“When I asked a friend, a terrific prose writer, why she seems to have a slight disdain for poetry, she replied, ‘It’s too elitist, like walking through a beautiful forest in which I know not where to look, much less know what I am searching for. If I don’t get it as a reader, then I feel like an idiot and somehow not worthy of the form’.” – The Paris Review
Category: words
Sure, Whitman Self-Published, But That Doesn’t Mean Everyone Should
Editors matter. More to the point, “Those of us who tweet self-publish daily. Our screeds and scowls and sorrows arrive without an editor’s filter. Perhaps I am a purist, but a book is a wondrous object—worthy of more discernment. Does everyone have a book in them? I’m not sure.” – LitHub
How To Get Paid For Your Writing
Write someone else’s college papers, basically. Essay farms are a huge industry now, so blatant that one administrator says, “If we don’t do anything about it, we will turn every accredited university into a diploma mill.” – The New York Times
The Habits Of Highly Effective Writers
It’s clear that aspiring writers should get up early, write every day, write only when they feel like it, write in the afternoon, write longhand, definitely use a laptop, never get distracted, allow themselves to fool around on the internet for certain periods of time, have a space of their own, work at coffee shops, and so much more. – The New York Times
Hey Amazon, Goodreads Is A Terrible, Neglected Trashfire
Goodreads is essentially a good listmaking app, a place where readers go to, well, make lists. Is it a community of readers? Um. “Goodreads lingers in the dustbin of the early aughts, doomed to the hideous beige design and uninspiring organization of a strip mall doctor’s office.” Amazon, what gives? – OneZero
Rio De Janeiro’s Mayor Tries To Censor A Marvel Book With A Gay Kiss, But The Court Blocks Him
Predictable results of the homophobic censorship attempt (which was headed off by the judge as an issue of freedom of expression): “Copies of the comic book, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, quickly sold out after the mayor’s intervention. The illustration that upset that mayor was also printed on the front page of Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.” – BBC
Do Book Prizes Matter? Researchers Crunched The Numbers
In short, prizes matter. But more surprising is the effect of a nomination alone. With only an appearance on the Booker shortlist, a book moves from total obscurity in the classroom and the pages of literary criticism to respectable showings in both—and it gets a healthy popularity boost along the way. Of course, a win gooses the stats across the board, but the difference between utter obscurity and modest fame is arguably greater than the difference between modest and runaway success. – Public Books
Margaret Atwood Talks About ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ And Why She Wrote A Sequel
“Totalitarian systems don’t last, it is my fervent belief. Some of them have lasted longer than others. When they come apart, what is it that causes them to fall apart? … [And] how do you get to be a high-ranking person within a totalitarian dictatorship? Either you’re a true believer from the beginning, at which point you’re probably going to get purged later on, or you’re an opportunist. Or it can be fear … I would put fear as No. 1: If I don’t do this, I will be killed.” – The New York Times
All Over The U.S., Public School Systems Are Losing Their Librarians
More than 9,000 full-time school librarian positions were eliminated from 2009-2016, a 15% reduction, with teachers and their assistants having to add librarians’ former duties to their workloads. And in the relatively few places where positions are being added (e.g., Los Angeles), the nature of the work is changing quite a lot. – CityLab
Why Do The Same Images Show Up On Book After Book?
The book cover design world, it turns out, has something of an all-star squad of stock and archival image that show up on book covers time and time again. James Morrison, an editor, designer, and avid reader who lives in Adelaide, Australia, has been tracking the squad for about two decades. – Eye On Design