Category: updates

Writing and Loneliness

Joseph Dante2 Comments

I’ve been extremely ill this past week or so. I could barely even talk. All I’ve been doing is watching DVDs in bed and trying my hardest to sleep the sickness away.

Fortunately, I’ve been doing a lot better lately. I’ve finished reading the newest issue of the Indiana Review, which I highly recommend. After entering their annual poetry contest this year, I’m going to be getting a few of their next issues. They publish some really fantastic writing.

In addition to working on some of my own writing and trying to find good homes for it, I’ve also been busy with my newest project: a blog that will focus on writers and the spaces they write in. It will be called (surprise!) Writing Spaces. I plan on asking for submissions soon. I’d really like to turn it into a cozy hub where writers can find each other and share some kind of community. This writing thing can get so lonely sometimes, and it’s nice to find new kindred spirits every once in a while. When I have it all set up, I’ll be sure to make a post about it here. And of course, you’ll be sure to contribute, right?

What else? Oh, I recently won a painting.

It was from a great video blogger named Stephanie. I’ve been following her adventures on Youtube for a while now. She graduated from my alma mater a year or two before I did and decided to leave Florida to teach in Japan (something a few fellow English majors I know have considered doing too). The painting itself doesn’t have a title, but I came up with the theme for it originally: loneliness. I guess I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately.

New Additions, Ideas for Collaboration

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I’ve made a few minor changes to this blog, mostly just for the sake of convenience:

  • I’ve added a page for the carousels. You see see them all collected there in one place, as well as some of the other popular features I like to write about on here.
  • I’ve added another page for what I’m currently reading. People often ask me about the books I like, so I thought that would be appropriate to add as well. There’s also my Goodreads page, which I keep updated. I keep track of all the media I consume pretty obsessively. I guess I just like to be consciously aware of it all so that somewhat cogent thoughts may form later on and some writing may happen as a result.

I’ve also been mulling over some ideas for other writing blogs, but they haven’t really congealed quite yet. They’re probably going to be collaborative projects though, so I might be asking for some submissions and input. I really hope some of you will consider submitting after I figure out the details.

Have a good weekend!

Relating to Unrelatable Characters

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I have a new guest post up over at ReadLearnWrite. I’ve written about this issue before, but it was only recently after watching Fran Lebowitz talk about it in Public Speaking that it really started making perfect sense to me. I just can’t stand when people dismiss good pieces of literature just because the characters or experiences they describe are so far off from their own. Isn’t that one of the reasons to read fiction in the first place? To get a glimpse of what it’s like to be someone else? And hopefully, in the process, learn a thing or two? If you’re drawn to the unrelatable, it’s always a test of empathy: taking the extra leap and putting in the effort to understand a life that would seem so strange adjacent to your own.

Social Media Cleanse

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I’ve been taking a break from places like Tumblr and other social media in order to focus more on revising my writing and sending out pieces to literary journals. So if you feel like I’ve been going ghost for a while, now you know why. It’s funny because I don’t exactly miss these things when I leave them, but I still crave some conversation. Most of the time, I just wish it were in another form, and I have the feeling a lot of people feel the same way.

In the meantime, I’ve been experimenting with the setup of this blog. I’ve installed a new comments system, which seems more efficient. I was bothered by the fact that I couldn’t reply to people after a certain reply amount was reached. Hopefully this took care of that problem.

I’ve also started updating my little writing section. l’ll use it to keep track of my future publications as well, once more of my writing finds a good home.

Rebels Who Refuse to Rebel: Zazen by Vanessa Veselka

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So I guess this is technically my first ever publication in anything! This week, Paste Magazine ran my review on the novel Zazen by Vanessa Veselka. It’s featured in Issue #42 and on their front page in the books section. Exciting. It’s a book review (about a fairly inscrutable book), but I also discuss rebels, dystopias, and Never Let Me Go.

You can read it here.