Remember that Web site Stuff White People Like? Or that other Web site, the Angry Journalist? If they got together and made a baby, it'd be Stuff Journalists Like.
You can learn that journalists like things such as reporter's notebooks (#15), writing standing up (#84), free food (#30) and procrastinating (#63).
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
The stuff of common jokes
Woman: What do you do?
Man: Me? Oh, I write books.
Woman: How interesting! Have you sold anything recently?
Man: Why, yes. My couch, my car and my flat-screen television.
A snarkier writer-father might have added, “and I sold those things to pay for your private school tuition!” But instead it got me thinking that there was a real problem here. Not just a small problem involving issues of respect between one writer and one teenager, but rather a national problem of respect where being a writer has become so widely associated with being a loser that we have become the stuff of common jokes.
Ah, I think anyone in my writing group relates to this idea. And all my journalist-newspaper-writing friends feel some empathy here too.
From Bail out the writers! in the New York Times.
Man: Me? Oh, I write books.
Woman: How interesting! Have you sold anything recently?
Man: Why, yes. My couch, my car and my flat-screen television.
A snarkier writer-father might have added, “and I sold those things to pay for your private school tuition!” But instead it got me thinking that there was a real problem here. Not just a small problem involving issues of respect between one writer and one teenager, but rather a national problem of respect where being a writer has become so widely associated with being a loser that we have become the stuff of common jokes.
Ah, I think anyone in my writing group relates to this idea. And all my journalist-newspaper-writing friends feel some empathy here too.
From Bail out the writers! in the New York Times.
Read it and weep
The end of days is here for the publishing industry -- or it sure seems like it. On Dec. 3, now known as "Black Wednesday," several major American publishers were dramatically downsized, leaving many celebrated editors and their colleagues jobless. The bad news stretches from the unemployment line to bookstores to literature itself.
Read it here on Salon.
Read it here on Salon.
Friday, December 19, 2008
How To Write Your Memoir
From Reader's Digest:
You don't need to have had a hardscrabble youth in order to write a memoir. You don't need eccentric parents. Believe it or not, you don't need anything dramatic. And you certainly don't have to publish it.
Read the full story here.
You don't need to have had a hardscrabble youth in order to write a memoir. You don't need eccentric parents. Believe it or not, you don't need anything dramatic. And you certainly don't have to publish it.
Read the full story here.
More best-of lists
This guy totally schooled me in how to collect best-of lists.
Largehearted boy, a music blog, has gathered up dozens and dozens of these things here.
The list is even subdivided by category -- audiobooks, comics and graphic novels, science, teens, und so weiter.
It's truly an impressive roundup.
Largehearted boy, a music blog, has gathered up dozens and dozens of these things here.
The list is even subdivided by category -- audiobooks, comics and graphic novels, science, teens, und so weiter.
It's truly an impressive roundup.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Turning political scandal into literary gold
OK, I don't know if it's literary gold, but Salon's imagination of the Blago scandal is entertaining. Combine FBI-recorded conversations with some David Mamet and you get Glengarry Rod Blagojevich:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, AKA BLAGO, the governor of Illinois, is at his tacky Ravenswood home, on the phone. His wife is sprawled on the couch behind him, petting a fur coat made entirely of hundreds of white kittens. Blago waves a copy of the Chicago Tribune as he speaks.
Read the whole thing on Salon here.
ROD BLAGOJEVICH, AKA BLAGO, the governor of Illinois, is at his tacky Ravenswood home, on the phone. His wife is sprawled on the couch behind him, petting a fur coat made entirely of hundreds of white kittens. Blago waves a copy of the Chicago Tribune as he speaks.
Read the whole thing on Salon here.
Writer=artist?
Artists at Work Forum: How to Turn Your Art Into a Career
Join local artists (photographer Dawoud Bey, public artist Juan Angel Chavez, painter and professor Joyce Owens, and artist, poet, and actor Tony Fitzpatrick) as they share their secrets to success and missteps on the way to becoming successful artists. FREE at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E Washington St). 6-7:30pm. 312-744-6630.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Join local artists (photographer Dawoud Bey, public artist Juan Angel Chavez, painter and professor Joyce Owens, and artist, poet, and actor Tony Fitzpatrick) as they share their secrets to success and missteps on the way to becoming successful artists. FREE at the Chicago Cultural Center (78 E Washington St). 6-7:30pm. 312-744-6630.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Stupendously ultimate first paragraph
Have you written a stupendously awesome first paragraph to a work in progress? If so, maybe think about entering lit agent Nathan Bransford's blog contest. The winner will get "their choice of a partial critique, query critique or 15 minute phone conversation in which we can discuss topics ranging from reality TV shows to, you know, publishing. Your choice. Runners up will receive query critiques and/or other agreed-upon prizes."
Details on Bransford's blog here.
Details on Bransford's blog here.
Monkeying around
Imagine a nursing home attendant escorting a very hirsute, very old George Burns into the solarium, and you're halfway to picturing the scene. The sinewy, solemn, 4-foot-tall Cheeta, somewhat grizzled and a bit threadbare, stared straight ahead. It wasn't easy reconciling this character with the lovable scamp who had made a career out of getting Tarzan out of serious trouble.
Just a little monkey business for good reading. From Lie of the Jungle: The Truth about Cheeta the Chimpanzee in the Washington Post.
Ayatollahs of books...
The last straw came when the group picked “The Da Vinci Code” and someone suggested the discussion would be enriched by delving into the author’s source material. “It was bad enough that they wanted to read ‘Da Vinci Code’ in the first place,” Ms. Bowie said, “but then they wanted to talk about it.” She quit shortly after, making up a polite excuse: “I told the organizer, ‘You’re reading fiction, and I’m reading history right now.’ ”
From "Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?" in the New York Times.
From "Fought Over Any Good Books Lately?" in the New York Times.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The good news about being rejected?
All it takes is one rejection letter to make you an instant life member of a club whose luminaries include Walt Whitman, J.K. Rowling and Dr. Seuss.
From 10 Hidden Gifts of Rejection Letters in the Guide to Literary Agents.
From 10 Hidden Gifts of Rejection Letters in the Guide to Literary Agents.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Overwhelmed by all the book options in year-end round-ups?
Maybe looking at a top 10 list (instead of top 100, top 50, top by a million different categories) is more manageable? If so, we can turn again to the New York Times. The best part of this list? Almost all of them have excerpts or the full first chapter posted with summary.
Five fiction and five nonfiction choices are listed. But you don't have to take my word for it! I haven't read ANY (the shame, the shame!) so I can offer no verdicts on their recommendations.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
6900...
....languages spoken in the world.
Who, outside the linguistics profession, knew that one thing Chinese and Icelandic have in common is that they both resist borrowing words from other languages?
For language lovers, the NY Times Papercuts blogs suggests “One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost.”
Details at Papercuts here and at the University of California Press here.
Who, outside the linguistics profession, knew that one thing Chinese and Icelandic have in common is that they both resist borrowing words from other languages?
For language lovers, the NY Times Papercuts blogs suggests “One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost.”
Details at Papercuts here and at the University of California Press here.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Are we human or are we dancer?
I just needed something to take my mind away from words. And dancing is not words.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Where they write.
Writers' Rooms: A slideshow from the BBC.
See: typewriters, laptops, books books books, piles, minimalism, maximalism, red, white, orthopedic chairs, track lighting.
See: typewriters, laptops, books books books, piles, minimalism, maximalism, red, white, orthopedic chairs, track lighting.
Your life, in 500 words
Opium magazine is hosting a contest for 500-word memoirs. Think you've got a winning life and winning words?
Details are here. Deadline is February 2009.
Details are here. Deadline is February 2009.
Best books round-up
The best nonfiction from the Christian Science Monitor here.
100 notable books from the New York Times here.
Best books from NPR here.
BONUS: Bad Sex in Fiction Awards from the Literary Review. An excerpt from an "honorable" mention:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (Sceptre)
If Dawn Madden's breasts were a pair of Danishes, Debby Crombie's got two Space Hoppers. Each armed with a gribbly nipple. Tom Yew kissed them in turn and his saliva glistened in the April sun. I know watching was wrong but I couldn't not. Tom Yew slipped off her red panties and stroked the cressy hair there.
100 notable books from the New York Times here.
Best books from NPR here.
BONUS: Bad Sex in Fiction Awards from the Literary Review. An excerpt from an "honorable" mention:
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (Sceptre)
If Dawn Madden's breasts were a pair of Danishes, Debby Crombie's got two Space Hoppers. Each armed with a gribbly nipple. Tom Yew kissed them in turn and his saliva glistened in the April sun. I know watching was wrong but I couldn't not. Tom Yew slipped off her red panties and stroked the cressy hair there.
Scary, scary, scary.
There are no other words for this: "Indians are writing about everything from the Pasadena Christmas tree-lighting ceremony to kitchen remodeling to city debates about eliminating plastic shopping bags."
Outsourcing reporters and editors? Owwiiieee. It hurts so much inside. I've read about it before, but this Maureen Dowd column just drives it home for me. I refuse to believe this is the real future of journalism.
Outsourcing reporters and editors? Owwiiieee. It hurts so much inside. I've read about it before, but this Maureen Dowd column just drives it home for me. I refuse to believe this is the real future of journalism.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Post Script.
My apologies for the absence. I was up in the hills of Virginia, a land rife with deer and bears and wildlife but devoid of high speed InterWebz. Dial-up does not cut it for blogging.
The Atlantis of the Midwest
I live in New York City, but all around me are people talking all the time about Chicago. Some of these people even claim to have lived there, and I feel terrible for them. It was actually inspired by a raft of exiles who arrived in New York City not long after I did. They were clearly happy to be here, but all they could talk about was how great Chicago was, how affordable—until it started getting gentrified, and now it’s all shit, and so they had to move to New York. Talk about your age-old stories, like the hipster diaspora of people who leave one place because it got gentrified and turned to shit—how you used to be able to get a thousand whiskies for a cent, and all the bands were awesome, and people were nicer.
John Hodgman on Chicago, via the Decider
John Hodgman on Chicago, via the Decider
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Can women write about big ideas?
Blogging about blogging about blogging:
Never one to shy away from controversy, veteran feminist warrior Germaine Greer has kicked off a new controversy in the blogosphere. In writing about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “The Outliers,” Greer asked why women don’t write “big idea” books.
From the Christian Science Monitor.
Never one to shy away from controversy, veteran feminist warrior Germaine Greer has kicked off a new controversy in the blogosphere. In writing about Malcolm Gladwell’s new book “The Outliers,” Greer asked why women don’t write “big idea” books.
From the Christian Science Monitor.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Fifty years of popular songs condensed into single sentences:
The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
I want to do it with you.
Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On"
I want to do it with you.
Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Baby Got Back"
I want to do it.
Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog"
You're doing it with everyone.
R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"
I believe I want to do it with you.
...and so on.
By Marc Haynes in McSweeney's.
I want to do it with you.
Marvin Gaye, "Let's Get It On"
I want to do it with you.
Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Baby Got Back"
I want to do it.
Elvis Presley, "Hound Dog"
You're doing it with everyone.
R. Kelly, "I Believe I Can Fly"
I believe I want to do it with you.
...and so on.
By Marc Haynes in McSweeney's.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
fiction. contest. fictional contest?
Narrative magazine's fall fiction contest accepts submissions through Nov. 30. Details here.
Submission fee, but big bucks for winners.
Submission fee, but big bucks for winners.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Splinter Generation
I, for one, think that Splinter Generation sounds much better than all those other stupid names people have tried to give us: Gen Y, the Pepsi Generation (wait, did Pepsi to dub us that?), the Millennials...
What’s Wrong with Generation Y (or any of those other millions of names we have)?
What does Generation Y even mean? What does the Google Generation even mean? We’ve been called Generation Y, Generation Me, the Google Generation, Generation DotNet, Millennials, and Generation 9-11 ... the list goes on forever. None of these names seem to fit. Sure, we use the internet; yes, 9-11 was a formative political experience; true, the letter Y comes after the letter X. But I argue that these names don’t sufficiently capture who we are as a group. They don’t capture who we are as a generation.
We offer the Splinter Generation as a possible alternative. Use it if you like it. Don’t use it if you hate it. Just please, for the love of God, stop calling us Generation Y.
From Splinter Generation, writing by and for those of us under 35
What’s Wrong with Generation Y (or any of those other millions of names we have)?
What does Generation Y even mean? What does the Google Generation even mean? We’ve been called Generation Y, Generation Me, the Google Generation, Generation DotNet, Millennials, and Generation 9-11 ... the list goes on forever. None of these names seem to fit. Sure, we use the internet; yes, 9-11 was a formative political experience; true, the letter Y comes after the letter X. But I argue that these names don’t sufficiently capture who we are as a group. They don’t capture who we are as a generation.
We offer the Splinter Generation as a possible alternative. Use it if you like it. Don’t use it if you hate it. Just please, for the love of God, stop calling us Generation Y.
From Splinter Generation, writing by and for those of us under 35
Economists: Novels can explain world problems
Did we not believe this before some economists said something? Didn't all of us readers think that fiction has a powerful way of teaching truths about the human experience?
Those of us who were lit majors have known it all along: The novel works better than academic literature to explain global problems. But now some economists are validating that notion.
“Despite the regular flow of academic studies, expert reports, and policy position papers, it is arguably novelists who do as good a job – if not a better one – of representing and communicating the realities of international development,” says Dr. Dennis Rodgers from England’s Manchester University’s Brooks World Poverty Institute.
From "Why novels are best at explaining world problems" in the Christian Science Monitor.
Those of us who were lit majors have known it all along: The novel works better than academic literature to explain global problems. But now some economists are validating that notion.
“Despite the regular flow of academic studies, expert reports, and policy position papers, it is arguably novelists who do as good a job – if not a better one – of representing and communicating the realities of international development,” says Dr. Dennis Rodgers from England’s Manchester University’s Brooks World Poverty Institute.
From "Why novels are best at explaining world problems" in the Christian Science Monitor.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
"Brains are back!"
After eight years of proud incuriosity and anti-intellectualism, we now have a leader who values nuance and careful thought.
What Obama's election means, above all, is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one's enemies and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back.
From Michael Hirsh in Newsweek.
As a writer (ok, ok, and a liberal), it's wonderfully refreshing that the nation's leader is an intellectual, a former professor, and a scholar of constitutional law. Sure, Laura Bush was a librarian and George Bush read Camus. But this, this is different.
As Toni Morrison and Jonathan Safran Foer look forward to this administration, so do I (see: Writers welcome a more literary president-elect in Barack Obama).
What Obama's election means, above all, is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one's enemies and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back.
From Michael Hirsh in Newsweek.
As a writer (ok, ok, and a liberal), it's wonderfully refreshing that the nation's leader is an intellectual, a former professor, and a scholar of constitutional law. Sure, Laura Bush was a librarian and George Bush read Camus. But this, this is different.
As Toni Morrison and Jonathan Safran Foer look forward to this administration, so do I (see: Writers welcome a more literary president-elect in Barack Obama).
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
That's KABLAMMO.
You are: A writer with great work that begs to be submitted to a lit mag.
Kablammo is: A new literary magazine seeking new voices. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. 5,000 words or less.
Email your best stuff to: kablammomag (at) gmail.com. ALSO SEE the Kablammo Web site.
Handy-dandy writing tool
A place to find deadlines and calls for submissions from a variety of lit mags:
NewPages Call for Submissions -- a great source for possible submissions, ranging all over, from Alimentum (food-related creative writings) to the Green Mountains Review (out of Vermont) and MUCH more.
Check. It. Out.
NewPages Call for Submissions -- a great source for possible submissions, ranging all over, from Alimentum (food-related creative writings) to the Green Mountains Review (out of Vermont) and MUCH more.
Check. It. Out.
A day late...
and a dollar short:
Poems for election day, via the New York Times, by some of the country's leading poets.
From John Ashbery (a tiny excerpt):
The old mule delivers the goods.
Nugatory diddlings are on the decline.
Stateliness has its day.
JD McClatchy may be a bit more literal with his (also an excerpt):
The older couples had voted just after dawn,
And by noon the exit polls are underway.
Some talking head opines in San Jose.
My poster is mute and silent on the lawn.
Three more at the Times.
Poems for election day, via the New York Times, by some of the country's leading poets.
From John Ashbery (a tiny excerpt):
The old mule delivers the goods.
Nugatory diddlings are on the decline.
Stateliness has its day.
JD McClatchy may be a bit more literal with his (also an excerpt):
The older couples had voted just after dawn,
And by noon the exit polls are underway.
Some talking head opines in San Jose.
My poster is mute and silent on the lawn.
Three more at the Times.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
How to Read Like a President
From the New York Times:
You can tell a lot about a president — or a presidential candidate — by what he reads, or says he reads. We know the iconic examples: George Washington and his rules of civility, Thomas Jefferson and the thinkers of the French and Scottish Enlightenments, Lincoln and the Bible and Shakespeare. Though a generation apart, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt both loved Alfred Thayer Mahan’s “Influence of Sea Power Upon History” and savored the imperial poems of Kipling. Together such works created a kind of Anglo-American ethos in their minds — an ethos Franklin Roosevelt would make concrete during World War II, when he and Winston Churchill quoted Edward Lear’s nonsense rhymes to each other as they fought Hitler and Japan.
Read it here.
You can tell a lot about a president — or a presidential candidate — by what he reads, or says he reads. We know the iconic examples: George Washington and his rules of civility, Thomas Jefferson and the thinkers of the French and Scottish Enlightenments, Lincoln and the Bible and Shakespeare. Though a generation apart, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt both loved Alfred Thayer Mahan’s “Influence of Sea Power Upon History” and savored the imperial poems of Kipling. Together such works created a kind of Anglo-American ethos in their minds — an ethos Franklin Roosevelt would make concrete during World War II, when he and Winston Churchill quoted Edward Lear’s nonsense rhymes to each other as they fought Hitler and Japan.
Read it here.
Friday, October 31, 2008
submitsubmitsubmit
The Chicago Reader is taking submissions for their annual fiction issue. Submit now through Nov. 10 -- details are here.
We can't neglect NaNoWriMo.
Feeling all jazzed up, hopped up, caff'd up and ready to write?
Want to commit a month of your free time to nonstop novel action?
It's that time of year: National Novel Writing Month (aka, NaNoWriMo)! Beginning Nov. 1, a whole bunch of crazy people will attempt to write novels in ONE MONTH. I have not done this, and thus I cannot recommend it. But I know a few brave souls who have participated, and I admire their tenacity and hearty embrace of creative discipline.
More details at NaNoWriMo's official site.
Start stretching your typing fingers and outlining now, if you're willing to take the plunge.
Want to commit a month of your free time to nonstop novel action?
It's that time of year: National Novel Writing Month (aka, NaNoWriMo)! Beginning Nov. 1, a whole bunch of crazy people will attempt to write novels in ONE MONTH. I have not done this, and thus I cannot recommend it. But I know a few brave souls who have participated, and I admire their tenacity and hearty embrace of creative discipline.
More details at NaNoWriMo's official site.
Start stretching your typing fingers and outlining now, if you're willing to take the plunge.
Happy happy joy joy...
New place for fiction on the Web: Joyland.
Joyland is dedicated to finding a new way to publish short fiction. We’ve chosen several editors to select and post stories by authors in a given locale.
Editors in Toronto, Chicago, LA, Montreal, New York and Vancouver (the site started in Canada).
Cause for celebration? A regional spin on fiction submissions.
Joyland is dedicated to finding a new way to publish short fiction. We’ve chosen several editors to select and post stories by authors in a given locale.
Editors in Toronto, Chicago, LA, Montreal, New York and Vancouver (the site started in Canada).
The Offutt Guide to Literary Terms
memoir: From the Latin memoria, meaning “memory,” a popular form in which the writer remembers entire passages of dialogue from the past, with the ultimate goal of blaming the writer’s parents for his current psychological challenges.
short story: An essay written to conceal the truth and protect the writer’s family.
chick lit: A patriarchal term of oppression for heterosexual female writing; also, a marketing means to phenomenal readership and prominent bookstore space.
pop culture essay: An essay written by someone who prefers to shop or watch television.
short story: An essay written to conceal the truth and protect the writer’s family.
chick lit: A patriarchal term of oppression for heterosexual female writing; also, a marketing means to phenomenal readership and prominent bookstore space.
pop culture essay: An essay written by someone who prefers to shop or watch television.
Excerpts of an excerpt in Harpers.
Written by Chris Offut.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
A few months ago, I read Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a slowly paced character meditation through the voice of an aging minister. The book won a Pulitzer, which seemed promising, but I never quite fell into it or truly understood it. This profile of the author helps me understand... why I was so far out of touch with the novel.
Sure enough, here are the multivolume "Commentaries" of the great 16th-century Protestant theologian, whom Robinson considers one of the most falsely caricatured figures in history. Here are the two volumes of Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion," without which she thinks you can't understand Herman Melville. Surrounding these are a multitude of other theological and educational works, few less than a century old.
...
As a constant reader growing up in Idaho in the 1940s and '50s, she was obsessed with, among other things, the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "You can't believe how much Poe poetry I can recite to this day," she says now.
A demonstration is requested. She responds with the opening lines of "Alone":
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from the common spring.
Poe wrote these lines in 1830. But they could just as easily have been written by Marilynne Robinson in 2008.
From "At 'Home' With the Past" in The Washington Post
Another profile in The Times of London calls her the world's best writer of prose...
Sure enough, here are the multivolume "Commentaries" of the great 16th-century Protestant theologian, whom Robinson considers one of the most falsely caricatured figures in history. Here are the two volumes of Calvin's "Institutes of the Christian Religion," without which she thinks you can't understand Herman Melville. Surrounding these are a multitude of other theological and educational works, few less than a century old.
...
As a constant reader growing up in Idaho in the 1940s and '50s, she was obsessed with, among other things, the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "You can't believe how much Poe poetry I can recite to this day," she says now.
A demonstration is requested. She responds with the opening lines of "Alone":
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from the common spring.
Poe wrote these lines in 1830. But they could just as easily have been written by Marilynne Robinson in 2008.
From "At 'Home' With the Past" in The Washington Post
Another profile in The Times of London calls her the world's best writer of prose...
Friday, October 17, 2008
Show me the money...
Seth Abramson, who blogs at The Suburban Ecstasies (his site) and on the MFA blog, has written a great round-up of MFA program funding for Poets & Writers magazine.
Today, the top candidates for the nation's most selective MFA programs can expect free tuition, free health insurance, and no student fees during the two to four years of their graduate study in addition to a generous stipend for living expenses—sometimes without having anything expected of them in return besides producing their best creative work.
The full story (titled "Show Me the Money") is here (and linked via his own blog posts...).
Poets & Writers also has an updated MFA Tool Kit with info on teaching assistantships, the application process, a listing of US programs and more.
Today, the top candidates for the nation's most selective MFA programs can expect free tuition, free health insurance, and no student fees during the two to four years of their graduate study in addition to a generous stipend for living expenses—sometimes without having anything expected of them in return besides producing their best creative work.
The full story (titled "Show Me the Money") is here (and linked via his own blog posts...).
Poets & Writers also has an updated MFA Tool Kit with info on teaching assistantships, the application process, a listing of US programs and more.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Right Stuff!
Author Tom Wolfe will speak Thursday, 6 p.m., at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. The free event is full BUT they'll have video feed in the library, and if you get there early, you could try to beg your way in. He'll hang out for book signing afterward...
Details here.
Details here.
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
Aravind Adiga, 33, won the 40th Man Booker prize on Tuesday night for his debut novel, “The White Tiger,” a vivid exploration of India’s class struggle told through the story of a village boy who becomes the chauffeur to a rich man.
From the New York Times.
ALSO: 2008 National Book Award Nominees announced
From the New York Times.
ALSO: 2008 National Book Award Nominees announced
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Maybe it's better to be a late bloomer...
Genius, in the popular conception, is inextricably tied up with precocity—doing something truly creative, we’re inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth.
What happens when an economist sets out to quantify whether genius happens early in life... or later? David Galenson polled a group of literary scholars about what they consider the top poems in the 20th Century American canon.
The top eleven are, in order, T. S. Eliot’s “Prufrock,” Robert Lowell’s “Skunk Hour,” Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” William Carlos Williams’s “Red Wheelbarrow,” Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish,” Ezra Pound’s “The River Merchant’s Wife,” Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” Frost’s “Mending Wall,” Wallace Stevens’s “The Snow Man,” and Williams’s “The Dance.” Those eleven were composed at the ages of twenty-three, forty-one, forty-eight, forty, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty, twenty-eight, thirty-eight, forty-two, and fifty-nine, respectively. There is no evidence, Galenson concluded, for the notion that lyric poetry is a young person’s game. Some poets do their best work at the beginning of their careers. Others do their best work decades later. Forty-two per cent of Frost’s anthologized poems were written after the age of fifty. For Williams, it’s forty-four per cent. For Stevens, it’s forty-nine per cent.
I'm starting to feel better about not having a book deal at age 9...
From Late Bloomers by Malcom Gladwell in the New Yorker.
Art also from the New Yorker.
AND more good reading in the New Yorker:
Sleep by Roddy Doyle.
It was the thing he’d always loved about her. The way she could sleep. When they’d just started going with each other, before they really knew each other, he’d lie awake, hoping she’d wake up, praying for it, dying. But even then he’d loved to look at her while she slept. There was something about it that made him feel lucky, or privileged. Or trusted. She could do that beside him, turn everything off, all the defenses, and let him watch her.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Boy genius?
Do you ever feel shame, failure, low self-esteem, or a disheartening sense of aging when you hear about those prodigious authors who land book deals at freakishly young ages? The still-in-college, winning-rave-reviews, Pulitzer-finalist types make me feel so... inadequate.
Case in point: Alec Greven, a 9-year-old Colorado resident, has a TWO BOOK DEAL with HarperCollins. His books: "How to Talk to Girls" and "How to Talk to Girls II." I can't make this stuff up.
Among his tips:
– You’re better off with a “regular girl” than a “pretty girl.” (Alec defines pretty girls as the ones who wear “fancy earrings, fancy dresses, all those shoes.”) According to Alec, “about 73 percent of regular girls ditch boys, 98 percent of pretty girls ditch boys.”
From "A 9-year-old author tells us ‘How to Talk to Girls’" in the Christian Science Monitor.
Case in point: Alec Greven, a 9-year-old Colorado resident, has a TWO BOOK DEAL with HarperCollins. His books: "How to Talk to Girls" and "How to Talk to Girls II." I can't make this stuff up.
Among his tips:
– You’re better off with a “regular girl” than a “pretty girl.” (Alec defines pretty girls as the ones who wear “fancy earrings, fancy dresses, all those shoes.”) According to Alec, “about 73 percent of regular girls ditch boys, 98 percent of pretty girls ditch boys.”
From "A 9-year-old author tells us ‘How to Talk to Girls’" in the Christian Science Monitor.
Friday, October 10, 2008
My copy editor died.
Well, not my copy editor. Someone else's copy editor.
My copy editor died.
No need to be upset on my account. I hadn’t seen Helene Pleasants for at least 10 years before her death; and even those closest to her would agree that her death was timely. After a long life, with one great adventure at its heart, many pleasures and pitfalls, Helene died at the age of 93. Hopefully, she died in her sleep. Helene would have killed me for that last sentence.
....
“You need Helene” was a phrase I used only last year when a writer, just starting out, asked me to read his first manuscript. I read the manuscript with Helene’s eye and ear, which is the way I read everything. What Helene taught me I can’t unlearn, any more than I can unlearn how to swim. And when I had finished reading, I made this young writer an offer:
“I had Helene,” I said. “You need a Helene. If you like, I’ll be your Helene.” But when my writer realized what having a Helene meant — his sentences picked apart, his every intention and decision questioned — he politely declined. I hardly blame him. I’d like to believe that he’ll rue the day, but I doubt it. Nobody has Helene’s standards; nobody reads like Helene anymore. And I’ve changed my mind: it is a pity that Helene died. As long as she lived, I could still think of myself as a young writer.
From What My Copy Editor Taught Me in the New York Times.
My copy editor died.
No need to be upset on my account. I hadn’t seen Helene Pleasants for at least 10 years before her death; and even those closest to her would agree that her death was timely. After a long life, with one great adventure at its heart, many pleasures and pitfalls, Helene died at the age of 93. Hopefully, she died in her sleep. Helene would have killed me for that last sentence.
....
“You need Helene” was a phrase I used only last year when a writer, just starting out, asked me to read his first manuscript. I read the manuscript with Helene’s eye and ear, which is the way I read everything. What Helene taught me I can’t unlearn, any more than I can unlearn how to swim. And when I had finished reading, I made this young writer an offer:
“I had Helene,” I said. “You need a Helene. If you like, I’ll be your Helene.” But when my writer realized what having a Helene meant — his sentences picked apart, his every intention and decision questioned — he politely declined. I hardly blame him. I’d like to believe that he’ll rue the day, but I doubt it. Nobody has Helene’s standards; nobody reads like Helene anymore. And I’ve changed my mind: it is a pity that Helene died. As long as she lived, I could still think of myself as a young writer.
From What My Copy Editor Taught Me in the New York Times.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Consonants and vowels about Sarah Vowell...
Ask Sarah Vowell a simple question -- like, say, "What turned you into the kind of person who would immerse yourself in the writings of 17th-century New England Puritans and write a book about them?" -- and within five minutes she's telling you about the time she became a human paintbrush in a piece of performance art.
From Then Meditation: For Sarah Vowell, the Past and Present Are Always in the Picture in Wednesday's Washington Post.
From Then Meditation: For Sarah Vowell, the Past and Present Are Always in the Picture in Wednesday's Washington Post.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Have you ever found yourself saying...
...gee, I wish it appeared I had a lot more books? Say, a veritable library of books?
Well, thank goodness, the interior design world has come to the rescue.
Maybe you could use some wallpaper?
Friday, October 3, 2008
Book Club Fiction
Love: the idea of "book club fiction," discussed by lit agent Nathan Bransford on his blog, This Week in Publishing.
Around the publishing industry there has long been a hankering for a certain type of book that is both literary and yet commercial, familiar and yet exotic, well-written but not too dense, accessible but with some depth. They are books that are kind of tough to categorize, because they don't exactly fit into any one genre. I'd often hear people calling them either literary commercial fiction or commercial literary fiction.
But during my last trip to New York I heard an apt label for this category: book club fiction*. And lots of editors want it.
What books are in this category? Think:
LIFE OF PI
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE
THE KITE RUNNER
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED
THE LOVELY BONES
SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Link to the posting is here, but check out This Week in Publishing in general for some helpful tips on querying lit agents, publishing insight and other good inside-baseball (inside-publishing) tidbits.
From his post:
But during my last trip to New York I heard an apt label for this category: book club fiction*. And lots of editors want it.
What books are in this category? Think:
LIFE OF PI
CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT TIME
THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE
THE KITE RUNNER
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED
THE LOVELY BONES
SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Link to the posting is here, but check out This Week in Publishing in general for some helpful tips on querying lit agents, publishing insight and other good inside-baseball (inside-publishing) tidbits.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Sarah Palin: Contemporary poet?
From Slate:
"On Good and Evil"
It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.
That's not a good guy.
(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)
See the full story here.
"On Good and Evil"
It is obvious to me
Who the good guys are in this one
And who the bad guys are.
The bad guys are the ones
Who say Israel is a stinking corpse,
And should be wiped off
The face of the earth.
That's not a good guy.
(To K. Couric, CBS News, Sept. 25, 2008)
See the full story here.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
European lit scene blows giant raspberry at American authors
The Associated Press is reporting that the Nobel prize for literature will likely not go to an American.
The lede:
Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.
Ouch. The story is posted on the New York Times' site.
The lede:
Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.
Ouch. The story is posted on the New York Times' site.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tools of the trade
*A round-up of Chicago writing classes/workshops:
Newberry Library: Adult education seminars are affordable (prices vary but one example: 8 classes for $160) and generally at convenient times.
Graham School (at the University of Chicago): The Writer's Studio offers a certificate in creative writing and open enrollment classes. Open enrollment classes cost $545 for the 08-09 school year.
University of Illinois at Chicago Writers Series: Classes include practical business oriented writing to story workshops. Prices range from $275-475.
StoryStudio Chicago: Good selection of class schedules and time commitments. Typical cost per course: $375.
The Writers Loft: This web site is intense. I have no idea how much the workshops cost.
*Classes not leading to some sort of degree, available a la carte or towards specific certificates. Please comment if you know of other options. At a later date, we'll look at MFA options locally/regionally.
*Classes not leading to some sort of degree, available a la carte or towards specific certificates. Please comment if you know of other options. At a later date, we'll look at MFA options locally/regionally.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Abbreviated lives.
Can you sum up your life in six words?For example:
- Is beefcake one word or two?
- Wanted: love, affirmation, hugs, freedom, chalupas.
- Stop asking me about band camp!
- He pampered me with sensual pedicures!
Six-word memoirs brought to us by Smith Magazine.
Chi-lit-event!
Prose ShowFrom the Literary Writers Network
With work from Thousand Fibers contributor Stephen Markley!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: Mercury Cafe
Street: 1505 W. Chicago Ave.
City/Town: Chicago, IL
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Forget the Pulitzer. Aim for a "genius" grant.
$500,000, no strings attached.
This year's list of MacArthur Foundation felllowship winners includes one young writer, Chimamanda Adichie, "who illuminates the complexities of human experience in works inspired by events in her native Nigeria." Her book, Half of a Yellow Sun, is next on my to-read list.
Details about Adichie's life and work are here; full list of this year's winners here.
This year's list of MacArthur Foundation felllowship winners includes one young writer, Chimamanda Adichie, "who illuminates the complexities of human experience in works inspired by events in her native Nigeria." Her book, Half of a Yellow Sun, is next on my to-read list.
Details about Adichie's life and work are here; full list of this year's winners here.
Monday, September 22, 2008
We can't all write books about whales...
David Gessner, a professor and writer, considers life as a teacher/author in the New York Times. The article says what we all know: you gotta make some bread to make some butter. Wait, I totally screwed up that metaphor. But you get what I mean.
An excerpt:
Writers who have been lucky enough to land these gigs are inclined to talk — when we aren’t grumbling — about their good fortune in sensible language, citing all that is sane, healthy, balanced and economically viable about their jobs. But another question is discussed less. What exactly does all this teaching do to our writing? And what, if anything, does it mean for a country to have a tenured literature?
An excerpt:
Writers who have been lucky enough to land these gigs are inclined to talk — when we aren’t grumbling — about their good fortune in sensible language, citing all that is sane, healthy, balanced and economically viable about their jobs. But another question is discussed less. What exactly does all this teaching do to our writing? And what, if anything, does it mean for a country to have a tenured literature?
Vacation reading
Chicago lit event:
Deb Olin Unferth reads at Quimby's on Sat., Sept. 27. Info here.
From the Village Voice review of her new novel:
Vacation, Deb Olin Unferth's dreamy, surreal debut novel, reads like an extended hallucination or out-of-body experience, as unsettling as it is compelling. The fragmented narrative is an intricate cross-hatch of character and misprision: A man named Meyers stalks his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair with an old acquaintance named Gray. The wife, never named, follows Gray across Manhattan, but it's a random, compulsive pastime she engages in while her marriage unravels; she doesn't know Gray, doesn't know he's her husband's friend, doesn't know that Gray's own marriage has ended. Meanwhile, a young woman seeks the biological father she has never met, an eco-terrorist who liberates captive dolphins.
Now for some unfortunate news: We missed Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting and Crime) at the Metro’s new reading series, Read Against Recession. Bummer.
Deb Olin Unferth reads at Quimby's on Sat., Sept. 27. Info here.
From the Village Voice review of her new novel:
Vacation, Deb Olin Unferth's dreamy, surreal debut novel, reads like an extended hallucination or out-of-body experience, as unsettling as it is compelling. The fragmented narrative is an intricate cross-hatch of character and misprision: A man named Meyers stalks his wife, whom he suspects is having an affair with an old acquaintance named Gray. The wife, never named, follows Gray across Manhattan, but it's a random, compulsive pastime she engages in while her marriage unravels; she doesn't know Gray, doesn't know he's her husband's friend, doesn't know that Gray's own marriage has ended. Meanwhile, a young woman seeks the biological father she has never met, an eco-terrorist who liberates captive dolphins.
Now for some unfortunate news: We missed Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting and Crime) at the Metro’s new reading series, Read Against Recession. Bummer.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Big and Ugly
The latest issue of the Big Ugly Review is live, with the theme fight or flight.
The image to the right (->) is from a photo essay in this issue.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
How writers make a living...
Narrative has an essay on the fact that writers can rarely support themselves through writing alone.
An excerpt:
Here capitalism is again at odds with our better instincts: envy alone won’t explain the contempt aimed at the writer whose work seems guided by commercial rather than literary instincts, nor condescending terms ranging from genre writer to hack. Nevertheless, the writer who cannot sell his words is the writer who cannot eat, and even the most successful of literary writers are up against the fact that their craft carries with it an enormous latency.
Warning: Depressing calculations within the story
Some simple math: This summer saw the U. S. federal minimum wage rise to $6.55 an hour, a figure somewhat increased in certain states. Let us imagine a writer who spends two years writing a first novel, working full-time—quite a clip for a first book—and sells the novel for an excellent advance of $25,000. In every state, she would have found a counter job at McDonald’s more lucrative.
The link to the full story is here but the site requires (free and easy) registration .
An excerpt:
Here capitalism is again at odds with our better instincts: envy alone won’t explain the contempt aimed at the writer whose work seems guided by commercial rather than literary instincts, nor condescending terms ranging from genre writer to hack. Nevertheless, the writer who cannot sell his words is the writer who cannot eat, and even the most successful of literary writers are up against the fact that their craft carries with it an enormous latency.
Warning: Depressing calculations within the story
Some simple math: This summer saw the U. S. federal minimum wage rise to $6.55 an hour, a figure somewhat increased in certain states. Let us imagine a writer who spends two years writing a first novel, working full-time—quite a clip for a first book—and sells the novel for an excellent advance of $25,000. In every state, she would have found a counter job at McDonald’s more lucrative.
The link to the full story is here but the site requires (free and easy) registration .
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Take the morning off and go to the movies. Maybe a foreign film.
You will not enjoy this unless you watch Mad Men, I suspect, but I stumbled across what is apparently called a "microblog" (these kids today, with their Interwebz and their LOLcatz and their microblogs...): What would Don Draper do?
Highlights:
100.Write your idea down on whatever’s at hand; a receipt, a cocktail napkin, a Yahtzee score card. Never delay.
92.Tell her to stop talking. If she won’t, tie her to the bed and leave.
86.Skip out on fireworks with your family to call your girlfriend. Then head home for a glass of milk.
84.If you’re in a jam, call Peggy.
Gosh, I wish I had a Peggy...
Highlights:
100.Write your idea down on whatever’s at hand; a receipt, a cocktail napkin, a Yahtzee score card. Never delay.
92.Tell her to stop talking. If she won’t, tie her to the bed and leave.
86.Skip out on fireworks with your family to call your girlfriend. Then head home for a glass of milk.
84.If you’re in a jam, call Peggy.
Gosh, I wish I had a Peggy...
Lit mag rankings... (maybe outdated? but still interesting)
I love that some people (like this guy to the right->) take it upon themselves to quantify and rank colleges or programs or lit mags. It seems like a LOT of work, what with researching circulation, submissions received, poems printed, etc. I share with you now these rankings on lit mags, based on the ratio of poems received to poems printed "and other critera.""This ranking system attempts impose an order on the "difficulty" of a particular literary journal -- that is, the degree of likelihood that a given poem, submitted by a reasonably accomplished poet, will be accepted for publication. The system is based upon a mix of objective and subjective criteria. "
Hmm. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's still a good visualization of magazine titles, circulation and ratio of submissions to acceptance. I know nothing about this Jeffrey Bahr fellow except what's on his site, but he also has some interesting resources for submissions and whatnot.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Unpleasant writing topics: Your butt
Anybody up for reading about colonoscopies?! NO??
Well, what if the story starts like this:
My butt could save your life.
Not my butt, per se, but what's in my butt.
Yowza. Talk about a personal essay. But that column, from the Poynter Institute's Roy Peter Clark, would keep me reading. It's funny and weird and totally appeals to the 12-year-old gross-out fanatic in me.
We can also look at another model of this style (from Dave Barry):
OK. You turned 50. You know you're supposed to get a colonoscopy. But you haven't. Here are your reasons:
1. You've been busy.
2. You don't have a history of cancer in your family.
3. You haven't noticed any problems.
4. You don't want a doctor to stick a tube 17,000 feet up your butt.
Now, from the start, I'm a bit less into it -- the age in the lede makes me tune out a little, because I'm nowhere near 50. If I made it to #4, I'd probably tune back in.
Sensitive topic, but handled with humor -- that's something I like to read. Clark blogs about his column and approach on Poynter, here.
Well, what if the story starts like this:
My butt could save your life.
Not my butt, per se, but what's in my butt.
Yowza. Talk about a personal essay. But that column, from the Poynter Institute's Roy Peter Clark, would keep me reading. It's funny and weird and totally appeals to the 12-year-old gross-out fanatic in me.
We can also look at another model of this style (from Dave Barry):
OK. You turned 50. You know you're supposed to get a colonoscopy. But you haven't. Here are your reasons:
1. You've been busy.
2. You don't have a history of cancer in your family.
3. You haven't noticed any problems.
4. You don't want a doctor to stick a tube 17,000 feet up your butt.
Now, from the start, I'm a bit less into it -- the age in the lede makes me tune out a little, because I'm nowhere near 50. If I made it to #4, I'd probably tune back in.
Sensitive topic, but handled with humor -- that's something I like to read. Clark blogs about his column and approach on Poynter, here.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Lit-obituary
The NY Times Papercuts blog has a sincere post on the death of David Foster Wallace.
David Foster Wallace, who wrote like that leaping and frolicking veldt-creature, is missed already. His best work handed American fiction its pampered ass.
Among many other obits I saw, this one stood apart as a nice tribute and a showcase for the writer's work.
David Foster Wallace, who wrote like that leaping and frolicking veldt-creature, is missed already. His best work handed American fiction its pampered ass.
Among many other obits I saw, this one stood apart as a nice tribute and a showcase for the writer's work.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
You still have time to be a doorman
Children's books are literature too, you know. The New York Times has a neat profile of author and artist Maurice Sendak. My favorite anecdote in the story:When Mr. Sendak received the 1996 National Medal of Arts, President Bill Clinton told him about one of his own childhood fantasies that involved wearing a long coat with brass buttons when he grew up.
“But Mr. President, you’re only going to be president for a year more,” Mr. Sendak said, “you still have time to be a doorman.”
Manly, bookish prizes
The Man Booker shortlist was announced Tuesday (so I'm a few days behind -- sue me). The award "promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year."
On this year's list of finalists:
“The White Tiger,” by Aravind Adiga
“The Secret Scripture,” by Sebastian Barry
“Sea of Poppies,” by Amitav Ghosh
“The Clothes on Their Backs,” by Linda Grant
“The Northern Clemency,” by Philip Hensher
“A Fraction of the Whole,” by Steve Toltz
“The Northern Clemency,” by Philip Hensher
“A Fraction of the Whole,” by Steve Toltz
I haven't read any of these. Sigh. Too many books, too little time.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
100 words...
100 words, every day. Just a few sentences, a few thoughts, a fragment of a story. A poem. And in 100 days (just a bit more than 3 months) you have 10,000 words. Nice, no?
This sounds imminently more do-able than NaNoWriMo to me (50,000 in 30 days).
Read any good books lately?
For this month only, the Virginia Quarterly Review is sponsoring "a competition to encourage and cultivate young reviewers and critics under the age of thirty."
Interested in trying your hand at lit crit? Details are here. First prize = $1,000!
Interested in trying your hand at lit crit? Details are here. First prize = $1,000!
Friday, September 5, 2008
On politic(ian)s and writing.
Inspired by convention mania and an overdose of political news, we've decided to round up all the books by presidential and vice-presidential candidates. (Major party candidates only, and frankly, Ralph Nader could probably fill multiple posts -- he's prolific as a writer. Did you know that man only sleeps 3-4 hours a night? And does anyone even know that Bob Barr is running? Is Ron Paul still in this thing?)
John McCain (all "co-written" with Mark Salter, cough cough):
Faith of My Fathers
Why Courage Matters
Worth the Fighting For
Hard Call: The Art of Great Decisions
Character is Destiny
KEYWORDS: faith, fighting, hard
Barack Obama:
Dreams from My Father
The Audacity of Hope
Change We Can Believe In (forthcoming, cover notes the foreword is by BO)
KEYWORDS: dreams, hope, change
Sarah Palin:
Moosehuntin' Hockey Mom with Great Hair Seeks Same (OK, I made that one up. Turns out she hasn't written any books... yet.)
Joe Biden:
Promises to Keephttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
BONUS: Chicago writer Stephen Markley's look at terrible vice presidential choices throughout history on Radar.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Why every country needs the first amendment:
2 Journalists Are Attacked in Russia
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- One journalist was shot and killed and another was left with a fractured skull after a beating in Russia's troubled North Caucasus, and police and co-workers said Wednesday the two men were likely targeted for their work.
The attacks on an Islamic TV reporter and an opposition newspaper editor are the latest violence to renew fears about the safety of journalists in Russia. A third journalist was shot by police on Sunday -- a killing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said represented ''a further deterioration of media freedom in Russia.''
We here at Thousand Fibers believe in not only the power of words but in the need for words and free speech in a truly democratic society. Stories like this frighten us, because they signal that much more is disturbed under the surface than just a random act of violence, a singular case of fear-mongering. Take note.
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- One journalist was shot and killed and another was left with a fractured skull after a beating in Russia's troubled North Caucasus, and police and co-workers said Wednesday the two men were likely targeted for their work.
The attacks on an Islamic TV reporter and an opposition newspaper editor are the latest violence to renew fears about the safety of journalists in Russia. A third journalist was shot by police on Sunday -- a killing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said represented ''a further deterioration of media freedom in Russia.''
We here at Thousand Fibers believe in not only the power of words but in the need for words and free speech in a truly democratic society. Stories like this frighten us, because they signal that much more is disturbed under the surface than just a random act of violence, a singular case of fear-mongering. Take note.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Short stories for short people
Maritime Supernatural Teen Wicca Romance
by Alias
Captain James Audrey watched the scene played out on his deck with eyes as
grey as the ocean. Young midshipman Boris, recently discovered to be a girl
and a witch to boot, was being thrown overboard.
"You can do me no harm," she screamed, "for I am wedded to the sea!"
Then the kelp attacked.
Need just a tiny little escape from your day? Like, say, 55 words of escape? A friend of mine pointed me to 55 a day, a blog that features really short stories. They accept submissions, if you want to test your skills, succinctly.
by Alias
Captain James Audrey watched the scene played out on his deck with eyes as
grey as the ocean. Young midshipman Boris, recently discovered to be a girl
and a witch to boot, was being thrown overboard.
"You can do me no harm," she screamed, "for I am wedded to the sea!"
Then the kelp attacked.
Need just a tiny little escape from your day? Like, say, 55 words of escape? A friend of mine pointed me to 55 a day, a blog that features really short stories. They accept submissions, if you want to test your skills, succinctly.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
ON THE SCROLL
Holed up in a Manhattan apartment in 1951, Kerouac fashioned tracing paper into a 120-foot-long scroll and wrote the premier Beat novel on that thin paper in just three weeks.
And it'll be here, in Chicago in October. READ.
And it'll be here, in Chicago in October. READ.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Back in a week or so.
I'll be attending to some nuptials.
In the meantime, read:
Storyglossia -- new issue just posted.
Juked -- they were on break, but they should be back this week.
Dark Sky -- updated weekly
This story, which has nothing to do with literature or writing but is interesting, no less. It'd make a killer feature if I were a full-time freelance writer who had time to travel to Arkansas. And time to pitch it somewhere. We could say much about how we feel things after reading this story, but we try to tread lightly with commentary here.
Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep supporting your word-brethren in the world.
In the meantime, read:
Storyglossia -- new issue just posted.
Juked -- they were on break, but they should be back this week.
Dark Sky -- updated weekly
This story, which has nothing to do with literature or writing but is interesting, no less. It'd make a killer feature if I were a full-time freelance writer who had time to travel to Arkansas. And time to pitch it somewhere. We could say much about how we feel things after reading this story, but we try to tread lightly with commentary here.
Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep supporting your word-brethren in the world.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Energy. Power cock.
While reading the Brevity blog, I stumbled across a post about being a good literary citizen. What does that mean, you say? It's about dutifully reading your compadres' work, treating your fellow wordsmiths with the respect that you wish for, and reaching out to the literary world...
And any blog that manages to include "Energy. Power cock." is worth a read -- right?
So here's an excerpt from the blog No One Does That, with a contemplation of how we can do more as citizens in the great literary/words/art world.
Here are some ways you can do more, outside of spending $$$.
(1) When you read something you like, in any form, write the author and tell them. You don’t have to gush or take forever. Just tell them you saw it, you read it, you liked it. It’s a supportive feeling. It’s better than not saying anything
(2) Write reviews of books you like. Short review/long review, whatever. It’s not that hard. It takes a little work to think about it clearly, but what goes around comes around. You can’t expect to be recognized for your work if you aren’t recognizing others for their work. Open the doors.
(3) Interview writers. New writers or well known writers. You like somebody’s work a lot? Ask to do an interview with them. It doesn’t take a ton of effort. Write up some questions. Let them talk. Spread the word. Talk. Say. Get. Eat.
I have done this for years and have made friends by doing it, have ‘opened doors’ so to speak: in other words, by helping others, you are also helping yourself. If spreading others’ work isn’t enough in your mind, think of it as ‘connections.’ (I hope you don’t have to think about it in this way to justify it because that is sad, but, well, some people…) Things often can/might happen as a result of these things, on both ends, even if they are just small things, small things add up, small things can be good things, haven’t you read Carver, momentum.
Energy. Power cock.
And any blog that manages to include "Energy. Power cock." is worth a read -- right?
So here's an excerpt from the blog No One Does That, with a contemplation of how we can do more as citizens in the great literary/words/art world.
Here are some ways you can do more, outside of spending $$$.
(1) When you read something you like, in any form, write the author and tell them. You don’t have to gush or take forever. Just tell them you saw it, you read it, you liked it. It’s a supportive feeling. It’s better than not saying anything
(2) Write reviews of books you like. Short review/long review, whatever. It’s not that hard. It takes a little work to think about it clearly, but what goes around comes around. You can’t expect to be recognized for your work if you aren’t recognizing others for their work. Open the doors.
(3) Interview writers. New writers or well known writers. You like somebody’s work a lot? Ask to do an interview with them. It doesn’t take a ton of effort. Write up some questions. Let them talk. Spread the word. Talk. Say. Get. Eat.
I have done this for years and have made friends by doing it, have ‘opened doors’ so to speak: in other words, by helping others, you are also helping yourself. If spreading others’ work isn’t enough in your mind, think of it as ‘connections.’ (I hope you don’t have to think about it in this way to justify it because that is sad, but, well, some people…) Things often can/might happen as a result of these things, on both ends, even if they are just small things, small things add up, small things can be good things, haven’t you read Carver, momentum.
Energy. Power cock.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Good writing, good reading.
Meet Bill Clinton. Well, sort of.
As they’re climbing their front steps, there’s another shattering blast. The apartment door bangs open, and there stands Dawami’s older boy, Bill Clinton Hadam. In the gathering dark, all over Indian Creek Apartment Homes, panicked faces are appearing in windows and lighted doorways.
Neighbors on their stoops, veterans of such nights, reassure these newcomers in Burmese, Farsi, French, Somali, English: “It’s OK.” Overhead, fireworks rain down blue, gold, green. The war refugees are safe in Georgia now, and it’s the Fourth of July.
From A 9-year-old finds refuge in suburban Atlanta, in The Christian Science Monitor. A story that manages to blend American politics, immigrants and refugees and adjusting to life in America. This publication is underrated and overlooked in newspaper journalism and excellent storytelling. I'd group it with some of the country's best media, especially in terms of international news coverage.
As they’re climbing their front steps, there’s another shattering blast. The apartment door bangs open, and there stands Dawami’s older boy, Bill Clinton Hadam. In the gathering dark, all over Indian Creek Apartment Homes, panicked faces are appearing in windows and lighted doorways.
Neighbors on their stoops, veterans of such nights, reassure these newcomers in Burmese, Farsi, French, Somali, English: “It’s OK.” Overhead, fireworks rain down blue, gold, green. The war refugees are safe in Georgia now, and it’s the Fourth of July.
From A 9-year-old finds refuge in suburban Atlanta, in The Christian Science Monitor. A story that manages to blend American politics, immigrants and refugees and adjusting to life in America. This publication is underrated and overlooked in newspaper journalism and excellent storytelling. I'd group it with some of the country's best media, especially in terms of international news coverage.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Rewarding bad writing. Dreadful, terrible, no good, very bad writing.
"It's like the Nobel Prize for Literature," explains 2008 recipient Garrison Spik, whose day job is communications director for Mervis Diamond Importers. "But at the other end of the spectrum. And the prize money is $999,750 less." The Bulwer-Lytton, in fact, rewards the most wretched, the most inept, the most fantastically awful abuses of English writing. The kind of language that should be taken out and shot. Each year applicants submit putrefying one-sentence openings to bogus novels; this year Spik's was chosen from some 8,000 entries.
It reads:
"Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J.' "
From "Purple Prose? His Is Truly Bruising," in today's Washington Post. I think I need to get started on my own entry for next year...
Monday, August 11, 2008
"A sense of passion and obsession..."
The BigThink blog has a video of The New Yorker editor David Remnick giving advice to "young journalists." He says what I've heard (and learned) in many other ways: Hope for luck, work like a nut, and obsess about your field.
There's also a mention of having "talent" -- but how do you define that? And if you are a young journalist/writer/artist/wordsmith/whatever you define yourself as, how do you measure and refine your talent?
"Hope that you have some talent almost equal to or equal to your sense of effort," he says. But how do you know if you have talent or are merely a hack who tries really, really hard? Is talent innate or can it be acquired? And what authority can answer this question?
Should we define talent in the same way The New Yorker does?
There's also a mention of having "talent" -- but how do you define that? And if you are a young journalist/writer/artist/wordsmith/whatever you define yourself as, how do you measure and refine your talent?
"Hope that you have some talent almost equal to or equal to your sense of effort," he says. But how do you know if you have talent or are merely a hack who tries really, really hard? Is talent innate or can it be acquired? And what authority can answer this question?
Should we define talent in the same way The New Yorker does?
A word-nerd love story:
I asked him how an avid dictionary reader comes to date a former lexicographer, and he told me he’d been hired to move her furniture. While he was in her apartment, her little dog kept barking until the lexicographer said, “Hush, Pumpernickel!” Shea couldn’t contain himself: “Do you know the etymology of ‘pumpernickel’?” he asked. “As a matter of fact, I do,” she replied. (The German is, roughly: flatulent goblin.)
From The Lexicographer and the Madman, posted on the NY Times Papercuts blog.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
A follow-up Vonnegut quote:
"Here is a lesson in creative writing.
First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."
Just something to chew on today. We'll be light on postings this week
First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."
Just something to chew on today. We'll be light on postings this week
(due to a move and lack of Internet).
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Communicating through ink.
Tattoo ink, specifically. This blog, Contrariwise, features tattoos of literary quotes (and some lyrics and some symbols and some definitions...).
How much do you have to LOVE LOVE LOVE a quote or an author or a song to ink it on your body permanently? I like some of the ee cummings (i carry your heart in my heart), some Sylvia Plath (i am. i am. i am) and a few others. But my favorite is the Vonnegut-inspired ink at the top of this post. I mean, if you're going to get a tat, you might as well class it up a bit with some literary inspiration.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
"It Ends With a Whimper"
Good story title, right? Today's reading comes from Dark Sky magazine, an online pub that features literature and art.
An excerpt from Patrick Parr's story, "It Ends With a Whimper," below:
You are on your fifty-first can of beans as the sky continues to crack and groan. You’re in your basement, or the basement below the basement. It’s a bunker you built nine years ago, right before the turn of the century. Though difficult to later admit, you were one of the dozens who took Y2K seriously. You dug an eight by twelve hole, reinforced the edges and slapped a thick metal door on top of it. The engineers who helped you said you could live inside it for seventy days. After that you’d run out of air. At the moment, you have no choice. It’s been forty-three days since you first (and last) heard the report of worldwide annihilation. Since that day you’ve remained in your bunker, listening to the sky sound like mountains breaking.
Makes you wonder, right from the start, fifty-first can of beans??
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Today's reading:
Love this imagery and phrasing:
The night she walked to the house
she held a string; on the other end,
fifty-three feet in the air, a kite.
Wind provided the aerodynamics.
Image: "kites or hypercolor sky spermies" from NotRocket on flickr.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Old people pretending to be hip: Lk, i no how 2 txt!
Dear Newspaper Editors:
Please, for the love of all things that are good in this world, stop using text-language in headlines. It's not clever, it never was clever, and it shows how un-hip you are. It's like using the word "bling." But worse.
See: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
Thanks,
Your humble reader
PS -- Apparently, I didn't really read that article. Because it was online. And things that are online aren't "really" reading, right?!
Please, for the love of all things that are good in this world, stop using text-language in headlines. It's not clever, it never was clever, and it shows how un-hip you are. It's like using the word "bling." But worse.
See: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?
Thanks,
Your humble reader
PS -- Apparently, I didn't really read that article. Because it was online. And things that are online aren't "really" reading, right?!
Friday, July 25, 2008
The New Yorker's Book Bench
Another good resource for tidbits on the literary world: The Book Bench.
A nice round up of news and observations. The name, according to their about page, comes from a bench in the lobby where they toss new and old books for the staff to beg, borrow and steal. Book nerds fighting over literature?! How cute is that?
Image from the New Yorker.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Why sentence structure matters:
Whoaaaaa, wait, what? Let's look at this again:
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A bulldozer driver went on a rampage in Jerusalem on Tuesday, hitting vehicles near a hotel where U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is due to stay later in the day before he was shot dead.
Hmm. Methinks this sentence should be rewritten.
Will they fix it before you visit this link? Gawker spotted this earlier today, and no change yet...
File under: interesting stories
Part One
My boyfriend and I went to join the revolution. Nicaragua had the best revolution, he and I agreed. There were several other revolutions in the area—in El Salvador and in Guatemala, in Honduras, in Panama (sort of). My boyfriend said we should get shots and malaria pills and that we would ride the bus there.
I knew my mother and father were not going to go for this so I didn't tell them. I wrote them a letter from Mexico. Actually I wrote the letter in Nogales on the American side of the border, then I crossed the border and mailed it from the Nogales post office on the Mexican side.
Another good resource
The Kenyon Review, a solid lit mag based in my ol' home state of Ohio (but don't hold that against them, please), has a solid online presence at their site, here. Lots of essays, poetry, reviews and, of course, a blog.Here's a snippet of one essay:
"Just below us was a young couple, the woman eager and attractive and the man cocky and fulsome. He was oiling her up at such a rate that finally my brothers and I slowed our conversational ramble and bent to listen. We debated the right word for the young man: unctuous, said one brother, sharkacious, said another, oleaginous, said a third, horny as Howard Hughes' fingernails, said a fourth. Finally there was a moment when the young man leaned toward the young woman and gently covered her exquisite digits with his offensive paws and said, hopefully, you and I . . . at which point my brother Thomas stood up suddenly, launched himself over the balcony rail, landed with a stupendous crash on their table, and said to the young man, Never, and I mean never, begin a sentence with an adverb."
Who said grammar can't be funny? That essay came from Brian Doyle, right on the main page of KR Online.
Monday, July 21, 2008
On being a working, publishing poet
Seth Abramson, whose blog I quite like, has a lengthy post on being a working, publishing poet.
He's working under a contemplation of small literary presses, but he delves into the whole idea and mood of being a working creative writer now.
The post has a mantra near the top that is thoughtful and useful:
"1. Good work will find an audience.
2. Good work largely ignored is still good work; bad work widely read is still bad work.
3. Identifying problems in distributing good work is the beginning, and not the ending, of any publishing-related conversation worth having."
Interesting stuff to chew on, particularly for people who are in the midst of this writing-for-a-living thing. I also like this bit:
"If the maxims above offer up any wisdom whatsoever about being a poet, it is (reduced to simplest terms) the following:Write as well as you possibly can, as independently as you can, for as long as you can. Decide whether you want an Audience.If you do, show them the respect of considering them when you write, being as persistent as possible in trying to reach them, and reaching them (when and as you do) in as direct a fashion as possible. Foreclose no avenues of reaching your Audience, which means both acknowledging the problems of the Art Equation and being in no way whatsoever cowed by them.Have sufficient courage to meet the inevitable adversities."
He's working under a contemplation of small literary presses, but he delves into the whole idea and mood of being a working creative writer now.
The post has a mantra near the top that is thoughtful and useful:
"1. Good work will find an audience.
2. Good work largely ignored is still good work; bad work widely read is still bad work.
3. Identifying problems in distributing good work is the beginning, and not the ending, of any publishing-related conversation worth having."
Interesting stuff to chew on, particularly for people who are in the midst of this writing-for-a-living thing. I also like this bit:
"If the maxims above offer up any wisdom whatsoever about being a poet, it is (reduced to simplest terms) the following:Write as well as you possibly can, as independently as you can, for as long as you can. Decide whether you want an Audience.If you do, show them the respect of considering them when you write, being as persistent as possible in trying to reach them, and reaching them (when and as you do) in as direct a fashion as possible. Foreclose no avenues of reaching your Audience, which means both acknowledging the problems of the Art Equation and being in no way whatsoever cowed by them.Have sufficient courage to meet the inevitable adversities."
New Kid on the Lit Block
I dunno, maybe it's not new, but it's new to me:
Chicago Literary Scene Examiner
So far: interviews, lit news, Chicago-related events. More to come, I'd guess.
Chicago Literary Scene Examiner
So far: interviews, lit news, Chicago-related events. More to come, I'd guess.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Poet Laureate at Work
So it turns out that the new poet laureate (see earlier post below) not only hates workshops, creative writing classes, and many poets)... she's also pretty hilarious.
She falls into the "writing as a solitary act" school of thought, which has been a point of discussion in (cough, shame) my writing group. Let's imagine what happens when said solitary writer goes to AWP, the nation's largest writing conference. What fun ensues!
Check out her 2005 essay in Poetry, "I Go to AWP," in which she compares writers in groups to spawn of the devil. An excerpt on workshops:
"Workshop. In the old days before creative writing programs, a workshop was a place, often a basement, where you sawed or hammered, drilled or planed something. You could not simply workshop something. Now you can. You can take something you wrote by yourself to a group and get it workshopped. Sometimes it probably is a lot like getting it hammered. Other writers read your work, give their reactions, and make suggestions for change. A writer might bring a piece back for more workshopping later, even. I have to assume that the writer respects these other writers’ opinions, and that just scares the daylights out of me. It doesn’t matter if their opinions really are respectable; I just think the writer has given up way too much inside. Let’s not share. Really. Go off in your own direction way too far, get lost, test the metal of your work in your own acids. These are experiments you can perform down in that old kind of workshop, where Dad used to hide out from too many other people’s claims on him."
She falls into the "writing as a solitary act" school of thought, which has been a point of discussion in (cough, shame) my writing group. Let's imagine what happens when said solitary writer goes to AWP, the nation's largest writing conference. What fun ensues!
Check out her 2005 essay in Poetry, "I Go to AWP," in which she compares writers in groups to spawn of the devil. An excerpt on workshops:
"Workshop. In the old days before creative writing programs, a workshop was a place, often a basement, where you sawed or hammered, drilled or planed something. You could not simply workshop something. Now you can. You can take something you wrote by yourself to a group and get it workshopped. Sometimes it probably is a lot like getting it hammered. Other writers read your work, give their reactions, and make suggestions for change. A writer might bring a piece back for more workshopping later, even. I have to assume that the writer respects these other writers’ opinions, and that just scares the daylights out of me. It doesn’t matter if their opinions really are respectable; I just think the writer has given up way too much inside. Let’s not share. Really. Go off in your own direction way too far, get lost, test the metal of your work in your own acids. These are experiments you can perform down in that old kind of workshop, where Dad used to hide out from too many other people’s claims on him."
Update: Shakespeare folio thief
Whatever happened with that recovered, formerly missing Shakespeare first folio? Dear reader, fear not! The detectives have questioned Raymond Scott, a "dilettante" and "amateur bibliophile" (his words) who never went to college, has never really worked and mooches off his mum, a retired government employee. He was arrested in England while pruning roses for his mum. He regularly places roses on Princes Diana's grave in Paris. Sweet of him, no?
Props to the Washington Post for their entertaining coverage of this case.
Props to the Washington Post for their entertaining coverage of this case.
Poetry News
Look, we don't know who's in charge of the EPA anymore, and apparently a lot of people don't even know that Dick Cheney is the VP (I read, in Newsweek or somewhere, that many American college students can't name the veeeep).
But we should still take note that there's a new poet laureate.
So without further ado, meet Kay Ryan, whom the New York Times says is "known for sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes."
And a sample poem, courtesy of the New York Times, courtesy of Ms. Ryan's book, The Niagara River.
But we should still take note that there's a new poet laureate.
So without further ado, meet Kay Ryan, whom the New York Times says is "known for sly, compact poems that revel in wordplay and internal rhymes."
And a sample poem, courtesy of the New York Times, courtesy of Ms. Ryan's book, The Niagara River.
THINGS SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD
A life should leave
A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Perfect Novel?
At the New York Times books blog, PaperCuts, there's a heated comments-based discussion on whether such thing exists as "the perfect novel."
Is it The Great Gatsby?
Lolita?
I think I might be more on the side of "there's no such thing as perfect" -- but I'm willing to hear arguments. PaperCuts had 135 comments on the topic, last I checked -- and I'd wager there are more even now.
Is it The Great Gatsby?
Lolita?
I think I might be more on the side of "there's no such thing as perfect" -- but I'm willing to hear arguments. PaperCuts had 135 comments on the topic, last I checked -- and I'd wager there are more even now.
Monday, July 14, 2008
When Nick Hornby started to write...
...he had three ambitions, or so he says on his blog: " I wanted to be published; I wanted to support myself, and one day my family, through my books; and more than anything I wanted my work somehow to provide the inspiration for a bath or shower product."
And now, he's achieved those goals, notably No. 3: Lush, a British body products company, has named a chocolate body wash Sonic Death Monkey, after a band name in High Fidelity.
I think we all have something new to which we now aspire.
Congrats, Mr. Hornby! That's an accomplishment few writers (I think) will achieve in their careers.
NU MFA buzz
Northwestern is starting a part-time creative writing MFA program, which is getting some buzz on the literary-blog circuit. (Lit blog circuit? Really? Yes.)
Friday, July 11, 2008
"Piles of cannabis and cocaine"
The literary detectives at Washington's Folger Shakespeare Library managed to recover a 400-year-old Shakespeare collection valued at $30 million. Some genius dropped it off to get it "verified as genuine." Turns out it was stolen from an English university 10 years ago. Oops.
My favorite line in this AP story about the theft and recovery is this: The book remains at the Folger Library, one of the world's leading centers of Shakespearean research. Durham Police said authorities felt it would be safer there than in "an FBI warehouse next to piles of cocaine and cannabis."
Image from http://literature.sdsu.edu/coursedescriptions/spring08/shakespeare.jpg.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Trib's favorite magazines
The Chicago Tribune has posted its 50 favorite magazines.
Among their picks, you would expect (and rightly so) The New Yorker, Chicago, Rolling Stone and Esquire. But would you guess that the list also includes G-Fan (made for and by Godzilla fanatics), Nintendo Power (no explanation needed there) and Modern Drunkard (oh, that I had created such a magazine title!)?
There's also a neat little typography quiz, on which I scored an 84 percent. Beat that.
Among their picks, you would expect (and rightly so) The New Yorker, Chicago, Rolling Stone and Esquire. But would you guess that the list also includes G-Fan (made for and by Godzilla fanatics), Nintendo Power (no explanation needed there) and Modern Drunkard (oh, that I had created such a magazine title!)?
There's also a neat little typography quiz, on which I scored an 84 percent. Beat that.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Writing about writing
If you've ever been to a writer's conference, you know they have a way of putting your mind in a different place. Being around all those writers, fascinating and bizarre people, can distract you from your original purpose for attending (working on your craft). If you're lucky, accomplished and talented people are there, too, inspiring and coaching and sharing their thoughts. But there's also the element of strange, the parallel-universe-ness of it, that take you into a whole new world.
So maybe that's why I liked Rebecca McClanahan's piece, Scenes from a Weekend Poetry Conference, in the latest version of Brevity. She captures the beauty and the mystery of such events.
"Never before so much hair in one space, so much hair so carefully out of place, and to arrange a ripped T-shirt to slide over one bare shoulder is an art in itself, as is the negative capability of shawls that fall just far enough. Here are jeans slashed to reveal knees polished to perfection. The mysteries abound: why such violence? Was it passion, going down on the Muse, and who mussed her hair into such chaos?"
Read more from Brevity here.
So maybe that's why I liked Rebecca McClanahan's piece, Scenes from a Weekend Poetry Conference, in the latest version of Brevity. She captures the beauty and the mystery of such events.
"Never before so much hair in one space, so much hair so carefully out of place, and to arrange a ripped T-shirt to slide over one bare shoulder is an art in itself, as is the negative capability of shawls that fall just far enough. Here are jeans slashed to reveal knees polished to perfection. The mysteries abound: why such violence? Was it passion, going down on the Muse, and who mussed her hair into such chaos?"
Read more from Brevity here.
So... I'm not a writer?
"As you may have heard, all the writers are in Brooklyn these days. It’s the place to be. You’re simply not a writer if you don’t live here. "
From "I Write in Brooklyn. Get Over It." The New York Times.
From "I Write in Brooklyn. Get Over It." The New York Times.
Feeling better about selling out:
This column on Poynter today had a few good reminders for why I left the newspaper business.
"First, working in public relations does not preclude a return to journalism. I'd argue you might even be a better journalist for having had the experience of being covered by journalists. Second, there may well be days when you miss the rush; hopefully, there will be more days when you find great satisfaction in the work you choose to do. And finally, if anyone should feel betrayed, it should be the journalist who worked 11 hours a day for more than a decade and wasn't paid well enough to buy a house."
From Butch Ward, Poynter Institute Distinguished Fellow
I also love this affirmation he included:
Remember how talented you are: You can write. You can think critically. You can ask good questions. You are creative. You have passion. You can handle tight deadlines.The business world, I assure you, values these skills and -- this might be too obvious a point -- needs more people who possess them.
"First, working in public relations does not preclude a return to journalism. I'd argue you might even be a better journalist for having had the experience of being covered by journalists. Second, there may well be days when you miss the rush; hopefully, there will be more days when you find great satisfaction in the work you choose to do. And finally, if anyone should feel betrayed, it should be the journalist who worked 11 hours a day for more than a decade and wasn't paid well enough to buy a house."
From Butch Ward, Poynter Institute Distinguished Fellow
I also love this affirmation he included:
Remember how talented you are: You can write. You can think critically. You can ask good questions. You are creative. You have passion. You can handle tight deadlines.The business world, I assure you, values these skills and -- this might be too obvious a point -- needs more people who possess them.
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