Some kind words from and a brief discussion with my Pacific University MFA in Writing classmate, Susan DeFreitas Timmons. Check out her blog for thoughtful posts on writing and life at http://sdefreitastimmons.wordpress.com/.
Word and Flesh: The Strange Worlds of Dennis Y. Ginoza
March 13, 2013 at 6:11 pm (book reviews)
Tags: authors, Dennis Y. Ginoza, Pacific University MFA
I’d like to introduce you to my friend, Dennis Ginoza.
I would, at least, like to think of him as my friend; I certainly would not want him as an enemy. He’s a mysterious figure, you see, a bit of enigma, who tends to spend his time (as far as I can tell) constructing alternate universes of often-alarming brilliance and brutality. He is also one of the finest writers I know.
I started my MFA at Pacific University like so many others who’d been praised, perhaps inordinately, in undergrad, eager to prove myself as an exceptional writer. It requires a great deal of energy, that sort of proving, and I am forever indebted to Dennis for relieving me of it in the course of my second workshop at Pacific.
It was here he dropped the bomb that would come to be known as “Euler’s Identity” (later published by Prime Number, and collected in the first volume of its Editors’ Selections). It is the story of a teenage boy seduced by his math teacher and her mathematics, both of them elegant and beautiful and just a bit cruel. Every sentence of this story sings, and every image casts back the internal dimensions of the story like a hall of mirrors.
Akopos 