Brevity

I'll be brief (pun intended):

A new issue of Brevity is live and waiting for you.

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.

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.

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

I haven't read any of these. Sigh. Too many books, too little time.

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!

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.

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.

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.