Need to do some last-minute holiday shopping? Time is short, driving hurts the planet, holiday shoppers are crazy. Even you — shopping makes us all crazy. So go online and order an e-book! I’m not promoting Amazon’s Kindle, by the way (I don’t own any kind of e-reader), and if you can find other e-bookContinue reading “Last-minute holiday shopping: e-books!”
Category Archives: reading
Not-really-new publication
About a month ago, I was thrilled to have my story “Barefoot in the Guadalupe” appear in Red Dirt Review. (Editor John G. Hartness was extremely kind in his comments on the story, which made the publication all the cooler.) Now, the collected issue of Red Dirt Review — Volume 2 — is available in print orContinue reading “Not-really-new publication”
Speaking truth to agents
So, a few days ago over at one of my favorite blogs, Literary Rejections on Display, there was a hell of a conversation going about literary agents and how we writers should approach them. Not in the “please publish my novel” way, pitching your work and begging for acceptance; we’re talking about talking back toContinue reading “Speaking truth to agents”
Big news for teen authors!
Today, One Story magazine, one of the finest, most respected voices in literary publishing, announced that they are launching an offshoot just for teen authors, One Teen Story. I’ve been a huge fan of One Story since I first met publisher Hannah Tinti at an AWP conference some six years ago. And I’ve been aContinue reading “Big news for teen authors!”
Choose teaching – be a teacher
I’ve had my profession on the brain lately. Students who are beginning their college education with an eye to teaching, students who want to know why I became a teacher, my college’s administrative meetings and course evaluations, colleagues around the country and overseas who are sharing their end-of-term triumphs and frustrations, even a few peopleContinue reading “Choose teaching – be a teacher”
11-11: Southern fiction (Christopher Cook)
I began my love affair with Southern fiction, as most of us do, with Faulkner, but I didn’t get serious about studying the genre until I started reading Tom Franklin. His then-distinctive blend of gritty blue-collar stories set in a modern but familiar American South, a style of writing Franklin likes to call “Industrial Gothic,”Continue reading “11-11: Southern fiction (Christopher Cook)”
11-11: Contemporary poetry (Jerry Bradley)
Back in April, I had the good fortune to attend this year’s annual joint conference of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association. This conference is a perennial favorite of mine, thanks in part to my association with Jerry Bradley, who chairs the creative writing area of the conference, but I hadn’t beenContinue reading “11-11: Contemporary poetry (Jerry Bradley)”
Merry freakin’ Christmas (don’t worry, we do Thanksgiving and New Year’s, too)
It’s been a good week for publications. On Monday, my story “Barefoot in the Guadalupe” appeared in Red Dirt Review, and the same day I got word that I’ll have a story in Scintilla sometime in the future. Then today, Jersey Devil Press‘s special Holiday Half-Issue my colleagues and I have been working on turned upContinue reading “Merry freakin’ Christmas (don’t worry, we do Thanksgiving and New Year’s, too)”
Who’ll get me a book I ain’t read….
Oh, where to begin? It seems like the publishing market — or, at least, the small press and indie lit markets — like to work in tandem, with everyone publishing stuff all at once. It’s like our literary periods are in synch or something. I say this because a lot of my friends and acquaintancesContinue reading “Who’ll get me a book I ain’t read….”
Why Do I Have to Learn This?
Image by Claremont Colleges Digital Library via Flickr I just read this fantastic blog post — no, I’ll go ahead an call it what it is: an essay — from “Siobhan Curious” at Classroom as Microcosm. Titled “Why Do I Have to Learn This?,” it is an excellent response to a recent New Yorker piece by LouisContinue reading “Why Do I Have to Learn This?”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 