“It is difficult for them to understand why a successful black woman would choose to return to the South and, worse yet, to Mississippi, which looms large in the public’s imagination for its racist depredations, and rightfully so.” For Time magazine’s American South issue Jesmyn Ward writes about her decision to return home to Mississippi.
Making a Place Worth Living
Well, She Should Know
“Here is a rare recording of Flannery O’Connor reading an early version of her witty and revealing essay, ‘Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction’”
Creative Slump
We have some bad news, writers. People actually dislike creative thinking. Despite how society celebrates creativity, most people are too risk averse to appreciate it, studies indicate. What’s the upside? Social rejection can bolster your creativity, but most writers probably knew that already.
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The Chance of a Lifetime
It’s famously easy to get scammed on OkCupid. Sarah Hepola (of Salon) knew as much when she joined. But when someone who claimed to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt sent her a flirty message, she figured… what could she do?
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Out of Service
Recommended viewing: Katrina Whalen’s short film adaptation of Charles Portis’s “I Don’t Talk Service No More.” Pair with our own Bill Morris’s review of Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.
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“Irish writers tell stories differently”
St. Patrick’s Day is over but there’s always cause to celebrate Irish storytellers. (Plus March is Irish-American History Month!) In this video from Open Road Media, you can listen to Edna O’Brien, Joseph Caldwell, Ken Bruen and T.J. English discuss the components of Irish storytelling that make for such good craic. Also you can check out the Poetry Foundation’s collection of St. Patrick’s Day poems for additional (belated) Irish writing.
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Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Low Price Kindle
Amazon’s 7″ Kindle Fire tablet will sell for $199 — less than half the cost of Apple’s cheapest iPad. The color, touch-screen tablet will run Google’s Android software and have access to Amazon’s app store, streaming movies and TV shows. Additionally, Amazon’s announced the launch of the $99 Kindle Touch, and has reduced the price of the standard Kindle to $79.
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Writing through Dementia
Recommended Reading: Gerda Saunders’s essay “My Dementia: Telling who I am before I forget” on being a writer with dementia. “Looking back at the chapters I’ve completed, I ask myself, ‘How come I can still write? Could I be faking dementia?'”
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