Here’s what you should never do: dash off a story and send it to a Flash Fiction contest below. Nothing is worse than hastily written very short fiction, with all its seams and gears showing. If anything, you should take much more time to craft your stories under 1000 words, because the precision of a tiny jewel is […]
If you’re looking for a list of the best places to publish your nonfiction or essays, check out this new list I have at Bookfox: The Best Literary Nonfiction Markets It uses the same methodology as in my Best Literary Journal Rankings. It uses the Best American series, specifically the Best American Essay series, to […]
This is a reading list of the best modern novels that deal with Catholic or Protestant themes. I’d call it Christian Literary Fiction, but the more common term is probably Modern Christian Literature. A definition: By “Christian Literature” I mean the broad Christian faith, including Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. Most of the books on this list […]
After 11 years, the literary journal BLACK CLOCK will be ceasing publication in June of 2016. This press release was sent out to submitters: Unfortunately Black Clock will be ceasing publication as of June 2016. This surprising decision was not made by us, the editors, and we were not aware such a decision was looming […]
This NY Times article on libraries surprised me with a revelation about the smallest, saddest library in human history: the children’s library at Auschwitz, consisting of eight books that the girls hid every night so the guards wouldn’t confiscate them. But it goes on to talk about the role of libraries, and how it’s shifted away from […]
Ngugi Wa Thiong’o has had high odds for the last few years among pundits to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. This year he’s currently given 7/1 odds, just behind Haruki Murakami. Although we don’t have any official confirmation that the Nobel prize committee has been entertaining the notion of giving him the most coveted […]
I love short sentences. I really do. In any book filled with a series of long, expansive sentences, a short sentence arrives like a gift. Short sentences rarely have the ambiguity or mystery of a long sentence. They rarely have twists or swerves or switchbacks, because that requires the length of a longer sentence. They rarely win your admiration for […]
It’s a sad day for the world of poetry. James Tate, a poet who won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, died today. RIP. He was 71. His poems have been described as “tragic, comic, absurdist, nihilistic, hopeful, haunting, lonely, and surreal.” (The Poetry Foundation). His death will leave his many readers in mourning. He is […]
There are lot of creative writing prompts out there, and even some image-based writing prompts, but I think this is new: Musical Creative Writing Prompts. In the righthand sidebar there’s a link to a new page I’ve recently created with 30 song-based writing prompts. Each prompt has a song paired with a specific writing exercise based […]
Benjamin Percy on writing in Poets & Writers: “Consider this. Picasso trained in realism before he shattered our way of seeing. Patricia Smith can rock a sonnet or villanelle as well as experiment with free verse. Can you say the same? Can you write something that is scene-driven and as tightly fitted as a Lego […]
