Links

Let’s Get This Year Started Links

Posted on January 1, 2010 by TayariJones




My Year in Facebook

Originally uploaded by kleopatrjones
  • To the right is my Year In Facebook. You can see it larger, here.
  • Carleen posts the music that gets her ready to write. Seeing how upbeat her songs are, I think I see what I am doing wrong.
  • Reggie Harris remembers Don Belton with an excellent and informative post.
  • Shelley remembers Consuela Lee. I was not familiar with her work, but she seems like a terrific woman.
  • Asian American poets, this is a great opportunity.
  • Jamey Hatley is featured in the new issue of Torch. (On a random note, Jamey has the most gorgeous handwriting ever.)
  • Authors, please do not call the FBI on people who write nasty amazon reviews. It’s not a good look.
  • Very Weird books.
  • Black poets write about nature.
  • The key to literary success? Be a man, or at least write like one.(Very interesting article, but let’s not make the conversation about gender in publishing be limited to white women writers talking about white male writers. Remember the lessons we learned in the 70s.)
  • Writer Beware: a listing of scams that prey on people’s dreams.
  • Browse the 600 fragile book jackets of the H.D. Carberry Collection of Caribbean Studies in Special Collection of the library of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
  • Five essential sites for professional photographers.
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    Whoops! I left out some links from today’s list

    Posted on December 21, 2009 by TayariJones

    This is proof that the holiday stress is kicking in. I forgot to include some of the links I had planned to share today. (you can get the rest of the list a little lower on the page.)

  • The African Diaspora Reading Challenge for 2010
  • Rigoberto Gonzales highlights books from small presses.
  • Do you live in a “happy” state? (If you live in NY, you don’t.)
  • When the recession hits artists. (and this woman seems to come from a wealthy-ish family.)
  • Peter Rock loved this book. I mean he really really loved it.
  • Harlan Ellison wants his #@!$% money.
  • Why gift books? Because a scented candle never changed anyone’s life.
  • The 50 most inspiring living authors.
    Okay, that feels better. You have the whole list. Now I can go do my hair. xoxo, t

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    Leaving Vermont

    Posted on December 16, 2009 by TayariJones

    Well, here are a few links as I am heading home. Vermont Studio Center is really a nice place. The food was deee-lish and they’ve just built new studios for the writers, which overlook the river. It’s a little pricey to go here, but there are scholarships. But okay, on with the links because I have a plane to catch!

  • Here is the bestsellers list for poetry. I was really surprised by it.
  • Slow down Smokey! Random House needs to back up off the e-rights.
  • More on the Publishers’ Weekly cover FAIL. BlogHer, DailyFinance,HTML Giant. PW itself semi-apologizes.
  • James Baldwin on being in the belly of the beast.
  • Anne Patchett says writing is a job, so act like it.
  • Alice Randall has some cool contests on her blog.
  • Pretending to be a man may help your career.
  • Congrats to Justin Torres and the other USA Fellows.
  • Congrats, as well, to January O’Neil. I don’t know her but I love her name and how happy she looks.
  • An editor at a small press bids goodbye to an author who has moved on to the big time.
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    Trying to Get Myself Together Links

    Posted on December 8, 2009 by TayariJones

    I don’t know what’s up with me today– or yesterday, or the day before– I am having trouble connecting with the world. I suspect that I am just overwhelmed. You know having too much to do can make you do nothing? I’m kind of there. Yesterday, at my writing date, I was having such a hard time concentrating. That said, here are some links until I can get it back together.

  • Algonquin higlights my short story. (thank you!)
  • Does twitter sell books? Methinks, no. But selling books isn’t the only reason to do something.
  • RES has released her new album *free* on line. And Sade has released a new single that you can hear without charge.
  • Algonquin author, Laila Lalami, weighs in on the Swiss Minarets controversy.
  • Are you turned off by ugly book covers?
  • Write what you know doesn’t mean you don’t have to know what you’re talking about.
  • So you meet an editor and she says, “Send me your manuscript.” Then what?
  • Sarah Schulman on familial homophobia.
  • Alan King on Karibu Books.
  • Shelley’s interesting and ecclectic end-of-year list.
  • I know the money is for charity, but this is so irritating.
  • Renee, honey, in Georgia, this is what we call a high-class problem.
  • Girls Write Now!
  • Authors of color who tweet.
  • Nerd Alert: The MLA Handbooks is online.
  • Crazy Cool Subway Stations.
  • Isn’t Lauren’s living room pretty?
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    Keeping It Together Links

    Posted on December 4, 2009 by TayariJones




    Lights,Camera, Action!

    Originally uploaded by R.Berdar
  • Tiger! The Musical.
  • Publishers are cutting costs the wrong way.
  • Hey, that book cover looks really familiar.
  • Books that die.
  • The writer and the cat.
  • Famous foods from literature.
  • This is silly, but you can download this program on your computer and when you stop writing, it will talk bad about you.
  • Yemisi hearts the Seattle Public Library and its awesome podcast.
  • What to expect from your agent, and your editor.
  • I am not posting on any of the Best of The Year lists because it is way too depressing. Something nasty is afoot. I’ll say that and leave it there.
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    Take Back Your Space Links

    Posted on November 23, 2009 by TayariJones
  • You can tell when I am not on task when I trash my writing room. My only goal for today is to Take Back My Space. I know times are stressful– between the economy and the jacked-up state of publishing– but this is no excuse for me sabotaging my own peace of mind. If you have a writing area– even if it is just a little desk– feel free to join me.
  • There is still time to enter the drawing for Lyrae’s beautiful book. (Details below).
  • David Sedaris is releasing his new audio book on vinyl.
  • I listened to this recording of Amy Reed reading from her debut, Beautiful, and I was hooked. YA label be damned!
  • The “SP”-word? Aracelis Girmay speaks out.
  • Four years after his MFA, he wishes he had thought about more than just convenience.
  • DeBerry reaches out to Oprah.
  • Naughty little quip!
  • Literary costume party in NYC! I think I’m going to go if I can come up with an outfit.
  • Mashable’s 100 Authors that tweet! (And they are all white. What the heck is going on these days???)
  • The Bad Sex Awards have been announced and passages are posted. Of course these lucky winners are all white, too, but exclusion is not always a bad thing. ;)
  • Last, may I guide you to Matthew’s excellent comment to last week’s blog post about the National Book Award. I am thinking of having it tatooed on my forearm.
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    Little Blue Wagon Links

    Posted on November 18, 2009 by TayariJones




    Go, Jayne Anne, Go!

    Originally uploaded by kleopatrjones
  • Today is the National Book Awards. My boss, Jayne Anne Phillips is a finalist for her amazing novel, Lark and Termite! I’ll be at the ceremony and I’ll be on twitter.
  • Do you suffer from Rosa Parks Syndrome? I do, but I am trying to recover.
  • Salon says goodbye fiction, helloooooo memoir!
  • Remember when I congratulated Victoria Chang on being brave enough to crunch the numbers on the Whiting Awards? Well, she says she’s not brave, she just calls it like she sees it.
  • Why are people more excited about boy babies?
  • Although I am sort of Gladwelled-out, I have to chuckle at this post and photo.
  • Joy congratulates me, more importantly, she announces the publication of a new anthology about writers who made it the hard way.
  • Butterflies as secret code for gay novels.
  • Twilight is over, for now.
  • Not literary, but this made me laugh so hard. Regretsy is a site that posts the ugliest things from etsy.
  • $3000 grants for DC artists.
  • YA author, Sara Zarr, says her dad was an alcoholic, but that wasn’t all he was.
  • Is your publisher making money off of you?
  • The big payback: When an author gets to review a book by somebody who slammed him.
  • When you get a book deal, but your editor gets fired, they call your book an orphan, and it’s a bad situation.
  • OMG, scammed by your agent! I cannot even imagine how horrible that must feel.
  • New Jersey, this is a great prize for emerging writers of prose AND poetry.
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    Logical Links

    Posted on November 15, 2009 by TayariJones

  • Happy Leonard Nimoy Day!
  • Barbara Kingsolver writes about political topics, but don’t call her a “political writer.”
  • A play about the last novelist in the whole world.
  • Pulitzer Prize winning play, Ruined, is going on the road.
  • Saaed channels rage into poetry.
  • Cormac McCarthy: I’m not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.
  • Facebook gave this kid an alibi.
  • UC Santa Cruz needs a stoner-in-chief.
  • To MFA or not to MFA.
  • It’s like iTunes for poetry!
  • How to use an apostrophe.
  • So don’t drive yourself crazy tailoring your query to each agent, but don’t do a generic blitz, either.
  • Bookswim is like Netflix for books, and Renee is hosting a giveaway!
  • Black Action Figures!
  • Jenny loved Brother/Sister, which is playing at Public Theatre.
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    Wailing And Weeping Links

    Posted on November 11, 2009 by TayariJones

  • I lost my blackberry and I am devastated. For real. I may have to take to my bed over this.
  • This is the craziest book-related ailment I ever heard of!
  • How to write a great novel– involves costumes, bathrooms.
  • Yes, you do need an agent.
  • Afrobella has some great Sesame Street links.
  • People need to stop being so roguish.
  • Get your self-publish on.
  • Lit mags who tweet.
  • Doug at Agate sees the bright side in the death of Walden Books.
  • Inexcusable is a YA novel from the point of view of a date-rapist. Sounds intense and fascinating.
  • How not to write about Africa
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    Makes Me Wanna Holler Links

    Posted on November 6, 2009 by TayariJones

    I actually have a lot of links to share, but I noticed a cluster on a particular theme. Many writers, mostly women, are speaking out against the ways that systems of power and opression are affecting artists and their art. These trends are very disturbing, but I am not sure what can be done about it…

  • Victoria Chang points out what everybody noticed, but no one wanted to say: Black women and Asian-Americans hardly EVER get the Whiting Award. (Leave her a comment on her site for being so brave to speak the truth.)
  • Women writers are up in arms about the all-male best of 2009 list released by Publisher’s Weekly. (But everyone should be alarmed, not just us!)
  • Bernice MacFadden posts a little known essay by Zora Neale Hurston.”The fact that there is no demand for incisive and full-dress stories around Negroes above the servant class is indicative of something of vast importance to this nation.” Did ZNH get hold of a time machine and bring back a copy of The Help?
  • This brings us around to Precious, which Armond White says is “the con job of the year.”
  • Celeste Ng says she’s not “the next Amy Tan.”

    Sorry for posting such an intense set of links. I try to keep this blog very upbeat as my goal is to provide everyone with info, but to also motivate everyone to write. (You’ll notice I haven’t been linking to a million Publishing Is Over articles. I just don’t see how it is helpful.) But the issues I am posting about today are important and something that we all need to think about.

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