Joan Didion and Joseph Conrad

“I have never started a novel — I mean, except the first, when I was starting a novel just to start a novel — I’ve never written one without rereading Victory [byJoseph Conrad]. It opens up the possibilities of a novel. It makes it seem worth doing.”JOAN DIDION

Note: VICTORY by Joseph Conrad is available free in a variety of versions (including Kindle) at Project Gutenberg. Find it here. Conrad scholar Debra Romanick called the book, originally published in 1916, “…a highly complex allegorical work whose psychological landscape and narrative structure set the groundwork for the modern novel…”

Happy belated birthday to one of our writing heroes, Joan Didion, who turned 79 on December 5, 2013. 

Beginnings, Erasure Poem by Anna Badua

We’ve just received another response to our call for erasure poems — the remarkable “Beginnings” by Anna Badua, based on text from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Badua typed out the text and then “erased” words using Illustrator software.

HERE IS THE ORIGINAL TEXT (from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad):

HERE IS THE ERASURE POEM…

BEGINNINGS

by Anna Badua

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Anna Badua‘s newly released chapbook Life Forms is available through Bank-Heavy Press.  Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Lummox Journal, San Pedro River Review, Pearl, Chiron Review and many others.  She lives in Long Beach, California.