Sarah Blake has completed her twelve-part illustrated epic poem, The Starship, at Berfrois. Pair with our essay on why Americans read poetry but won’t buy poetry books.
The Starship Lands
Welcome, Ismail!
The Millions is thrilled to welcome a new staff writer, Ismail Muhammad, whose first piece for the site publishes today. (You may have seen Ismail's work at Zyzzyva and the Los Angeles Review of Books previously.) He splits his time between Los Angeles and Oakland, where he's currently working on a dissertation and a novel. Find him on Twitter @trapmotives and Instagram @trapmotifs.
Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat Application
Are you a woman of color writer in need of the time and space provided by a writing retreat, ideally in October? Then you're in luck, applications for the Jack Jones Literary Arts retreat have just opened! New York Times Magazine writer Jenna Wortham is this year's Writer-in-Residence. Applications are due April 1st and there is a $35 application fee. But if you hurry you might be able to get your application fee waived thanks to generous donors. We urge you to apply now and wish you the best of luck!
Is This the Apocalypse?
The day has come. Amazon just announced that it is now selling more e-books than physical books, and its ad-infused "Kindle with Special Offers is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family." Meanwhile, it's still news when a well-known author publishes an e-book (in this case, Susan Orlean's new Kindle Single Animalish).
Do Or Do Not
"Listen to what makes your hair stand on end, your heart melt, and your eyes go wide, what stops you in your tracks and makes you want to live, wherever it comes from, and hope that your writing can do all those things for other people. Write for other people, but don’t listen to them too much." Being a writer is really hard. Fortunately, Very Good Writer Rebecca Solnit is here with ten tips on how to be a better one.
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Revolution Girl Style Now
Listen up, rebel girls! The October issue of The Believer features selections from New York University's riot grrl collection, curated by archivist Lisa Darms.
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Timely Books?
"In publishing, we see this play out in a number of ways. Marginalized writers are told by white editors, we need your stories now more than ever, as if we have not always needed them urgently. We are told our experiences are timely, exotic, and trendy. We are told our stories are not authentic if our characters do not suffer, as if the only way to prove that we are human is to bleed." Natalia Sylvester on the erasure that comes when marginalized writers are constantly being told by the publishing industry and others that your book about your marginalized identity is 'timely'.