Tag: books

Happened Before It’s Happening

Joseph Dante6 Comments

We’ve already had our tree and house fully decorated since last week. Our Christmas shopping seems nearly finished. This year has happened before it’s happening. An internet god must have clawed his way out and deleted November from real life too somehow.

I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers and websites composing their “best of” lists already. I think I will wait a bit for that. I’ll probably do like I did last year and combine books with movies and music and other memorable things. We will see. To be honest, I may not have that many books to list simply because this year has been a much more fruitful year in regards to my writing instead.

Speaking of which, I received my contributor’s copy of Foxing Quarterly. You can now order a copy for yourself here. It features comics, photography, fiction, and poetry. It’s all in full color and it’s gorgeous. Well worth the price. You should also read Jim Rugg’s blog about the art in the issue, which includes some of the designs included and some unused logo ideas.

I also had a short story published in Literary Orphans. It’s dark and moody and features misfits who find each other. It’s also loosely inspired by science fiction books that are more soft with the science part. Mainly things that William Gibson would write. Also a club in Miami that I went to. The character Yukimi is named after the lead singer from the band Little Dragon. Of course, fictional Yukimi is nothing like her and I never got to meet the real one, just in case you were wondering.

Although I haven’t been reading many novels lately, I have been reading a lot of lit journals. I updated my reading section if you want to see what exactly I’ve been making my way through.

Carousel #15

Joseph Dante2 Comments

  1. 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.
  2. The Nobel Prize winner for literature was announced recently: the Chinese writer, Mo Yan.
  3. 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.
  4. Check this out: Storyswaps! A cozy place where two writers read each other’s stories. Here is one from Casey Hannan and Molly Laich.
  5. 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.
  6. Writing about my paper hoarding habits this week, I happened upon this blog of some truly great papercrafting.

Carousel #14

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  1. A book-loving teen discusses how he has to deal with “dumbing himself down” and pretending to be someone else while among his peers and growing up in an environment that doesn’t particularly encourage reading.
  2. My sister showed me this art blog and I fell in love. I especially love the art of Dima Rebus.
  3. 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.
  4. Here is the fiction editor of the consistently fantastic Indiana Review talking 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.
  5. This year’s MacArthur literary genius grants have been announced. Writer Junot Díaz is among them. Look here.
  6. Speaking of Junot Díaz, here is some of his advice to young writers.
  7. Here is the list of confirmed authors for this year’s Miami Book Fair, which I’ll hopefully be attending. Some great writers to see, along with some of my past creative writing professors.

Carousel #12

Joseph Dante2 Comments

  1. You can see what people are reading on the subways over at The Underground New York Public Library.
  2. Another great blog I discovered: Pen and Ink. Tattoos and the stories behind them.
  3. Many people were upset earlier this year about having no Pulitzer Prize awarded for fiction. In the New Yorker, writer Michael Cunningham (who was one of members of the jury that decides which three books are to be judged) discusses how exactly the process worked.
  4. Over at the Rumpus, writer and internet hero Roxane Gay talks about women writers, “women’s fiction,” and gender disparity in the publishing landscape. Also good books that I want to read.
  5. Here’s a collection of really weird book titles. Some will make you laugh out loud, some will leave you scratching your head.

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!