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!”
Tag Archives: writers
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”
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)”
More notes on my NaNoWriMo table of contents
On Monday, I was explaining the concept of NaNoWriMo to my students, and they asked what I was writing. So I told them about my book idea and the “table of contents” I’d come up with, and one student asked me, “How do you write from a title?” But before I could answer, another studentContinue reading “More notes on my NaNoWriMo table of contents”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo table of contents
In just a few days, National Novel Writing Month will begin. So of course I’m gearing up. I have a lot of explaining to do about what you’ll see on the “notebook page” below, but I don’t want to front-load all this. Better just to give you the list, and then I’ll explain everything below. ToContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo table of contents”
Why Poet Hound and Hosho McCreesh rule the Web today
A nice surprise today: I just found out I won a drawing for a copy of Hosho McCreesh’s poetry collection For All These Wretched, Beautiful, & Insignificant Things So Uselessly & Carelessly Destroyed. The drawing took place over at Poet Hound, who are awesome people in general but have become extra-special to me now that they’reContinue reading “Why Poet Hound and Hosho McCreesh rule the Web today”
New fiction from Riley Michael Parker
So, Portland author and generally cool guy (you should see the reception this dude gets at readings) Riley Michael Parker has released his novel, A Plague of Wolves and Women. And seriously, that should be all you need to rush out and buy the book, because with a title like that, how could you goContinue reading “New fiction from Riley Michael Parker”
New fiction from Darin Bradley
My friend Darin Bradley, whom I interviewed a little more than a year ago about his (very cool!) novel Noise, has a piece of experimental fiction in the inaugural issue of Coffinmouth. It’s pretty cool — the story and the `zine. Go read it.
11-11: Western review (Elmer Kelton)
Wow! I haven’t posted an 11-11 reading update since March! But I have been reading from the list, gang, and I’ll be playing catch-up in my reviews every few weeks from now on. And since I just finished a Western novel, Elmer Kelton‘s The Time it Never Rained, I might as well start with it:Continue reading “11-11: Western review (Elmer Kelton)”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 