February 2012
34 posts
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The Tyranny of Footnotes →
Paul Wachter investigates why Kanye West is acknowledged in a 2008 authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul.
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Quick tightener: There is, there was, there are,...
Delete them.
We’re talking here about style and efficiency: getting to the point and getting the reader’s attention. — David Galef
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“A writer never has a vacation.”
– Eugène Ionesco
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WatchLending Library Public Sculpture on Kickstarter
The Hundred Story House is a piece of interactive public art. It is a miniature Brooklyn brownstone whose windows open upon shelves of books (about 100 of them) which can be borrowed by the community. Situated in the Cobble Hill Park on Clinton Street, the House is a tiny lending library open to all and operating on the honor system — take-a-book,...
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“If writing is not a tearing of the self toward the other within a confession of...”
– Jacques Derrida
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“If he literally pissed off the Devil in the process, he’d be standing on top of...”
– Fragment of a query critique over at BookEnds, “Workshop Wednesday.”
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Oxford, England
Need timewarp to engage, now. Heading to Oxford at the end of March for a vaca. Never been. Looking forward to its rich history.
But even more excited for The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival.
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“I write because I can’t do normal work like other people.”
– Orhan Pamuk
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“I was writing, yeah, but nothing spectacular. I had some unicorn notebook, and...”
– Karen Russell when asked if she’d been writing since elementary school.
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Copia Lets Readers Ask Author Questions Inside... →
What was clean would then look like a Microsoft Word document with Show Markup selected. Great… distraction.
Through February 21st, readers who buy a copy of Hermes’ book through the Copia eBook store can use Copia’s free eReader app to pose questions directly to the author which will show up in the margins of the eBook. The author will answer questions digitally.
The author will answer...
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Writers: If you're going to procrastinate, do it...
From Gretchen Rubin’s, “Problem With Procrastination? Try This: Do Nothing.”
[Raymond] Chandler set aside at least four hours each day for writing; he didn’t force himself to write, but he didn’t let himself do anything else. He wouldn’t let himself read, write letters, write checks — nothing. He summed up: “Two very simple rules: a.) You...
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Letter to Restaurateurs in Delaware
Sometimes simple, authentic cuisine is all you need to create.
Stop with the unique takes on sauces. If I see more than one sauce option, I’m not ordering it.
Stop with “this is my version.” Do you know what you’re doing?
Stop with nouveaux. Replace “new” with fresh, local.
Stop with fusion. Leave fusion for those late nights when you return from the pub.
...
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“We all suffer alone in the real world; true empathy’s impossible. But if a piece...”
– David Foster Wallace, from “A Conversation with David Foster Wallace,” by Larry McCaffery.
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I can/not write
I love to read my writing
especially when I recognize how awful it is, and how delightful it is to delete strikethrough waft it into literary ether.
I hate to read my writing
especially when it’s tight, flows, and makes me savor that sensual feeling anesthetizing because I know I am fooling my/self.
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The Millions : Dashboard? More Like Bookshelf:... →
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“I started out imitating Hemingway till I found out he had no sense of humor.”
– Elmore Leonard, interviewed at the Center for Fiction.
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“[I] would not agree that texting is a saying of more with less, and that it in...”
– Geoffrey Hill, Oxford professor of poetry, in response to poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s interview with the Guardian in September of 2011 when she states, “the poem is a form of texting … it’s the original text.”
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A Brief History of Blurbs →
“The author fails of making his dull characters humanely pitiable. New York Post.”
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Writers bid to revive letter-writing →
The Rumpus started this a while ago. Was tempted to subscribe but there were too few details. Might have to head over and sign-up.
From a writer’s perspective, I find it a strange thing writing a letter in this day and age. I think one of the appealing attributes of letter-writing is you must measure what it is you want to say. There’s no BACKSPACE. It’s an exercise. It’s...
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January 2012
51 posts
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“I would say to them, ‘just write and write.’ Without any fancy...”
– Banana Yoshimoto, shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize for The Lake, when asked for writing advice.
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Paulo Coelho: ‘Welcome to Download My Books for... →
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“The Great Gatsby was last updated in 1924. You don’t need it to be refreshed, do...”
– Jonathan Frazen in defense of the printed book — “Jonathan Franzen: e-books are damaging society.”
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Oscars' big winners will be books →
“Literary adaptations look set to sweep the board in Hollywood this year.”
Six of the nine nominations announced this week for Best Picture are based on books, reflecting a recent pattern in which the Oscar lists have consistently and gratifyingly affirmed cinema’s dependence on literature.
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“… It is hard enough to write at one’s best without wearing a hundred...”
– Norman Mailer to Salman Rushdie in support of The Satanic Verses.
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Most Quoted Books of 2011 (see image below) →