26 Comments
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Summer Brennan's avatar

Ugh, sorry for typos in the original email! It's still early here 😩

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Kathryn Vercillo's avatar

Congrats. Very awesome. And thanks for the description of the vignette essay ... I plan to learn more!

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Summer Brennan's avatar

Thank you!

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Allison Burnett's avatar

Gorgeous. TIme to order High Heel!

Let me give you a compliment. I am a nauseating word-snob. Had I encountered "eery" in almost anyone else's prose, I would have chuckled at the mistake. But as it was you, my first thought was, "Huh. Never seen this alternate spelling before." In short, I place as much faith in your scholarship as I do in your talent.

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Summer Brennan's avatar

Just a thoughtless typo early in the morning lol! But thank you for your faith in me, I hope you like High Heel!

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Allison Burnett's avatar

No! It's a perfectly good, alternate spelling! You see, you are so immaculate that even your mistakes are perfect.

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Kim Baker's avatar

Congratulations Summer, this is wonderful news. I don't know about the vignette style of essay so am off down a rabbit hole now ! Anyway - really pleased for you.

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Summer Brennan's avatar

Oh that is great! Yeah, I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't really realize it was vignettes that I was fascinated with for quite a while, and that I keep more or less writing first drafts of here on Substack lol!

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Glenda Burgess's avatar

Exquisite!

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Eric Hinzman's avatar

That’s fantastic!! Congratulations!!

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Kate Jones's avatar

What an honour to be included in an art exhibition! I also love the vignette form and there have been some fascinating book length works in this form in recent years (including yours!) I'm also thinking of Maggie Nelson's 'Bluets'.

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Summer Brennan's avatar

Love Bluets. That was the one my editor told me to look at when I turned in my initial High Heel draft. It was still very fragmented and I thought I had to pull it together into a more traditional structure, and my editor said no, go with your instincts, this is totally valid. I think my next book after Parisian Sphinx is going to be vignettes again.

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Kate Jones's avatar

How interesting. I'd love to try and shape some of my essays into vignette style, so will keep this in mind during Essay Camp. Although I guess an essay often takes the form it needs to take, often quite naturally.

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Summer Brennan's avatar

You're completely right about the form, although like trees, we can always force them. Essay espalier!

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Anugrah's avatar

🤩 wow. Big congratulations. I wish someday I will be here!

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Summer Brennan's avatar

Thank you! I'm really pleased by it.

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The Chelsea Writer's avatar

I just watched the video. Congratulations.

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sarah e webb's avatar

love this and the interplay between art and text and image all in support of one another ~ thank you so much for sharing and making us aware of this exhibition!

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Casie Gambrel's avatar

I am curious to read High Heel. I love the idea of storytelling in vignettes. I find that style so appealing.

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Lisa Renee's avatar

Congrats! I LOVED "High Heel" and am a huge fan of the vignettes. It's what I most want to do, but I worry sometimes that's it's too 'slight' or something. But you've reminded me of your collection of elegant vignettes and maybe that's just what I'll do for essay camp, damn the torpedos!

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Sal Randolph's avatar

Loved this! Congratulations! And the clarification about vignettes vs fragments is very helpful! I’ve been collecting words to describe short pieces that aren’t broken bit are working together. Looking forward to reading High Heel!

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Linda Cardillo's avatar

Congratulations! I am not surprised that your work is framed in an art show and inspired the work there. I have just started to experience your art work and it is beautiful.

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Laurel's avatar

The idea of a vignette essay is so novel to me--despite being an avid fan of the fictional vignette and the essay. The idea never crossed my mind that you could create a vignette essay! I am thrilled to see where this might take me as I start essay camp so soon!

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Mary Nelson's avatar

Love this so much! If I am recalling correctly, you mentioned the art installation a little while ago. So happy to see the photos and read your post about it. Thanks for sharing, Summer.

I loved reading High Heel. Highly recommended.

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