Gathered by Mandi Casolo Wolverine Farm is now accepting nominations for 2013 Fort Collins Poet Laureate–nominate yourself! In honor of the World Series game two, Ron Silliman meditates on poetics in baseball. Halloween recommendation reads are typically Frankenstein and anything by Stephen King–red rum. But if you want something new to keep you up at […]
Gathered by Mandi Casolo An exhausting, if not exhaustive, meta-list of writing rules from writers including Margaret Atwood’s “Do back exercises,” and “Take something to write on. Paper is good. In a pinch, pieces of wood or your arm will do.” In the helpful spirit, Kurt Vonnegut gives eight tips in his own voice, such as […]
Well, kids, it’s October. Before you get all excited about dressing up, down, or sideways in your fancy Halloween costumes at the end of the month, I think we all need to sit down and have a talk. First off, eat your vegetables. It’s important. Second, we need to address a serious lack of culture […]
After a year on the job, our fiction editor, Steven Schwartz, offers some reflections on submitting stories. Reasons we accept stories: You had us at the title. (Okay, the first sentence.) * Not a cliché to be found, not even close; indeed, the authority of the voice feels immune to the very idea of […]
Gathered by Mandi Casolo Chicago designer Jenny Volvoski reads a book and re-creates its cover art with challenging color and type limitations. While a theme of green, black, and white unifies the covers into a series, “Cover to Cover,” each cover is imagined in the individual likeness of its story. After hemming and hawing and […]
Gathered by Mandi Casolo Hang on to your hats: After cryptically tip-toeing around with Gathering Blue and The Messenger, Lois Lowry has at last written a sequel to The Giver, the dystopian young adult novel that first captured our hearts for euthanasia and terror regimes in sixth grade. Behold Son. There are so many avenues […]
Gathered by Mandi Casolo J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel, The Casual Vacancy, released on Sept. 26th. If you didn’t preorder it, shame on you. The Daily Beast gives a first look into the “viciousness of Rowling’s new fictional village.” “Literary Buroughs”, a Ploughshares series’ exploring the local literary community, highlights Great Falls, MT: where […]
Gathered by Mandi Casolo If you’re in or near the Big Apple, make sure you swing by the Brooklyn Book Fest this weekend, September 23rd. It’s like a rock concert of writers: Joyce Carol Oates, Billy Collins, and Tony Danza, oh my! Brooklyn Book Fest banners are displayed on the columns of the NYPL in […]
Well, kids, it’s back to school season, which can mean only one thing: it’s time for me to box up all of my white Ocean Pacific T-shirts and store them upstairs in the attic until spring. And speaking of attics, hey, James Henry Knippen was kind enough to record his poem “Attic” for Selections from […]
The air conditioning in my car is broken, and the Miami Heat are in the NBA playoffs. That can only mean two things: it’s getting warmer, and my life is a little unfortunate right now. If you’re like me and can’t stand the heat, not only should you get out of the kitchen, you should […]