This dialect quiz got passed around the internet quite a bit recently. I took it and was surprised how easily it picked out the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami/Pembroke Pines areas for me. Extremely exact. I guess using the term “sunshower” gave me away. I made my mom take it and she got areas in New York. Even she couldn’t trick it.
At Tin House, here is an interview with Laura van den Berg, whose book of short stories I am now making my way through. If you can find it, you should read “Opa-Locka.” Or maybe just buy her book, yes?
There is a documentary about writers and what they define as “bad” writing, called Bad Writing. You can watch it here for free for the entire month of January. Give it a watch! Featuring a lot of different writers, including Margaret Atwood and David Sedaris.
Want to know the specific name for practically every group of animals? Have a huge collection of collective nouns. The English language is indeed strange. A charm of hummingbirds, a parliament of rooks, an aurora of polar bears. Got to love it.
Via Flavorwire, the most anticipated books of 2013. Thirty of them, at least. Thirty is enough, as far as I’m concerned! I really wish I could keep up.
The visual history of The Bell Jar‘s book covers: here.
I don’t know how to feel about this quite just yet, but we are going to have our first ever bookless library. Based in Texas, the project is called BiblioTech and is being specifically designed for the digital age.
Writers’ Tears, an actual Irish whiskey. Should we be surprised?
What if dead authors were forced to use social media? Here is an idea. I don’t know about you, but I’d be the first to follow Truman Capote on Twitter.
Here are writers reading ten stories by Sherwood Anderson.
The lovely people at Foxing Quarterly are looking for submissions for their next issue. Deadline is the new year! Get to it!
My sister has asked me time and again if I will ever get a tattoo for myself. The main issues is that I never really could decide on what I would get, but this serotonin tattoo is a distinct possibility. Maybe that’s something that will happen in 2013, who knows.
This is refreshing (but also very miserable) to see: writer Jonathan Evison does a breakdown of the money he has earned throughout the years as a novelist. In the end, it is still very nice to see how he finally did catch a break, after all that time.
And of course, this carousel wouldn’t be complete without end-of-the-year lists! Here is the Year in Reading series over at the Millions, which is being updated regularly.
Here’s a neat idea: a subscription service where your favorite cultural icons put together mail goodies for you that are personally meaningful. You can see all the different people doing this at Quarterly Co.
The Nobel Prize winner for literature was announced recently: the Chinese writer, Mo Yan.
An online friend of mine posted a list from her creative writing syllabus called, “A Bad Poem: The Satanic Six.” She mentioned to me how, although the class itself was not very inspiring, she had to keep the list itself. It’s perfect.
Check this out: Storyswaps! A cozy place where two writers read each other’s stories. Here is one from Casey Hannan and Molly Laich.
More news on literary awards: Hilary Mantel won this year’s Man Booker prize. Apparently it’s her second time winning it. I’ve only just heard of her recently. The New Yorker did a profile on her and you should read it.
Writing about my paper hoarding habits this week, I happened upon this blog of some truly great papercrafting.
My sister showed me this art blog and I fell in love. I especially love the art of Dima Rebus.
Here is a great quote by the always quotable Anaïs Nin. My sister has been misquoting it for quite some time and I managed to decode what she was talking about, finally.
Here is the fiction editor of the consistently fantastic Indiana Reviewtalking about what types of stories they don’t like because they’ve read variations of them a thousand times in their slush pile. You can also see their take on poetry. In fact, you should just read their blog in its entirety. A lot of insight into how a literary journal works, writing and submission tips, etc.
This year’s MacArthur literary genius grants have been announced. Writer Junot Díaz is among them. Look here.
