Trials of the slush pile

More on rejection… Teresa Nielsen Hayden of Making Light discusses what it’s like to be responsible for reviewing unsolicited manuscripts. I agree with her: It’s not as easy as writers seem to think. She talks specifically about the comments at RejectionCollection.com, where writers send and react to the rejections they’ve received. (Thanks to Inner Bitch …

David Foster Wallace parody competition

DFW Parody Competition Finalists. An excerpt from my favorite entry: The Y-shaped Styles of Certain Flowers So. There are two people on a date and they’re eating dinner, and the guy is telling this long involved story about another guy who was having some difficulties and was diagnosed as having some sort of quote-unquote syndrome, …

Upcoming Event: Gist Street Reading Series, Feb 14

From the mailing list announcement from Sherrie Flick: “The February Gist Street is on SATURDAY, February 14th. That’s right–a Valentine’s Gist. Come with your honey, come stag–but please do come to hear Anthony McCann and Matt Rohrer read their poetry. “Both in from Brooklyn for the occasion, these guys have promised love poems and other …

Fan fiction promotes writing skills in children

An article in Technology Review, “Why Heather Can Write,” looks at the fan fiction communities that have sprung up around the Harry Potter books and their influence on children’s creativity and literacy. From the article: “Like many of the other young writers, Agonistes says that Rowling’s books provide her with a helpful creative scaffolding: