Saffian News

On the road to Morocco (and Israel)

2010-03-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

I'm honored and delighted to have been invited onto a delegation of 10 writers (4 from the U.S.) traveling to Jerusalem, Algiers, and Fes in April, organized by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program and funded by the State Department. Check it out: Souk Ukaz: Peace Work: Writers in Motion

Iowa Registration open — yee haw!

2010-02-24T20:37:00.000-08:00

C'mon down, one and all, and register for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, happening this June and July. You'll sure be glad you did. Yours truly is teaching two courses, one journalism and one memoir, as per usual..

Cooking with gas over at She Writes

2010-02-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Check out She Writes Services, your one-stop shop for all your writerly needs. Offerings from the crackerjack, vetted team of Preferred Providers include Agent Consultation, Writing Coaching and Editing, Research Assistance, Copy Editing, Websites, Author Photography, Publicity Advisement, and so much more. C'mon down!

And join She Writes on Wednesday, March 3, 1-2 p.m. Eastern Time, for Shari Cohen's scintillating webinar on how to Build Your Writing Business. Can't make the live event? Then order the download, to keep forever and enjoy at you convenience!

What makes a good memoir?

2009-11-06T16:00:00.001-08:00

My favorite bit from Michiko Kakutani's rave of Mary Karr's new memoir, Lit: "the exposed life is not the same as the examined one." More at my She Writes blog.

Webinars-a-go-go on SHE WRITES!

2009-10-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Next up at SHE WRITES: "Literary Agents 101" with Erin Hosier and Betsy Lerner. Thurs, Nov 5, 12:45-2 p.m. ET. Register today!

You can also buy downloads of previous webinars — to keep and learn from forever!:

"Memoir Writing for Pleasure and Purpose," with Lizzie Simon

"Becoming a Writing Coach/Consultant," with Shari Cohen

"Innovative Publicity Now," with Lauren Cerand

"Twitter for Writers," with Sarah Milstein

Join us!

Webinars-a-go-go on SHE WRITES!

2009-10-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

Next up at SHE WRITES: "Memoir Writing for Pleasure and Purpose," with Detour author Lizzie Simon. Wed, Oct 14, 1-2 p.m. ET. Register today!

You can also buy downloads of previous webinars -- to keep and learn from forever!:
"Becoming a Writing Coach/Consultant," with Shari Cohen
"Innovative Publicity Now," with Lauren Cerand
"Twitter for Writers," with Sarah Milstein

And if you're not yet a member of SHE WRITES, come on aboard! What's not to like?

Literarily yours, Editorial Director, SHE WRITES

SHE WRITES goes live!

2009-08-09T14:24:00.000-07:00

Check out the spanking new social networking site for women writers, SHE WRITES. Our first webinar, on how women writers can use Twitter to their professional advantage, is Thursday, August 13. For more info and to register, click here. You'll sure be glad you did.

Yours truly, Chief Education Consultant, SHE WRITES

The cranky yogini explores the wonders of doga

2009-06-10T06:39:00.000-07:00

It's Take Your Dog to Yoga Day in the world of the cranky yogini. Read all about it on Yoga City.

More March Madness: Enter the Cranky Yogini!

2009-03-11T09:27:00.000-07:00

Article about partner exercises on Yoga City.

2009 News

2008-12-19T05:01:00.000-08:00

•JANUARY: Excerpt from Ithaka in 614: The HBI Ezine, an online magazine for Jewish women published by Brandeis University.

•FEBRUARY: Article in Reader's Digest about Christopher Thomas, a type-1 diabetic who turned his disease into a purpose, creating an online community, Diabetic Rockstar, and a charity, Fight-It.

•MARCH: Article in Reader's Digest about Lisa Rudes Sandel, founder of Not Your Daughter's Jeans.

•JULY: Return to the Iowa Summer Writing Festival!

Get Over Yourself! Writing the Personal Essay that Others Give a Damn About: July 11-12
The greatest challenge of a personal writer: to create work that is meaningful to others. The most crucial question a personal writer can ask in an effort to meet that challenge: who cares? In this intensive two-day workshop, through in-depth discussions and exercises in memory-mining, perspective, and tone, we’ll chip away at the block of marble (one’s whole life) to find the statue — the narrower story that becomes a personal essay’s focus. We’ll explore ways to tell that story originally and engagingly, in striving to achieve a uniqueness and at the same time, a universality: How can I make this story precisely mine? And simultaneously, how can I make my story interesting even to readers who haven’t shared my experience? At the end of the weekend, you’ll emerge with an in-the-works personal essay, and plans for revision and expansion. Introspectives with a desire to communicate, at all levels of writing experience (including none), are welcome. No navel-gazers, please.

Who Dat? Bringing Your Profile Subject to Life: July 13-17
The profile, one of the foundations of narrative journalism, is a portrait painted in words. A profile writer serves as the reader’s eyes and ears, enabling the reader to experience the subject as palpably as one can without meeting in person. In this course, we’ll learn the interviewing and the writing aspects of the profile process: doing background research on a subject, honing interviewing techniques, coming up with secondaries, and trying on various styles, all in order to most vividly and precisely bring the subject to life on the page. We’ll also explore well-known profiles such as Lillian Ross’s “Portrait of Hemingway,” Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” and Bob Greene’s “Muhammad Ali is the Most Famous Man in the World.”
Please note: This course is roughly half seminar (i.e. reading and discussion) and half workshop (executing a few short reporting/writing assignments and sharing them with the group). No writing to prepare in advance; all work will be new and generated during our week together. Inquisitive wordsmiths at all levels are welcome.

Flood be damned: Countdown to Iowa is on!

2008-06-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Sarah will be in illustrious company teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival 2008. Her two workshops, Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question and Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile happen July 13-18 and 19-20. Also on the roster: BK Loren, John Dalton, Hope Edelman, and many others. Come join us!

Please don't let this be you

2008-05-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Watch it and weep (with laughter, with recognition):

book launch 2.0

Charlie's fresh new Crazy Good website!

2008-04-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

For all your Crazy Good needs:

http://www.crazygoodbook.com

Crazy Good NY readings

2008-04-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Join us!

*THURSDAY, MAY 1, 8 p.m.
Happy Ending
302 Broome Street, between Forsyth and Eldridge Streets, Manhattan
(plus, an interview with Charlie is up on Gelf Magazine)

*THURSDAY, MAY 29, 6:30 p.m.
The Corner Bookstore
1313 Madison Avenue, at 93rd Street

*THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 7 p.m.
Barnes & Noble, Park Slope
267 Seventh Avenue, corner of 6th Street, Brooklyn

Publishers Weekly rave for Crazy Good!

2008-04-07T05:02:00.000-07:00

Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America Charles Leerhsen. Simon & Schuster, $26 (352p) ISBN 978-0-7432-9177-4

In this spirited narrative, Leerhsen, an editor at Sports Illustrated, tells the now-forgotten saga of Dan Patch, a race horse that at one time drew an estimated 60,000 people to a single event in 1903. Admitting from the outset that “the events of this book may seem as if they transpired on another planet,” Leerhsen delivers a mesmerizing look into a strange corner of American sports and folk history when Dan Patch became a household word, earning roughly $1 million a year at a time when, Leerhsen notes, “the-highest paid baseball player,” Ty Cobb, was making $12,000. The arc of Dan Patch's career involves a range of often unscrupulous entrepreneurs: his first owner, Dan Messner Jr., who overpays by mistake for an injured pace horse and whose drunken decision to breed the pace horse with a wild stallion results in Dan Patch's birth; the horse's second trainer, Myron McHenry, who despite his conflicts with Messner grooms the horse for success; and M.W. Savage, the horse's final owner, who makes millions from Patch-related merchandise while overworking an obviously tired animal. But the heart of the book is Dan Patch himself, a horse with an almost human capacity for calm and determination that deserves to be rediscovered by a modern audience.

Crazy Good in SI! New pub date!

2008-03-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

Charlie's book about our country's first pop culture icon, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, has been selected for an excerpt in Sports Illustrated, the May 19 issue. And Simon & Schuster has moved up the pub date, to Tuesday, May 20. Pre-order your copy today!

On the road with Crazy Good

2008-02-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

We're on the road this week, for the first event publicizing Charlie's book Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, out June 3 from Simon & Schuster.
February 18-20, St. Petersburg, Florida: Charlie is speaking at the annual meeting of the Harness Tracks of America and the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, where he is being awarded the coincidentally named Dan Patch Award for Media Excellence (planned future book topics: The Academy and Pulitzer).
Dan Patch, a harness horse at the turn of the 20th century, was the biggest pop culture icon, human or animal, of his day—more Americans knew who he was than who the President was; crowds exceeding 100,000 turned out to see him race against the clock; he earned over $1 million a year when the highest-paid baseball player, the Detroit Tigers' Ty Cobb, was making $12,000. For a dear tribute to Dan, and to Charlie's book, check this out.

Iowa Bound!

2008-02-18T07:43:00.000-08:00

Sarah will be in illustrious company teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival 2008. Her two workshops, Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question and Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile happen July 13-20. Also on the roster: BK Loren, John Dalton, Hope Edelman, and many others. Come join us!

From the It's Funny Because It's True Dept.

2008-02-06T13:44:00.000-08:00

Re. The Writer-Editor relationship. Watch it and weep—with laughter or recognition, or both. And should you fall in love with a shark, a squid, a pebble, or a policeman, or none or all of the above, please do report back.

2008 News

2008-01-17T15:41:00.000-08:00

OUT NOW: SIX-WORD MEMOIRS For the drastically abridged version of Ithaka, check out Sarah's contribution in Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, edited by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser and also featuring mini-memoirs by Richard Ford, Jonathan Lethem, Amy Sedaris, and others. Out February 5 from Harper Perennial and on sale here.
"Will thrill minimalists and inspire maximalists." —Vanity Fair

IMMINENT: CRAZY GOOD A new book by Charles Leerhsen (Sarah's husband), Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, is being published by Simon & Schuster on June 3. Dan Patch, a harness horse at the turn of the 20th century, was the biggest pop culture icon, human or animal, of his day—more Americans knew who he was than who the President was; crowds exceeding 100,000 turned out to see him race against the clock; he earned over $1 million a year when the highest-paid baseball player, the Detroit Tigers' Ty Cobb, was making $12,000. Check back for news and event information, and pre-order here.

UPCOMING: ANTHOLOGY ESSAY Sarah has completed an essay for an anthology about parent loss, being edited by Barbara Lazear Ascher (Isn't It Romantic, Landscape Without Gravity), which will also feature pieces by Amy Bloom, David Gates, Rick Moody, and others.

TEACHING: IOWA Sarah has been invited to teach at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in July. Memoir: The Vertical Pronoun and the Who Cares? Question happens July 13-18, and Narrative Journalism: The Art of the Profile July 19-20. Other teachers include John Dalton (Heaven Lake), Hope Edelman (Motherless Daughters), and BK Loren (The Way of the River).

IN PROGRESS: Sarah is working on a collection of portraits and profiles of folks touched by adoption—adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents—including Rosie O'Donnell, Olympic gold medalist diver Greg Louganis, and others, titled We Are Family.