It’s an illusion, the belief that your doodling is a kind of armor, a kind of charm.
It is impossible to discourage the real writers—they don’t give a damn what you say, they’re going to write.
Sinclair Lewis (b. 1885)
(via)
#how i feel about my writing most of the time
(Source: algorhythmmm)
You know about writer’s block. But did you know there’s such a thing as writer’s guilt?
The writing life comes with its share of guilt. Guilty feelings can come from needing to block off lots of alone time, from not making a huge income, and from many other sources. But there are healthy, constructive ways to work through the guilty conscience that can come with being a writer.
This caption could be turned on its head (i.e. ‘went terribly right’ for writers who may enjoy using brain instead of braun)—but the graphic is great. What do you think?
Book Expo America (BEA) kicks off on June 4th at the Javits Center, and Russia is both this year’s guest of honor and the focus of BEA’s Global Forum. In association with BEA and sponsored by Russia’s Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication, Read Russia 2012 will present a week-long “showcase” of Russian literary and book arts in various locations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Read Russia 2012 offers opportunities outside BEA to meet and engage with a new generation of Russian literary leaders and newsmakers. More than 50 contemporary Russian writers and publishers will arrive in New York during festival week, among them such writers and journalists as Dmitry Bykov, Sergei Lukyanenko, Vladimir Makanin, Edward Radzinsky, Master Chen, and Mikhail Shishkin…You can read the introduction to the Read Russia Anthology by PEN Translation Committee member Antonina Bouis here.
(via PEN.org » Blog Archive The Russians are Writing! The Russians are Coming! - PEN.org)
Writer Butch Dalisay participated in the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival. Dalisay, a longtime poker player, recently entered a high stakes poker tournament.
“How did this all begin? I‘d been deep at work on a couple of book projects, and felt I deserved a poker break, just to clear out and recharge my addled brain. The first leg of the Philippine Poker Tour seemed like a good opportunity, despite the sizeable entrance fee, for which I sold one of my vintage pens, just to be able to say that I didn’t dip into our grocery budget to indulge a vice. On the first two days of eliminations, I played well and got a lucky break here and there: my 20,000 chips became 156,000, and then nearly 200,000. All of a sudden, I was in the finals, ready to become the Pinoy Jim McManus.”
Jennifer Egan on How to Create Your Own Rules (with Jacob Weisberg)
What shapes a novel beyond its beginning, middle, and end? Does structure trigger narrative? Author of 2011’s genre-defying, A Visit From The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan has said of her process, “I don’t know what I’m doing. That’s the price you pay for doing something different every time.” In the second installment of our Dialogue Series, “What to Do With Literature,” the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer explores the role of structure in writing and reading, sharing her perspective on the “rules” and her process in bending them.
Co-sponsored by The New School for Social Research
(via PEN American Center - Jennifer Egan on How to Create Your Own Rules)
