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.
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.
As previously mentioned, 750words is a website that motivates writers to write every day. It’s been extremely useful to me so far, and maybe it’ll help you too.
My writer-friend Melissa Dominic has a fantastic new blog over at the Pocket House. Feel free to explore and make yourself at home. She’ll be happy to have you.
Another great blog I discovered: Pen and Ink. Tattoos and the stories behind them.
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.
