Laura Miller pokes some holes in that Dartmouth study about how little classic literature appears to be influencing contemporary writers.
So many wobbly assumptions
This Is Not Confessional Poetry
Over at the Bennington Review, Michael Dumanis interviews Year in Reading alumna Dorothea Lasky about persona poetry, the first-person “I,” and creativity. Pair with Gila Lyons’s Millions essay on creativity and madness.
Zombie Franchises
Blood Roots
"[W]e are and we are not who our blood roots predetermine us to be." Over at Electric Literature, Sion Dayson talks with our own Sonya Chung about race, writing, and her new novel, The Loved Ones, which is one of the books we're most excited to read this month.
●
●
Writin’ State o’ Mind
“I try to edit my work in different states of mind. So I’ll go running on a really hot day and then read the 2,000 words I just wrote. Or if I’m upset, or really sleepy, or if I’m drunk, I’ll read this stuff. If you’re sleepy and you find yourself skipping over a paragraph because you’re bored by it and just want to get to the interesting part, it comes out. Those different states of mind are a really interesting filter." Writing advice from Sebastian Junger.
●
●
Time Traveling Stories
The Portable Story Series has announced their latest contest theme: time travel. Paul Levinson will be judging the contest, which runs from June 1st through July 29th.
The Age-Old Tradition
Scientists are using x-ray to read fragments of 1,300-year-old manuscripts that have been reused as bookbindings. Pair with this Millions essay on private libraries and what books reveal about their readers.
●
●