John Cline is retracing the Great Migration route from New Orleans to Chicago for his Oxford American column, “Arterial America.” In his latest dispatch, he discovers Jackson, Mississippi’s hip-hop community.
Blues Traveler
Let’s Have a Panel About It
Man Booker Prize-winner Marlon James is finished talking about diversity, and here's part of his logic: "A panel on diversity is like a panel on world peace. It should be seeking a time when we no longer need such panels. It should be a panel actively working towards its own irrelevance. The fact that we’re still having them not only means that we continue to fail, but the false sense of accomplishment in simply having one is deceiving us into thinking that something was tried."
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Punner Pens Publication
1995 Pun-making champion of the world (and Clinton speechwriter) John Pollack explores the history and meaning of the pun in his new book, The Pun Also Rises, reviewed here.
Group Activity
In the next few days, ee'll be asking members of The Millions Facebook group to help us with an exciting project that we've got in the works. If you want to join in the fun, join the group.
A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left
"She loved that I had to kiss her goodbye 16 times or 24 times if it was Wednesday." In poet Neil Hilborn's slam poem "OCD," he discusses what it's like for a person with obsessive compulsive disorder to fall in love and incorporates his tics in the performance.
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Moral Fiction
Matthew Salesses talks about moral fiction and how to address prejudice in writing at Electric Lit. A piece of his essay: "The writing of fiction cannot treat marginalized characters as vessels, cannot let the plot play out the racism of under-enlightened protagonists. Perhaps the ultimate conclusion is that one cannot write without prejudice unless one understands that one has prejudice." Pair with his recent essay at The Millions on plot and the inciting incident.
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Katy Kelly’s New Homepage
News for young readers and their parents: Meet the charming and irrepressible Melonhead and Lucy Rose--and their author, Katy Kelly, at Kelly's new author homepage.
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