now that june is almost over, i’m wondering how many of you were aware that it was national novella month?  if somehow this fact escaped your attention, i can’t really blame you.  june was, after all, also national audiobook month, national safety month, national dairy month, entrepreneurs do-it-yourself marketing month, and (bizarrely, from may 18 to june 17) national smile month, amongst other things.  clearly we have a lot to celebrate in june.

let me start off by saying that my all-time favorite ever piece of writing is a novella (kinda).  it’s called pafko at the wall.  except that it’s not really called that. or, at least, you & i don’t know it as that.  we normally call it the first 49 pages of underworld.  it’s the prologue to one of my favorite novels, and it got re-released (after initially appearing in harper’s as a “folio,” according to wikipedia) by the publisher as a novella after the novel came out.  and if i read it by itself, i might think “wow, that was some beautiful writing, and a cute little story.”  but as part of the novel, it becomes something much larger (as things tend to do in delillo books).

so, right after someone explains to me what the fuck a “folio” is, we can start talking about what a novella is, i suppose, because why on earth else would we be celebrating national novella month, if not to define the damn thing?

the man behind the novella month push, dan wickett, has been soliciting definitions for the last few weeks, including such enlightening explications as this one:

I think of a novella as too long for a story and too short for a novel.

and that comes from a guy who won an NEA fellowship for fiction writing.  another writer’s attempt at definition was slightly more helpful, but really only in the sense that he outlined what short stories do, and what novels do, and proffers that novellas do a little bit of both.  all of which makes me wonder what we’re doing here.

i’m actually on board with national poetry month.  in fact, i’ve got one of their sweet, free posters hanging in my apartment.  poetry feels like something that should be celebrated, and should be a more imperative, integrated part of contemporary american culture.  i don’t know why that is, i just feel like we’re lacking something because we don’t embrace verse like we should.  and i was totally behind mr. wickett’s national short story month drive in may.  that, too, feels like a terrific (but under-appreciated) art form.  but boosting the novella?  really?  that just seems like a fool’s errand to me.  i’m not suggesting we do away with the form, or brush it into the corner with pantoums and triolets.  but novella month seems like the kind of thing unlikely to catch on with the larger public (i.e., outside of writerly-type circles), so i’m wondering if we’re in a little bit of a circle jerk here.

then again, this wouldn’t be the first time i’ve been accused of being a crotchety old man.  so check out the series of novella month posts over at emerging writers network for yourself.  and if you like ridiculous month celebrations, then you can help me start national literary magazine month sometime.

One Response to “novellas are the new villanelles”

1. Shira Richman says:

   June 29, 2010 at 8:41 pm

   For national literary magazine month should we aim for the month with the least or the most celebrations? I am sorry I haven’t been celebrating as much as I should this month. I did see some ads for the dairy month part, so I’ve been eating a lot of cheese to help the cows realize how awesome they are.

   Reply