Tag: carousels

Carousel #11

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  1. Ray Bradbury passed away recently. I read Fahrenheit 451 when I was in middle school. I believe we also watched the movie adaptation of Something Wicked This Way Comes, although I used to think it was just a bad dream I had. I never really got around to reading more of his work until recently, but he was quite a prolific author – especially when it came to short stories. Here’s a story I think you’ll like.
  2. Here’s a hilarious post by Amanda Nelson about awkward encounters with writers at book signings. I’ve never actually met a really famous writer that I admire, but I honestly don’t even think I would want to because I wouldn’t know what to say either.
  3. Here’s a few of Sylvia Plath’s sketches.
  4. A friend of mine, Frankie, loves Sarah Kane. She talks about her at every opportunity and she want you to know that you should read her too. If you’re unfamiliar, Sarah Kane was a rather controversial English playwright who committed suicide in 1999. She handled difficult and dark subjects, and her work is characterized by being very abstract and unconventional for plays. They are also very stripped down and emotionally raw. You can read 4.48 Psychosis here. A bit of a warning though: it’s about the author’s struggle with depression and acts as a suicide note, so I wouldn’t read it if you’re already in a certain state of mind. Read it in the morning or on your lunch hour, when you still feel fresh.
  5. I’ve been receiving a lot of rejections lately, so seeing this ridiculous list of famous writers being rejected gives me some hope at least.

Carousel #10

Joseph Dante6 Comments

  1. I read this really great essay by Benjamin Hale that addresses the real value of literary prizes and what literature lives on years and years later. Basically, there is mediocre literature winning tons of awards that everyone forgets quickly and there is literature that is typically very polarizing and is usually recognized long after the writer has passed. Would you prefer to win awards while you’re alive or to be remembered long after you’re dead?
  2. A sixteen-year-old girl by the name of Tavi Gevinson has started an online magazine for other teenage girls. It’s not the vapid stuff you see in other typical teenage magazines – it’s real stories about what it’s like growing up. It’s well-written, relevant, and often funny. She’s been on TED, she’s been invited to fashion shows in New York. I was talking to Melissa about this, and we were wondering when teenagers were this cool. Rock on, Tavi. You will go far.
  3. Here are poems being recited in voicemails. Among them, Zadie Smith contributes “Animals” by Frank O’Hara.
  4. Fiona Apple is one of my favorite singers of all-time, and her newest album is finally going to be released this month. Here’s an excellent recent profile of her.
  5. I was a guest writer for ReadLearnWrite again. This time, I wrote a piece about relating to characters outside of your own realm of experience and why that’s important to being a good reader.

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!

Carousel #8

Joseph Dante2 Comments

(A somewhat late carousel. I found a lot of things last week, but I just forgot to keep track of some of them. Sorry!)

  1. No Pulitzer Prize was given out for the Fiction category this year. It was quite hilarious to see the deluge of sarcastic and infuriated comments by writers about the Pulitzer committee on Twitter. But here’s Ann Patchett’s much more reasonable reaction to it.
  2. I like this post about pseudonyms and writers’ identities, especially as someone with a half-pseudonym kind of thing going on.
  3. Speaking of pseudonyms, a writer who goes by the internet name of xTx has a really great story in The Collagist (which is probably my new favorite online lit journal, by the way).
  4. My sister has been pressuring me into reading The Hunger Games for a while and I caved. I’ve just finished the first book of the series and I’m beginning to read the second. At first, I wasn’t sure whether it would be something I would enjoy, but I have – more than I expected to, anyway. There’s also this great personal essay by Roxane Gay that helped to persuade me as well.
  5. This story by David Foster Wallace is very chilling. I think it will stay with me for a while.

Carousel #7

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  1. Mark Z. Danielewski, author of House of Leaves, writes a letter to a girl from OKCupid and it’s pretty hilarious.
  2. I came across a really fantastic blog called The Book Cover Club, where people read books and then design new covers for them. Check it out!
  3. I’ve always been a fan of surreal art. Here’s A Cadeira Alta, by Brazilian artist Marcel Caram.
  4. The details about J.K. Rowling’s newest novel were recently revealed. She has written an adult murder mystery, which is what people were speculating. It’s called The Casual Vacancy and it will be released on September 27th of this year.
  5. I found a generator that emails you rejections. It supposedly prepares you for the impending pain of failure. I’m sure I’ll be making proper use of it soon.
  6. Lately, there have been a lot of creative projects popping up all over the place via Kickstarter, plenty of them book-related. I really wish I could support them all! One of them that drew my attention in particular was Wollstonecraft, a charming series of children books about Ada Lovelace and Mary Shelley, dedicated to teaching young girls about history and writers and giving them positive real-life role models.
  7. This week, a post of mine went up over on ReadLearnWrite. It’s about growing up as a boy who really didn’t read on his own until much later than you would think. It’s also about getting other less enthusiastic people into books (including my own family).