Durian Days

Thursday, 4 May 2017

Annotated Bibliography Collaboration as Hybrid

Collaboration Bibliography

"Because all collaborations are hybrids"

Stufflebeam, Bonnie Jo and Brewer, Peter. Strange Monsters. Easy Brew Studio, 2106.

Strange Monsters is a collaborative work consisting of an audio cd of contemporary jazz, fiction and poetry. A downloadable "story companion" explaining the thoughts behind all six pieces of this work is available for free in PDF of format. The writings of Bonnie Jo Shufflebeam are read by actors and the musical composition of Peter Brewer is played by an ensemble of professional musicians. Shufflebeam is the coordinator for the "Art & Words" collaborative art show in Ft. Worth, TX.

This piece blending many elements of collaboration and taking on a full scale production sounds interesting. The PDF is a great read in itself when thinking about the actual mechanics of collaboration. The companion piece also goes deeply into the inspirations of all the pieces—some historical, some contemporary.

This work speaks to the heart of what this research is about: collaboration and inspiration between artists operating different mediums, in this case writers and musicians. The use of actors and a number of musicians adds a layer of complexity that makes this piece even more unique. There is a little doubt that this work has merit for the purposes of this essay.

Stufflebeam, Bonnie Jo. "7 Best Collaborations Between Writers and Artists." Art &Words, 27, Sept. 2016. https://bonniejostufflebeam.com/2016/09/27/7-best-collaborations-between-writers-and-artists/

The "7 Best Collaborations" article makes a case for what Shufflebeam believes are the seven most successful collaborations between artists and writers. The list includes contemporary and historical pieces as well as partnerships between artists and writers who were personally unknown to each other.

Shufflebeam as a collaborative writer and poet herself makes a good case for each of her picks. Even the ones that seem to be working more in the vein of muse or inspiration pieces. The list is solid and entertaining.

There are pieces in this list that fit well, as examples, for the purposes of this essay as it is currently envisioned. Others not so well, such as Salvador Dali's illustration of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Carroll having died before Dali was born and the book and illustrations occurring more than 100 years apart from one another. But that said, it appears that other works in this list are relevant.

Kelly, Maura. "Does Artistic Collaboration Ever Work." The Atlantic, 25, July 2012.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/does-artistic-collaboration-ever-work/260319/

Maura Kelly's piece in the Atlantic discusses, with examples, formal artistic collaborations that have yielded uneven or, in some cases, poor results. She then goes on to point out that if we slightly expand the definition of collaboration into the inspiration and or muse arena we likewise expand the number of more successful "collaborations".

Kelly, makes a very good case for the difficulty of collaborative endeavors in the arts. Making the case that writers and painters seem especially ill-suited to undertake these types endeavors, as they are used to working in alone, and often in solitude. Whether by design or by temperament.

Kelly's piece is a cautionary tale for artists and writers wishing to engage in collaborative projects. As such, it gives a nice juxtaposition for most of the research contained in this bibliography. One interesting note: her piece contains a quote by Carrie Brown, a psychiatrist referenced later in this document.

Gupta, Amit. "Artist Collaboration Fuels Creative Exploration." The Huffington Post, 22 Oct.

2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amit-gupta/artistic-collaboration-_b_3763586.html

This piece is focused on collaborations between artists creating in the same fields, although the genres may be different: Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney, Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat, Musicians David Byrne and Brian Eno. Artists that bring complementary of supplementary skills to an endeavor, that generally, is within their chosen medium.

The Gupta piece contains good evidence to back his claim that collaboration will inevitably fuel creativity.

"Artist Collaboration" is an interesting piece for artists working within the same mediums to read and consider. It is also a nice companion piece to the Kelly piece making a nearly opposite argument concerning the successfulness of collaborative projects. Not completely opposite though, as Gupta concerns himself exclusively with artists in the same vein, whereas Kelly does not. That exclusivity makes it unlikely that this piece will be used in the final essay. Although, that is not to say that some relevant points are not contained within this piece.

Evans, Garth and Philip, Leila. "Water Rising: A Collaboration of Art and Poetry." Woven Tale Press, 14 Dec. 2015. http://www.thewoventalepress.net/2015/12/14/water-rising-art-and-poetry/

"Water Rising" is a collaborative work of non-fiction writer and memoirist Leila Philip and sculpture Garth Evans. Working in other genres within their artistic fields (poetry for Philip and watercolors for Evans) the two created twelve pieces of mixed watercolor and poetry. Abstraction and realism.

The "Water Rising" pieces are gorgeous. Light and airy as watercolors can be, profound as poetry should be. Philip and Evans have created truly collaborative works of art that can stand alone, or form a cohesive whole. A few have been put to music and shown this way. Access to this additional collaboration is difficult.

There is little doubt that "Water Rising" as a successful collaboration between a writer and an artist is a great example to be used for the discussion within this essay.

Philip, Leila. "A Writer and an Artist Collaborate." Woven Tale Press, 14 Dec. 2015. http://www.thewoventalepress.net/2015/12/14/writer-and-artist/

Answering to what appear to be written questions Leila Philip writes about her collaboration with visual artist Garth Evans on their Water Rising project. She explains the impetus to the project, the why of it and how the mechanics of selection was designed and implemented, and even edited.

This is a very comprehensive interview containing the vision thing, and the individual details of how both these artists working outside of their usual genres created this cool collaboration. Why they chose to work outside of their own genres and whose idea it was is a very interesting story.

"Collaborate" is an outstanding interview and "how to" guide for putting together a collaborative project for a writer and an artist to interact. The information contained here is extremely relevant and useful for the collaboration essay.

Harvey, Matthea. "Poet Matthea Harvey's Plan to Slow Rising Currents." Inside/Out: A MoMA/MoMa PS1 Blog, 7 July, 2010.

https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/07/07/matthea-harvey-rising-currents-poetry-boat-tour/

Harvey's article in the MoMA's on-line magazine is a telling of her involvement in the in the "Current Rising" project through the Modern Poets group, a collaborative project between writers and visual artists to bring attention to the threat of rising sea currents on New York City (this was pre-Superstorm Sandy). She details her visceral and cognitive experience of viewing what the visual artists had created. And how this experience inspired her poem titled by a picture of ruler in a glass of water, contained in this piece.

"Current Rising" is nothing if not cool. Exactly what you would expect from a MoMA project involving modern poets. It is inspiration as collaboration and the resulting poem is visually stunning as well as a dystopian call to action. The narrative of how she came to write this piece and what in the exhibition inspired her is an excellent read.

Harvey's article is a very helpful piece on how to use inspirational art in writing timely and relevant poetry. The sentiments are good, the advice good, however, since this is not a true collaboration between artists and writers it may not be relevant to the collaboration essay as it is currently envisioned.

Jones, Meta DuEwa. The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to Spoken Word. University of Illinois Press, 2011.

Jones is an associate professor of African American Literature at Howard University. This book seeks to prove that the rhythms contained in jazz and blues are inspiration to the prose and poetry within the African American literary tradition. Further that jazz and blues are not only inspirational to, but also inspired by black writers and poets. And that this is a continuum that begins in the Harlem Renaissance and has continued unbroken up until today.

This writing is dense, well researched and full of names of musicians and artists that are relevant to Dr. Jones point of view. As the title suggests this more about muses and the cross pollenization that occurs between music (especially Jazz) and writing (especially poetry) in the African American Community. Their is an emphasis on cadence, rhythm and sound in writing, poetry and song in this piece.

There is a lot of good information in this book. Especially for poets. Making this a good reference source for any piece on collaboration. Poets such as Harryette Mullins are referenced many times here as well as many other contemporary African American writers and musicians. However, the focus is more on inspiration than collaboration, but a more serious reading may glean information more relevant to the true collaborative process.

Merriam-Webster Inc. Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, 1990

Miltner, Robert. "Where the Visual Meets the Verbal: Collaboration as Conversation."

Enculturation Vol. 3 No. 2, Fall 2001. http://enculturation.net/3_2/miltner/index.html

Robert Miltner, a Creative Writing professor at Kent State University focuses this short essay on collaboration as dialogue—a dialogue between painter and writer. Using ekphrasis, writing about art, as a starting point Miltner quickly up to the present state affairs between visual artists and writers, especially poets.

This is a well crafted essay, with plenty of in-line references sprinkled throughout helping the reader to easily identify the quotes contained within. Direct, easy to read and on point this essay could easily be used as a template for other craft essay writers.

"Collaboration as Conversation" makes some good and relevant points about the interaction between writers and artists, and also about the abilities of both to expand the conversation around their respective pieces by "opening up" the dialogue to more readers and viewers. This is an interesting take on collaboration. It may be useful to help slightly expand the concept of collaboration as currently considered.

Penn, Joanna. "Create Something Together. Artistic Collaboration in Action." The Creative Penn, 23 December, 2013. http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/12/23/artistic-collaboration/

"Creating Something Together" is an essay arguing that it is time for the writing industry to seek out artist with which to collaborate. Penn points out that within the visual art community, especially performance and indie artists have been moving in this direction for decades. This piece contains examples, including one of her own, where writers have successfully collaborated to create something entirely new. And in turn learned something about their own creative processes.

This piece is well written with a high energy vibe that helps the reader get excited about the possibilities inherent in artist/writer collaborations. The examples given are solid and easily traceable. Good, solid, essay.

Penn's essay contains both advice and examples of true collaboration. This piece easily has information relevant to any discussion on artist/writer collaborations and the collaborative process itself.

Guner, Fisun. "Listed: Poems Inspired by Paintings." The Arts Desk, 18 August, 2013. http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/listed-poems-inspired-paintings

Guner's essay takes a look at various writings that were inspired by works of art. It is an interesting list that has a few generally know pieces as well some not so well known. In every case either the artist or the poet is well known (or was in their day) making the list seem more historically important than the other lists contained in this bibliography.

"Listed: Poems" has a title that is a little disingenuous implying as it does that this list is all about poems inspired by paintings when it is clearly evident that there are paintings inspired by famous poems here as well. Still the list is very interesting.

This essay falls more into the "inspiration" than the collaboration or even the muse camps. It will need to be mined more completely for relevancy but is unlikely to contain any concrete references, or much relevancy, for the project at hand.

Brown, Carrie M.D. "Creativity and Collaboration: It's All About Trust and One Mind Catalyzing Another." Psychology Today, 30 March, 2013. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-creativity-cure/201303/creativity-and-collaboration

Dr. Brown's piece is a "mind set" piece arguing that all great collaborations require good collaborators. That an open and trusting mind as well as an honest evaluation of self is the starting point for successful joint projects. She goes on to explain different approaches to the collaborative process, including use of the "muse" in sparking and sustaining creative force.

"Creativity and Collaboration" is a much more scientific look at how collaborators work with one another to foster creativity in each other, and in themselves. Scientific, but easy for a layman to understand. Dr. Brown is something of an expert on creativity having written a book on the subject, and is in fact, referenced in one of the other listings in this bibliography.

This essay has interesting information to use to formulate an approach to look inside your own head, to evaluate yourself as a potential collaborator and to evaluate potential partners. Completely different from any of the other references listed in this bibliography this piece nonetheless appears to contain information that give good insight into artistic collaborations.

Brown, Griselda Murray. "The Joys and Perils of Artistic Collaborations." Financial Times, 14 March, 2014. https://www.ft.com/content/6c0b279e-a9ed-11e3-adab-00144feab7de

This is an illuminating essay using historical examples of collaborations between, mostly, painters and other visual artists.

Brown's piece is entertaining and interesting, making the case that the true mark of a successful collaboration is in the effect it has on each of the partner's creative approaches to their own art, not the success or, lack there of, the finished piece. This essay determines well the "light" approach to essay writing. That a craft essay can make a serious point and yet still be a good read. It is joyous.

"Joys and Perils" ends the piece with perhaps the best quote for what an essay about the collaborative process is about. It is about opening one's own processes and approach, and thereby opening our own writing.

Block, Allison. "Poets and Musicians Discuss Collaboration, Creation." Blogs.MiaMioh.edu, Miami University/Miami University Creative Writing Department, 14 November, 2016, https://blogs.miamioh.edu/creativewriting/2016/12/tbt-poets-and-musicians-discuss-collaboration-creation/ Accessed 28 February, 2017.

Block's blog piece is a partial transcript of a panel discussion held at the University of Miami in November of 2016. The panel seated the poet Janice Lowe, Leaving CLE: Poems of Nomadic Dispersal, and Yohann Potico a musician, composer and playwright. The discussion was about musically collaborations between poets and musicians.

This is a short piece containing only a few questions for each panelist without much follow-up. Janice Lowe, however, is excellent in her answers.

The points that Lowe brings up in her answers make this piece extremely relevant for this craft essay on collaboration. More so because she is so accomplished as a poet and essayist in her own right—adding credibility and relevancy to any piece about the collaborative process for writers.

Garrett, Natalie Eve, editor. The Artists and Writers Cookbook. Powerhouse Books, 2016.

The Artists and Writers Cookbook is a collaborative project of contemporary artists and writers containing art and writings coupled with the recipes that inspired, or vice versa. It is a new formulation of an old book of the same name from 1961.

This book is a bit of a lark but contains some interesting art and writing (and recipes). Squirrel gumbo, Mississippi ratatouille, and Iranian gormeh complete with bombs there are some gems here.

This book demonstrates what can occur when artists seek to collaborate on a project of dubious commercial worth. Let lose to write what they wish, paint or draw what they wish and eat what they wish they can feed their creative minds, their souls and their bodies as well. I just want to use this so bad.

Terry and Thanh Collaborate: Craft Essay

Collaboration: Creating Hybridity Through Shared Processes

"Collaborate: 1: to work jointly with others or together esp. in an intellectual endeavor" (Webster's 259)

Many years ago, another life, I was involved in a successful business collaboration. The leader of a team that was much greater than the sum of its parts—as the saying goes. I will not bore you with the minutia of that endeavor except to say that those were heady days when I could not wait to go to bed so I could wake up and get to my work, my team, quicker. Each of our weaknesses overcome by the strengths of another, whether personal or technical. The effectiveness of that collaboration was to be judged solely by the end result—a product—and more importantly by its acceptance in the marketplace. And it was a success. Not long after we brought the product to market however, the team began to drift apart. The glue of a common purpose no longer present I found it impossible to hold that team together. Disparate personalities without a unifier soon began to clash over insignificant details. No matter how painful the dissolution it could not color the good work we had accomplished. Over the years I have come to realize how magical those times were, and came to believe that it was a once in a lifetime occurrence. An event, although I helped to create, I still feel lucky to have been involved in. And would gladly give a few years of my life to be involved in again.

Flash forward a dozen years or so, and now I am attempting to become a writer, a poet to be exact. Circling back to pursue a dream I thought I left dying by the side of a corn shadowed gravel road somewhere in the heartland over 30 years ago. Now slowly taking MFA courses to see if I have the chops to write, or if not, then whether I can obtain those skills, the craft, through education and perseverance and practice. With that goal in mind this spring I took a class in hybrid literary forms— a type of literature; though a life long reader since at least the age of 6; I thought I knew nothing about. Except maybe I did.

Defining hybrid forms in literature, as I and my classmates have been finding out, is a lot like trying to define obscenity: I know it when I see it. Even though I believed the hybrid form was unknown to me by attempting to define it I recognized that one of my favorite poetic pieces, a piece I have carried both in my heart and in my head since high school, was itself a hybrid: John Dos Passos' "The Body of an American". Part poem, part journalism, part essay; thought-provoking, heart-wrenching and political— this work was the bridge that allowed me to walk from traditional genre and form to the land of hybridity. Walk to it, but not through it. That would take some effort of my own.

As I watched some of my fellow MFA writers struggle with the question of what is and what is not a hybrid work in literature (a struggle I was also engaged in) and how to explain and define these differences I got a sense of de ja vu: I felt as if I had been involved in similar discussions before. And I had. In my other life, my business life. When my team and I were creating a new product that would control an old process in a very different way, we were forced to create and define many of our own terms and attempt to merge them with the more traditional methods and methodology associated with the art of coffee roasting. This had to be done in such a way as not to embarrass or offend traditionalists or the established, and storied, culture of the coffee roasting community. And though it may seem like a strange segue (as a poet my thinking is not always linear, it can be quite abstract) I began to believe that perhaps hybridity was somewhere in the act of creating—in the process itself— not necessarily in the finished product. And so in the spirit of hybridization I gave the term hybridity a new form: for me hybridity was no longer to be a noun, nor an adjective, but a verb. And that verb would be a synonym of both collaboration and cross-pollenating.

Searching for Useful Collaborative Examples:

When I began my search for examples of collaboration between artists and writers the search ended up too broad, for what I was looking for specifically. That brought me to the question of "exactly what was I looking for?" After some thought and a little soul searching I decided that I wanted to know how visual artists and poets interacting affected one another's work. Especially more abstract visual artists (by abstract I mean abstract expressionists, conceptualists, and even surrealists), since poets work in the realm of abstraction as well. More personally, I was hoping that by gaining some insight into the minds of visual artists I could begin to tackle perceived deficiencies in my own work. Namely an overly linear, chronological and causal narrative that runs through nearly all of my poetry, even my better pieces.

In my search I wanted to avoid simple inspiration (when a poet or writer uses an existing work as a stepping off point without any interaction with the artist); ekphrasis: a writing about a work of art; and the exclusive use of muses. Of the three I was actually only able to completely avoid ekphrasis, as the other two seem to lie on a continuum with collaboration and occur frequently as admixtures with true collaboration.

After a little searching I hit upon Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, a writer and collaborator in her own right, that compiled a list titled "The 7 Best Collaborations Between Artists and Writers" for her Arts and Words website (Stufflebeam). Of the seven there were three that I felt were relevant to what I was looking for: Dennis Ashpaugh and William Gibson's Agrippa; Alex Smith and Amy Gerstler's Past Lives and Danez Smith and Sam Vernon's "Fall Poem" all of these feature a poet and a visual artist creating pieces that move beyond the art, past the written word transcending through both to a higher level. Additionally, both the Agrippa and Past Lives collaborators mention the development of a third man, or entity, that aided in the completion of the pieces. Stufflebeam's own collaboration Strange Monsters contains some interesting insights as well, but as a music (jazz) and written piece (prose) didn't contain the visual aspect I needed for my own exploration. I would like to attend The Art & Words Show that Stufflebeam organizes every year in Ft. Worth, TX (this year's show is October 7, 2017). Talk about hybrid!

Through my search I came across many solid examples of collaborations between artists (especially musicians) and writers. But of what I was truly searching for, examples of poets and visual artists working together there were very few. Besides the three listed above I could only find one other with the gravitas to make my list: Garth Evans and Leila Philip's Water Rising: A Collaboration of Art and Poetry. Evans, a sculptor—painted and Philip's a prose writer—wrote poetry. The two set out to challenge themselves and create something completely unique. And as stunning as these pieces are, I was more struck by the interview of Philip that appeared in conjunction with a story and review of the book in The Woven Tale Press. In this interview Philip explains how they came to collaborate and how they set their rules for the project:

"Then we came up with our own working rules. One was that we would both work in genres outside of our usual practice. I wrote prose but for this project I would work in poetry, and Garth is a sculptor but would make works on paper, watercolors. We wanted a structure that forced us to really stretch ourselves. We also agreed that we would work for a year, making works consistently, each month, but that we would not share these works until the year was over."

She further goes on to explain:

"So our collaboration began with a necessary phase of us working independently in the same location. This was important to us because Garth did not want to “illustrate” my poems with his images, and I was trying to avoid writing ekphrastic poetry."

In order to stretch myself I would need to set some rules. As counterintuitive as this advice seemed it somehow felt right to me. Armed now with some examples of successful poet/artist collaborations, as well as some advice, I had two more aspects I wanted to research to try and gain a better understanding of the advisability of creating a hybrid work through a collaboration. The psychology of the thing and the why of the thing was what I was after. As in how do I choose a partner? And why bother with all this apparent hassle anyway?

The Psychology of Collaboration (or You May Be a Good Partner, But What Am I?)

There is no denying that either by temperament or arrangement poets and painters work alone. Perhaps the intense focus required to get the stroke just right, or to spend half a day inserting and then deleting a single word make people in these two professions especially unsuited to collaborative undertakings. Or perhaps, they just need to find the right partner, a partner that suits their own personality and respects their process. In Dr. Carrie Brown's blog essay “Creativity and Collaboration: It's All About Trust and One Mind Catalyzing Another." she lays out the psychological factors involved in any great collaboration starting with good collaborators. She goes on to argue that an open and trusting mind as well as an honest evaluation of self is the starting point for successful joint projects. Moving on to explain the different approaches to, and types of, collaborative processes, from muses to more direct and engaged collaborations. I found her advice so useful and easy to understand that I made a short checklist out of her piece. This statement especially, seemed to get to the heart of how to handle the friction between collaboration and the lone working conditions that poets and painters are more accustomed to:

"Collaboration does not require constant en face or symbiosis with your chosen partner. Merging and separating at different phases of the work keeps individual identities and energies intact. This maintains a freshness that feeds the mutual process."

Advice seemingly tailor made for lone operators like poets and painters wishing to create together.

Another essay that deals with the psychology of collaboration but containing examples and written in a less scientific way is Joanna Penn's "Create Something Together. Artistic Collaboration in Action. (Penn 1)" from her blog The Creative Penn. Penn goes a step further than Dr. Brown by actually advocating for writer's to begin more collaborations and to explore new genres and mediums to help them discover new ways to write and to help develop new audiences. Penn actually hits on two issues here: the psychological and the "why do it"? So...

Why Collaborate at All?

Robert Miltner in his essay "Where the Visual Meets the Verbal: Collaboration as Conversation" written for on-line magazine Enculturation, lays out in a very detailed way the benefits of collaborations between artists and writers. He takes several detailed looks at successful works by poets such as Frank O'Hara's "Oranges" and an overview of Robert Creeley's more than 40 books of collaborative works. As the Agrippa and Past Lives pieces above already mentioned Miltner quotes poet Charles Simic talking about a third person, or third mind when collaborators are in synch and creating. This extensive and well cited essay ends with this thought as to why poets should seek out artists to work with:

"Collaboration is more than merely responding to art, it is equally an engaging in dialogue between the visual and the verbal artist, initiating an open-ended conversation which transgresses the borders between mediums and builds bridges which both connect artistic communities and create friendships."

Open my mind, build bridges between artistic communities, make friends and create better art. With reasons like theses for motivation—hell I'm all in for collaboration and hybridization.

Laying Down the Rules and Finding a Partner:

As I began to seriously consider a collaboration I decided to leave the rule making until I had found a suitable partner. So I listed a few artists that I knew. None of them excited me to the level I believed was necessary, either because their art was not abstract enough (remember I was trying to move away from a more formulaic poetry, to something different) or because I did not want to spend too much time with them. About to give up I looked across the table I sit at every Wednesday night directly at my friend, my brother, Thanh Duc Vu. Thanh was a conceptual artist working often with multi-media. How I had not thought of him till that moment, I can't fathom. Sometimes you seek the expert that lives far away, while a more expert expert sits across the table. It just shouldn't be that easy. Timing couldn't have been better as he was seeking a reason to begin painting again, after a nearly 5-year hiatus. My project was to be his motivation and his painting was to be mine. The best part of this partnership was that we know each other well, having been through some strange times together while both working in Central Vietnam. Each of us well acquainted with the strengths, weakness and personalities of the other.

Rules:

For Thanh there were three rules:

1) Don't tell me the title of the paintings (this rule developed after the title of the first painting, I believe, affected how I experienced that painting and my poem as well).

2) Paint whatever you wish

3) Answer any question about materials, paints, etc. I ask

For myself I had only two rules:

1) See 1 above

2) Write 4 poems using 4 paintings as starting points

After finishing the final poem, I can only say that the experience has felt transformative, even magical. Three of the poems are so completely unlike anything I have ever written that I am simply amazed. And yet in every one I can hear my voice and see Thanh's painting. I am hopeful that this experience has a long lasting effect on my writing. Regardless, my friend, my brother, the artist Thanh Duc Vu and I have begun to lay out the rules for our next collaboration, perhaps taking our hybridization project to an entirely different place. Maybe even to the world wide web.

In conclusion I would leave any writer or artist considering a collaboration such as ours with this little anecdote. Late one evening sitting in a Florida room in Union Park, Fl. near the end of our little project and while talking about about our art and the processes we use—I sensed another presence at our empties filled table. I became joyous. It was just the three of us; Thanh, myself and the Third Man enjoying each other's company and discussing our craft. Regardless of how well our pieces are received, at that table, on that night we transcended ourselves. Fellow writers if you have never experienced this perhaps it is time to find a partner and practice a little collaboration-hybridization of your own.

Works Cited