Links

Hitting the Ground Running Links

Posted on January 1, 2009 by TayariJones
  • Galleycat has a month-by-month listing of the year in publishing. This has been a crazy twelve months. From Margaret B. Jones (Who? Oh, her!)way back in March to the total meltdown in December, a LOT has gone down.
  • This is a weird post about by editor who plunks down six-figures for a book, and still it isn’t enough to close the deal.
  • Want to go to the inauguration as a VIP? Enter the official inaugural essay contest!
  • National Book Award winner, Judy Blundell has written dozens of books, but this was the first one she was brave enough to write under her real name.
  • Paperback Writer reveals what she won’t be doing in 2009.
  • When it comes to The Joy of Sex, everyone has something to say.
  • Toure lists the “Thinking Man’s Sex Symbols.” Paper bag test, anyone?
  • 5 Tips for the Short Story Writer.
  • Thoughts on Gaza and thought provoking quotes from Ngugi.
  • So many writers are waiting for Hollywood to come a’knockin.
  • The Souls of Black Girls is now available on DVD.
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    364 Days Til Christmas Links

    Posted on December 26, 2008 by TayariJones
  • Next week I am doing a Q&A with the organizer of the “Dreams of My Father” American Scholars Inaugural Ball. And she’ll tell us how we can go!
  • Don’t forget to enter the Kore Press short fiction contest. I’m judging and I’ve got good taste. :)
  • RIP Eartha Kitt. There are many tributes on the web, but Misstra Knowitall and Afrobella put their blogging where their hearts are.
  • Christine Zilka, friend of the blog, interviews Alexander Chee, another friend.
  • Midwestern Malfeasance: This is not literary, but too crazy to omit: Blago has hired R. Kelly’s lawyers!
  • RIP Harold Pinter. Ed has a terrific tribute, but you have to know Pinter’s work to really get it.
  • Anika is not feeling Kwanzaa. But I always liked Kuumba, which is all about creativity.
  • Publishing is in the toilet, but you knew that already.
  • Keep those teenage you pictures coming. I am going to post them all on New Years and post the total money raised for GWN!
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    Getting Outta Town Links

    Posted on December 21, 2008 by TayariJones
  • The Guardian loves Elizabeth Alexander and so do I.
  • Graywolf Press also loves her. So much that they are printing a chapbook of her inaugural poem.
  • 25 things to know about self-publishing.
  • Did you know that stir-frying a fake necklace will make it turn green? Nami Mun tells this and more at a Q&A at Koreanish.
  • Is the Newberry Award causing kids to hate reading? Some say yes, some say no.
  • Walter Dean Myers gave a reading in a prison and realised that one of the inmates was a kid he had met earlier at a school.
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    Spit Out The Haterade Links

    Posted on December 19, 2008 by TayariJones
  • George Packer complains that Elizabeth Alexander has been chosen as inaugural poet. Luckily, TaNehisi Coates was on the ready at The Atlantic set the record straight. (Thx Anovelista for letting me know.)
  • Like me, Reggie H loves Elizabeth Alexander, but he is very displeased about the choice of Rick Warren as inaugural preacher. Novelist, Jane Smiley, is similarly unamused.
  • This is shaping up to be a grumpy set of links. Remember when Alisa Valdez Rodriguez called Jodi Picoult out on her racism? Well Picoult responded and got smacked down, again. (Note to Jodi: never ever ever try to drag the name of Toni Morrison into a conversation like this. You are NOT Toni Morrison.)
  • Speaking of people with a lot of nerve, James Frey claims to be writing a “third book of the Bible.”
  • Nerd mixology. NPR lets you mix your own podcast.
  • I love this Lorrie Moore piece, “How To Be A Writer.”
  • Do you ever look at the New Yorker and wonder how the heck they choose those stories? Now you can ask the editor.
  • New Akashic Noir anthologies are headed your way. Editors will be Edwidge Danticat and Dennis Lehane.
  • Spell check is making us write weird.
  • NPR has organized all their end-of-year lists so you can peruse about fifteen weirdly alienating Best Of lists at once! Tis the season!
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    Ninja Links

    Posted on December 13, 2008 by TayariJones

  • R.I.P. legendary editor Carol Houck Smith, who passed away at age 85 and worked to the last day.
  • I hate that I was born too late to attend Howard University in the 1970s.
  • Alisa Valdes Rodriguez was loving Jodi Picoult’s new novel til she got to the racism. Then she re-read the book and got offended all over again.
  • Who knew Anika was so adorable on video? She bakes a banana bread and gives her holiday book picks.
  • Would you prefer to go two weeks without sex, or two weeks without the internet?
  • Word Spy posts newly coined words. My favorite is ninja loan: a loan given to someone with No Income, No Job, and No Assets. Not exactly an acronym, but close. I think it would be a useful shorthand term for describing people you meet on match.com.
  • The recession is claiming Portland’s Feminist Non-Profit Bookstore.
  • Ever wondered what’s the point of having a poet laureate?
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    News, Notes, and Links

    Posted on December 11, 2008 by TayariJones

  • News and Notes has been cancelled!
  • Did you know that there’s been crazy backlash again Jonathan Safran Foer? I feel so lame because I haven’t thought too much about him one way another. Should I be backlashing?
  • Erika has pointers for AWP. And just FYI, The mother ship hotel is full. You’ll have to stay in a satellite.
  • Eduardo Corral posts a memorial and links to a poem.
  • Some people just know how to stay rich.
  • Writers gather to say farewell to Studs Terkel.
  • What happens when you discover your father is a notorious Nazi?
  • Oprah, girl, don’t even worry about it. You are more than your dress size.
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    Post-Morrisonian Links

    Posted on December 9, 2008 by TayariJones
  • Toni Morrison was brilliant last night. Of course. And I didn’t cry, or make a spectacle of myself in anyway.
  • Ed Champion helps freelancers keep their heads up!
  • The best paid authors in the world.
  • The Lincoln Theatre holds a competition for emerging plaaywrights.
  • Drama in BookClubVille.
  • Steel Toe Books is taking submissions for their poetry book contest. They are placing special emphasis on immigrant writers and writers of color.
  • Wanna write chica-lit? Alisa Valdes Rodriguez is offering writing workshops!
  • The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago invites applications for the 2008-2009 Artist-in-Residence Program.
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    Lazy Sunday Links

    Posted on November 16, 2008 by TayariJones
  • Why do I want this so bad? And why can’t I stop watching the crazy videos that go with it?
  • WARNING: If you are already obsessed with Michelle Obama, do not click this link!
  • Although we are crazy proud of Rigoberto for being part of the OUT 100, After Ellen points out that there were hardly any women on the list.
  • Sarah Palin is in line for 7 million dollar book deal! File that under: Only in America.
  • Jericho Brown has some smart things to say about true meaning of “color blind“.
  • Omnivoracious picks the books that best represent Georgia. No, I am not on the list, but Toni Cade Bambara is, and that’s good enough for me.
  • California Newsreel releases a new documentary on Zora Neal Hurston. (Can we start calling her ZNH?)Here’s the trailer.
  • Dear Mr. Obama: Reggie Harris has some ideas for you, starting with Patricia Smith for inaugural poet.
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    Stateside Links

    Posted on November 12, 2008 by TayariJones




    Miriam Makeba


    Originally uploaded by Thesis – Pordenone

    Hey, y’all. I’m back home in front of my own computer. Here are some links that caught my eye while I was playing catch-up. I am working to get my Ghana pictures together. I plan to post about the trip over the next couple weeks. Meanwhile, here’s some pretty cool stuff to read.

  • Toni Morrison interviewed on Charlie Rose: “This story is pre-racial. When everyone was for sale or for rent.” One more thing she said that I love. “Oh no. I am writing another book, dear.” I love her tone. Listening to the interview as I type. She talks about everything. She’s so funny and so smart. She is so wry about Updike. And even a little flirtatious. Lord, I love that woman. You MUST check out the interview.
  • Miriam Makeba: RIP “Mama Africa.”
  • Alice Walker has a blog. She kicks it off with a letter to Barak Obama.
  • Our favorite poet, Natasha Trethewey, has written a powerful essay on the occasion of the Obama election.
  • Ed Champion says always look a gift horse in the mouth.
  • Joy Castro fires back at the NYT.
  • Tom Brown talks about the relationship between creativity and play.
  • Black gay writers, Fred Smith and Reggie Harris speak out on Prop 8 and the racial blame-game that followed.

    Okay. Getting back in bed now.

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