#thelastnude

[christenclifford]

Celebrating the life of Ellis Avery. Robert, a long hug, a shake of the hands. We talk of Ellis’s determination and growl at each other. Sara in the socks Ellis wrote a haiku about, yellow and orange striped Finnish socks. Four vases of spring flowers, peonies and tulips and white irises. Cassy telling us Ellis said “What’s happening with the book?” Cassy singing in Spanish and we sing along with her. At the end, Ellis’s famous karaoke song, Journey’s Don’t Stop Beliving, and I’m singing along and a tan man in expensive clothe next to me says “you have a good voice”. I’m thinking Ellis would like us to all sing together. I wonder if he’s being bitchy- I do not have a good singing voice- and I think even at a funeral in New York, New Yorkers gonna New York. I introduce myself to Ellis’s sister. Someone pantomiming dancing. “We should all go song karaoke,” I hear. “She has to go to a chemistry class”, “you feel that”, “inspired by her” and I’m here, now in my phone, writing this post. Too much for a moment. Don’t talk about yourself. Don’t talk about cancer. Now I can listen again. Sharon gave us the story of the end. The days that led to death, the low sodium, the way that Sharon can get a laugh from Ellis’s “We really need to talk about that dosage.” So much generosity in that room today, at The Center. There was a wedding happening upstairs. There were kids. There was Nikki Minaj and Nico. There were tears and smiles. I have to be optimistic. I like weddings and funerals. I like memorials. This was beautifully done. “Did I get everything done?” She wanted to love her love by doing all of the death paperwork. I made a pact with Alyssa to finish our books for Ellis. I have my notecards, I have two weeks in New Mexico in July. I have the light and wicked smile of a writer friend in my mind. #ellisavery #memorial #death @lgbtcenternyc #writer #thelastnude #theteahousefire #friendship #writing #love https://www.instagram.com/p/BxoGI4Tl11K/?igshid=dxi4zuok6ao7

[jvnla]

Loving today’s Google doodle! Read more about Art Deco artist Tamara de Lampicka in THE LAST NUDE by Ellis Avery! . . . #tamaradelempicka #thelastnude #ellisavery #googledoodle #artdeco #bookstagram (at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency)

[thecommonmag]

Profound Surrender: An Interview with Ellis Avery

Interview by Melody Nixon.

EA: Up until the age of 38, when my mother died, I would have said an emphatic yes, writing is what gives my life meaning, together with loving and being loved. Life felt like a game where I traded my youth for books I could point to proudly. Maybe I’ll feel that way again one day, either when I’m better or when I’ve made my peace with not getting better.But for now, my brush with mortality—my mother’s and my own—and my subsequent confrontation with chronic pain and disability has made me feel less self-important about my writing, less product-driven and more process-oriented. The fiction I’m working on, I’m doing for pleasure, not out of a need to prove myself to the world (or to the imaginary biographer, who is probably my mother) as a novelist.I still write daily haiku: I think keeping my senses open to each day’s unique flash of beauty and humor—and finding the words with which to share it—is what gives my life most meaning. That, and love. To be honest, it feels like I’m playing a different game right now, one where life gets increasingly difficult, but if you can find something to be grateful for all the way to the end, you win. By those rules, I’m batting a thousand.

Read the full interview here.

Ellis Avery is an accomplished author, editor, and teacher. Her first novel, The Teahouse Fire, won a Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Debut Fiction, a Stonewall Book Award, and an Ohioana Library Award. Her second novel, The Last Nude, also won a Stonewall Award. Avery edits the Public Streets column at Public Books, and writes daily haiku poems on Twitter—a year’s selection of which have been recently published as her first volume of poetry, Broken Rooms.

Melody Nixon, a New Zealand-born writer living in New York City and Stuttgart, Germany, is the Interviews Editor for The Common.

[the-introverted-blogger-blo-blog]

'cause baby you fit me better than my favorite sweater. #vscocam #sweaterweather #thelastnude #lanadelrey