinggass: Readers: I’m very pleased to announce the launch of TheGassInterviews.org. Free to all and readable on any device, the microsite collects a dozen essential interviews that Gass gave between the late 1970s and 2011. It’s titled “The Ear’s Mouth Must Move,” a phrase of Gass’ own.Gass at 89
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
"> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " style="max-width:480px;"> <div style="padding-bottom:150%;" class=" image-block-wrapper has-aspect-ratio "> <img src="http://sschenkenberg.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/e93f3-image-asset.jpeg" alt="" /><img class="thumb-image" alt="" /> </div> </figure> </div> A very happy 89th birthday to the great William H. Gass, with whom I’m pictured here in 2007. I’m incredibly glad he’s still writing every day.Reading William Gass
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Lots going on at my other blog, perhaps most notably Cynthia Ozick’s review of Middle C, which carried the cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review."William H. Gass: How I Write"
Friday, March 15, 2013
Fun interview in The Daily Beast. Happily surprised to see my name pop up."The sirens had hoarse throats"
Saturday, January 5, 2013
From William H. Gass’ forthcoming novel, Middle C: Joey … rails ran across France then, rails ran through the mountain passes and through tunnels into and out of the mountains, rails ran along the Mur, through forests of fir trees, because the war was over, the sirens had hoarse throats, all the bombs they’d dropped on one another had gone plode, and so we could have traveled home together, because there were no more warplanes, no more lights fingering the sky, no more Nazis; it was, we used to say when we slunk from our underground huddle, the large lot of us, and looked to see if our rubble was still standing, we used to say that the sirens said — the sirens said, All clear.Towards the Gass Interviews....
Sunday, December 9, 2012
I’m still at work editing The Ear’s Mouth Must Move: The Essential Interviews of William H. Gass. While I’d love for this to be published in a gloriously beautiful print version, I haven’t yet found an interested publisher. So it’s likely that, as with Abstractions Arrive, I will publish it myself as an iPad e-book using iBooks Author. Life is short, and I get restless waiting for traditional gatekeepers. We’ll see, though.An Airborne "Abstractions Arrive"
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Have to say I like Lee Rice Epstein’s photo of the iBook, which he captioned this way on Twitter: “Gass + Eastman via @Schenkenberg at cruising altitude.” Glad you’re liking it, Lee!Popping Up in the New York Times
Friday, August 17, 2012
Hey, there’s The New York Times covering Abstractions Arrive! The piece, written by David Streitfeld, includes a new interview with Gass about books and technology. Thanks for the nod, Paper of Record!“The Gass Sentences: A Top 50”
Monday, July 30, 2012
Today is William Gass’ 88th birthday. For the Big Other website, John Madera asked some writers, readers, and publishers to name their own “literary pillars,” as a tribute to Gass and his “50 Literary Pillars” project from the early 1990s. After being invited to contribute, I went in a slightly different direction.[vimeo 45784128 w=500 h=281]
Reblogging myself from a new microsite for Abstractions Arrive:
On a Saturday morning in July 2012, the esteemed writer and internationally collected artist spoke about the release of Abstractions Arrive: Having Been There All the Time. The video was made by Stephen Schenkenberg and recorded in Gass’ St. Louis home (which holds 15,000 books).
Discussing "J R"
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
At Open Letters Monthly, Greg Gerke and Gabriel Blackwell have a long and interesting discussion about William Gaddis’ masterful novel.Eastman & Gass on Screen
Thursday, May 31, 2012
"> <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " style="max-width:971px;"> <div style="padding-bottom:75.386199951172%;" class=" image-block-wrapper has-aspect-ratio "> <img src="http://sschenkenberg.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/fc34a-image-asset.png" alt="" /><img class="thumb-image" alt="" /> </div> </figure> </div> Tonight I spent some lovely time interviewing William H. Gass and Michael Eastman about our Abstractions Arrive project. I’ll be integrating some of the best video clips into the e-book in the coming week. (Anyone who already purchased it will see an updated version on their iPad when it happens.Michael Silverblatt Interviews William H. Gass
Friday, April 20, 2012
The Bookworm host has previously referred to Gass as “our greatest living writer of prose in America.” Here, he calls him "one of my true living heroes.” Speaking of admiration, I love this interview bit from Gass about Henry James: James’ world is not to be found anywhere in the world. It’s too wonderful for that.[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R1Eb92HfbQ?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=500&h=281]
Great new addition to YouTube: William Gass reads from The Tunnel and discusses literature and philosophy. Recorded at The Village Voice Bookshop in Paris, February 6, 2007 (by Villagevoice75).
Building a Mind Created in Words
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Two passages, among many, that struck me in William H. Gass’ wonderful new essay collection Life Sentences: Literary Judgements and Accounts: From “The Literary Miracle”: Emerson’s essays build the mind that thinks them. It is that mind that is the miracle that interests me. Did he think the thinker who then thinks his thoughts? “The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated without end.