Literary

Erasmus Mundus Master Scholarships in European Literary Cultures (CLE), Europe For the academic years 2009-2011 the ERASMUS MUNDUS Master Course in European Literary Cultures – CLE offers many EU funded scholarships for Third-country nationals with excellent academic records: * students: 21.000 € / year * scholars: 13.000 € for a 3 months researching period. The ERASMUS MUNDUS PROG

WRITE, SHOOT, STAND-UP!The LEAGUE OF FILIPINO STUDENTS Literary and Photo Essay CompetitionAn essaywriting, poetry, and photography compeition on the theme: The YOUTH and SOCIAL CHANGEJUDGES:EssayWrtingRolando TolentinoAt...

Third verse same as the first-In a hurry? Are Sparknotes just too time consuming for you? Than read all you need here at Book-A-Minute, the most condensed reading room on the net. Some greats are the entries for Dune, The Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft , A Tale of Two Cities , The Collected Works of E.A. Poe and Finnegans Wake. Many of the synopses may seem cynical and overly critical of

Understanding literature requires literary logic. Literature communicates to us by experience- we experience the pain, the pleasure, the joy, and the sorrow of the protagonist. Discovering what makes literature great allows us to better appreciate it when we find it! Fortunately, Jeff Baldwin has outlined in The Twelve Trademarks of Great Literature what is required for excellence in lit.The dogma

Iain Hollingshead wins Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Awards this year for a passage in his first novel Twentysomething (Duckworth). The awards were set up by Auberon Waugh with the aim of gently dissuading authors and publishers from including unconvincing, perfunctory, embarrassing or redundant passages of a sexual nature in otherwise sound literary novels. Previous winners include Tom Wolfe

One of the things my father related to the family over breakfast upon his return from a three-day trip to Taiwan is the Chinese island’s vibrant reading culture. As late as 10 o’clock in the evening, the bookshop he visited (which my father estimated to be slightly larger than the Power Books branch in SM [...]

My posting this is a bit late. But since I believe this is a significant event for Philippine literature, allow me to cram this in my blog: Filipino author Miguel Syjuco is the winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize. According the panel of judges, Syjuco’s Ilustrado possessed “formal ambition, linguistic inventiveness and sociopolitical insight [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Fall Colors Central Park Literary Walk. American Elms flank the 40 foot wide walk running north and south from the 72st traverse to 68th street. Taken October 3, 2008 early afternoon.Image License: I, (sookietex) the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In case this is not legally possible, I grant any entity the right to use this work for any pur

All that aside, I bought a copy to give away to you, my wonderful friends, and I even had Ms. Barrows sign it. No gently read copies for you! No paperback ARCs for you! Only the best for you! Here’s how you can enter: ...

In Fury, a Salman Rushdie character (Prof. Solanka) flays Hemingway, calling him the “most effeminate” of novelists, or something to that effect. It suits Rushdie, his writing leaning towards the opposite spectrum of literary style. A few years down the line, Rohinton Mistry writes in Family Matters - “…Yezad felt that Punjabi migrants of a certain age [...]

The Crikey associated blog Literary Minded is giving away limited edition book plates signed by many of the major characters in the book The Last Whale.Angela Meyer (AKA Miss LiteraryMinded) is an emerging (emerged?) Australian writing talent.Go to her post here for details on The Last Whale book plates.She's interview Chris Pash, the author of The Last Whale, today in here series called 'Other Pe

From childhood to his present age of 70, Saini KM has remained a modest figure despite his accomplishments.Born in small Gending hamlet, Kota Kulon village, in the West Java town of Sumedang, Saini has contributed significantly to the country's literary world, especially in West Java.His modest personality and appreciation for his juniors has won him the admiration and respect of many."We should h

There are a few things Janet Reid doesn't want to see in your query letter:1. ThemeI don't care what the theme of your work is. I care what the story is.2. I love to write I don't care. I only care about whether you can write well enough to tell a good compelling story.3. I think my book will make a great movie.I don't care. I only care whether it will make a good book.4. It took me x+1 years to

To the picturesque North Oxfordshire village of Woodstock for a talk by veteran journalist Ann Leslie.Situated in the charming St Mary Magdalene Church, the talk was an enlightening glimpse into Ann's very eventful career.Currently writing for the Daily Mail, she came to journalism by accident after a conversation in a pub.She told us about her interview with Muhammed Ali, where she had to punch h

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Okay. I've decided. I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year. And I'm gonna succeed.Anyone else taking the plunge?My info page is here - friend me if you're partaking!

Horace Engdahl, the top member of the jury that decides the Nobel Prize in Literature:U.S. writers are "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture," dragging down the quality of their work. "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature," Engdahl said. "That ignorance is restraining."David Remnick, editor of

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Many of you have heard my story of the 38-year-old saga from the spring of 1970 until the spring of 2008 when MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL was published. And if you know the saga, you also know that a main goal of my persistence in getting this story published was because I wanted to preserve a very specific slice of women’s social history.And while the novel’s characters are a mash-u

The New York Times has a glowing review of Dennis Lehane's latest, The Given Day, which takes place in the early 20th century, during the historic Boston police strike.Now, I want to preface this post by explaining that I'm a huge Lehane fan. Specifically, I love his Kenzie/Gennaro detective novels, which kicked off his writing career. His later work, especially Mystic River, was still of high qua

Just off Fifth Avenue, the fun art-crazed Gershwin Hotel on E. 27th St. is within easy walking distance of Madison Square Park to the south, the Empire State Building to the north, Chelsea to the west, and Gramercy Park to the east. The Gershwin is near some seriously good restaurants including Country, Blue Smoke, Hill Country, Les Halles, and others. I think this hotel is a fun bargain. The hot

It's been an ongoing debate for, well, um, forever: is 'literary' fiction by default more important than genre fiction, like sci-fi, thrillers/mysteries/crime novels or fantasy? Some, like TIME Magazine columnist Lev Grossman say nay, and point to the recent forays of some big-name authors into more stylized genre fiction (Michael Chabon's recent work comes to mind) as a sign that fiction is ficti

At Age 14, Author Elisa Brinton Makes Her Literary DebutPR Web (press release), WA - Sep 15, 2008In her newly released book, Courage to Stand: Stories of Young Strength and Triumph in Adversity, author Elisa Brinton presents three young adult historical ...

Usui was an admirer of the literary works of Emperor Meiji, and, in the process of developing his Reiki system, summarized some of the emperor’s works into a set of ethical principles, which later became known as the Reiki Principles.(”GOKAI” in Japanese) Many Reiki teachers and practitioners aim to abide by these five principles, one [...]

GalleyCat has a nice roundup of literary agent news, including a literary agent's thoughts on Amazon's Kindle, why the industry is all about waiting and a few more points of interest. Read on, friends:Over at the Guide to Literary Agents blog, Chuck Sambuchino announces the winner of the "Worst Storyline Ever" contest. Even though the winning entry will never get anywhere near an agent, somebody

Dissertation research methods would not be attractive if you do not have an interesting research topic. For the most part, dissertations that are written by college students tend to be boring since they place way too technical terms and rigid aspects of writing skills in their documents. Now, if you are to write a literary [...]

This again-This guy, like, has some interesting fuckin' like, stuff to say about "literature." It is like, insightful and shit. Say what you want about Harry Potter, it has done a huge amount of good for modern reading. I read the first few (4) books and then fell off the wagon. It wasn't for me, but that doesn't mean much. I read The Catcher in the Rye the summer before eight grade and haven

Pretty interesting post, from MediaBistro's GalleyCat book blog:Earlier this year, GalleyCat explained how science-fiction author John Scalzi was opening up his blog to guest essayists for a series of posts called "The Big Idea." Here's another iteration of that basic concept: Literary agent Jenny Rappaport is devoting a portion of her blog, Lit Soup, to "Book Blocks," which she describes as short

I want to thank all of you who have been kind enough to offer me suggestions for literary SF titles (the original post is here). I'm going to list it all here for your amusement:(Larry's suggestions)John Crowley's works--Aegypt, Little/Big, etc.Gene WolfeUrsela Le GuinJ. G. BallardAdam Roberts (have one of his books)(Tim Walters' suggestions)J.G. Ballard: The Terminal BeachJohn Crowley: Engine Su

I need your help, everyone. I'm considering doing an independent study course on literary SF and I've come to the realization that I don't really know of any literary SF. So far my potential options include Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, which I'm told is SF, and something by Haruki Murakami (possibly Kafka on the Shore, if that is an SF/F title as some have told me).So, can you name any bo

The American Passages: A Literary Survey website provides a large collection of quality materials designed to support the study of American literature in its cultural and historical contexts. With 16 thematically-organized units and an archive of more than 3,000 multimedia artifacts, this site is highly recommended for students and teachers of American literature, American studies, and English as

What started as an idea for an online project towards the completion of my 2nd MA, this time in English, has taken a life of it’s own. At first, the idea was of having a couple of online tools, such as a blog and an online directory which could be used by writers wishing to have [...]

Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies. (Great Expectations) Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.(Great Expectations) It is always the person not in the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in it, and would unquestionably have done it too.(A Christmas Carol) Annual income twenty pounds,

A literary magazine, in its original sense, is a magazine that caters to literature. However, modern literary magazines also now feature graphic art. It is an alternative outlet to the more rigid and serious scholarly journals of the academe. Thanks to the rise of the small magazine publishing companies during the 1970s, literary magazines have found their way into the general public.The first lit

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here. Our guest blogger for today is David S. Grant, author of Bleach/Blackout. I [...]

Tilt Press just put out a beautifully made anthology, and I have a piece in it. Read about publisher/editor Rachel Mallino and the Press here-- I also have a poem here: it out!

Today has generally been a very good day. I got three very nice shirts from Marks & Spencer (those lovely linen and cotton mix, soft-touch jobs) and, this morning, I heard from the assistant to the agent I’d approached regarding Children of the Resolution. She — the agent — was “very interested” in reading the [...]

The weather was beautiful this weekend, but we haven't had much of a chance to enjoy it. I woke up in miserable pain yesterday, and Jesse's been trying to get caught up around the house. When Grandma went into the nursing home, she gave us her wingback chair and an entertainment center, so yesterday was spent rearranging the living room. Today, I'm still resting up in bed with Molly. She's running

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

From Mystic. Thanks girl, I raelly went bonkers doing this tag. and whittling down to 10 was so hard. D’Artganan From Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. Swashbuckling hero. The angry young man. Full of good old fashioned adventure and chivalry, he was one of the first characters that made a lasting impression on me. I read the Three Musketeers (abridged) when I was in third standard and

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Written by Adrian Twist - Reports are coming out that Amy Winehouse is suffering from tuberculosis, more commonly known as TB, and could possibly die if not properly treated. Her doct

This summer has been a summer of reading for me. While I haven;t had that much free time lately I've still managed to pack my days with pages and pages of reading. I'd say a good 80-90% of my waking thoughts are turned towards literature. So, I thought it'd be interesting to bring just a few of the little, entertaining, and weird bits of writing or literature related things that I've been playi

Captain Brown and Miss Jenkyns were not very cordial to each other. The literary dispute, of which I had seen the beginning, was a "raw," the slightest touch on which made them wince. It was the only difference of opinion they had ever had; but that difference was enough. Miss Jenkyns could not refrain from talking at Captain Brown; and, though he did not reply, he drummed with his fingers, which

Instead of the drunken shenanigans we usually chronicle, we thought we'd offer up a change of pace this morning. Since our book, The Man Who Scared a Shark to Death and Other True Tales of Drunken Debauchery came out, we've dealt with various people asking us about the process of landing an agent. Hence, we thought we'd offer a few insights and share them here.Finding the right literary agent can

"A magnificent achievement for a writer writing in a third language," was the opinion of the judges. "Its originality, its power, its lyricism, as well as its humane appeal all mark De Niro's Game as the ...

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here. Our guest blogger for today is Linda Merlino, author of BELLY OF [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Book Marketing Buzz: Book Promotion & Publicity Tips: How to Promote Your Books is a continuing series to help authors learn how to promote their books. If you would like to be a guest blogger for our book promotion and publicity series, click here. Our guest blogger for today is Jean Hackensmith, author of Checkmate. As a [...]

My poem, Swimming (Stretchmarks) is up at Literary Mama this month. Quite pleased and very excited! Check it out.

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

:: The Chrysalids (John Wyndham):: Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad):: No-Man's Lands (Scott Huler, review copy, first mentioned here)If you like the bracelet, check out this site.

I woke up this morning feeling crazed. Does anyone else feel like they are psychotic during their period? I feel like I am totally unravelling, like if this video were run in reverse:So lucikly, my antipodean chum Ms Robinson had a calm soothing task for me. The equivalent of eating an egg with soldiers. She had tagged me to do a meme entitled: WHAT ARE YOU READING?These are the rules:1. Pick up the nearest book.2. Open to page 123.3. Find the fifth sentence.4. Post the next three sentences.5. Tag five peopleSo here I go:1. 365 Manners Kids Should Know by Sheryl Eberly.2. Under a heading called How to eat shish kabob the fifth sentence says:When your child is served meat and vegetables on a large skewer, he should hold the skewer in his left hand with the end of the skewer resting on the p

So I was reading this article/photo essay about Edith Wharton's house -- and you know how much I like Edith Wharton -- and I was struck by this quote:In an early short story, "The Fullness of Life," she wrote: I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting room, where members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handle of whose doors perhaps are never turned, no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes.

William Dalrymple on the Indian Literary Dream that Wasn't: 'The truth is, however, that since 1997 there has been no new galaxy of stars emerging to match the stature of those of the 1980s and 90s.... This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

First blooms in my backyard; April 19, 2008 — Photo by Me. . An old friend of my mom’s, who was kind of an influence on my writing, won a literary award a few days ago. Gary Geddes “was just announced as the recipient of the fifth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence in British Columbia” [...]

It's that time again--the Bethesda Literary Festival is happening all over town this weekend. Click this for details.

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

The Times Literary Supplement 2008.04.04泰晤士报文学增刊Format:PDFLanguage:english Size:64 MB《泰晤士报文学增刊》(The Times Literary Supplement, The TLS) ,周刊,是英国最有影响的文学周刊之一。 The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7,

The 10th Blue Metropolis Montreal International Literary Festival takes place April 30 - May 4, 2008. This year's theme: on the road (and I take this coincidence as some auspicious planetary conjunction):They may walk or run, cycle, row, sail, fly, blast off — or use any one of hundreds of other possible vehicles. Or they may sit quietly, day after day, in a room. Because they write about the places they have been — whether in memory or in their imagination, they allow the rest of us a way of traveling too, guiding us through regions, galaxies, eras, cultures and states of mind, strange or familiar or some combination of the two. The 2008 Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix is being awarded to French writer Daniel Pennac, who writes both for children and for adults.The fe

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

So I haven’t blogged about this, but I thought it was about time to get down to it since I’m leaving on Wednesday. Dr. Morgan submitted my research paper for American Literature I to the National Undergraduate Literary Conference at Weber University, and it was accepted. This is not something I expected to be doing, [...]

When I started blogging people have been seeking out my opinions. I have written poems, plays, novels, and reviews a lot of people admired. I even got paid higher than the minimum wage for my writings though I do it as hobby. But I can not seem to get satisfaction. Maybe satisfaction is an over rated [...]

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Literary research paper is a kind of a document that is directed to the presentation of your findings obtained during research. In most cases, literary research papers consists of 1000-1200 words. Sometimes, students are free to choose any works they like to consider in their literary research papers; sometimes, they have to choose one of [...]

Most classrooms eventually entertain the topic of why literary classics are awarded that status thereby becoming part of the canon of Great Books. In school it's, "Why do we have to read this?"It's necessary to note that the term "canon" as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary refers to sacred texts. It always did until the nineteenth century when writers began to offer a secular list of classics, or canon, of their own. Louise Cowan claims that this was natural in a post-Christian world. The term is a kind of misnomer, really, but is widely used in the field nonetheless.A satisfying list of criteria is offered by Cowan in an early chapter of the text that she edited with Os Guinness, Invitation to the Classics, a book which I heartily recommend. The two authors int

The following are a few of the passages quoted from John Milton’s masterpiece, I would say, ‘Paradise Lost’. They are a poet’s delight, something to be savoured by a lover of literature, a thing to be cherished by a person with an aesthetic sense and the one who feels elated by the sheer magic of poetry."Accuse not nature, she hath done her part;Do thou but thine, and be not diffidentOf wisdom, she deserts thee not, if thouDismiss not her, when most thou needest her nigh,By attributing overmuch to thingsLess excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.""Here at lastWe shall be free;the Almighty hath not builtHere for his envy, will not drive us hence:Here we may reign secure, and in my choiceTo reign is worth ambition though in Hell:Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.""When th

This is one of those war stories that could probably never happen again now that modern warfare is all about sophisticated weapons fired from long distances and unmanned drones sometimes controlled from half a world away from the action. But in World War II this kind of thing could still happen. It seems that one WWII German pilot is still filled with remorse about shooting down one of his own

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

The Times Literary Supplement 2008.02.22泰晤士报文学增刊Format:PDFLanguage:english Size:70 MB《泰晤士报文学增刊》(The Times Literary Supplement, The TLS) ,周刊,是英国最有影响的文学周刊之一。 The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7,

The Times Literary Supplement 2008.02.15泰晤士报文学增刊Format:PDFLanguage:english Size:60.7 MB《泰晤士报文学增刊》(The Times Literary Supplement, The TLS) ,周刊,是英国最有影响的文学周刊之一。 The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

The Times Literary Supplement 2008.02.08泰晤士报文学增刊Format:PDFLanguage:english Size:60.7 MB《泰晤士报文学增刊》(The Times Literary Supplement, The TLS) ,周刊,是英国最有影响的文学周刊之一。 The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7

The Times Literary Supplement 2008.02.01泰晤士报文学增刊Format:PDFLanguage:english Size:60.7 MB《泰晤士报文学增刊》(The Times Literary Supplement, The TLS) ,周刊,是英国最有影响的文学周刊之一。 The Times Literary Supplement (or TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.It first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, but became a separate publication in 1914. The TLS cooperates closely with The Times; its online version is hosted on The Times website and its editorial offices are based in the Times House, Pennington Street, London. Many distinguished writers have been contributors, including T.S. Eliot, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but reviews were normally anonymous until June 7

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

You know that home exchange has come of age when even the latest Philip Roth novel includes it in the plot! I read a review of 'Exit Ghost' on the blog, A Year of Reading. Here's a short quote: 'When...

Stress Management - Literary Techniques All my life I have struggled to do my duty. When I was unmarried, I did my duty to my parents; now that I am married, I do my duty to my husband; that is all the [...]

Okay, so I know Valentine's Day was last week and this post is all late... while Cupid's bow didn't exactly miss me nor leave me crippled, I was thinking about this just now - have you ever read a book and felt not only impressed by the weight of the work but so impressed by the dynamic of the person who thought it up that you felt (let's say 'intrigued') to find out more about the author?It's happened to me personally twice.The first time - it was Hemingway. Don't laugh, I know he's, well, old and dead! But I've always been attracted to older men and his writing - it's simply unparralled.Simple, strong, full of imagery and fills me with a wanderlust that I just can't describe.To me, he is Cuba, cats, cigars, manliness, the Florida Keys, Caribbean crystal waters and fishing, guns and the h

Only the word freedom can still exalt me. I consider it capable of sustaining indefinitely the old human fanaticism. Doubtless it satisfies my only legitimate aspiration. - André Breton, Surrealist Manifesto

Two not-quite-a-posts that have been knocking about in my head this week: Lies, Secrets, and Silence I'm teaching Dracula this week, talking about the ways in which information is shared among the vampire-hunters. Several characters contribute personal diaries to the collaborative narrative, and they do so with evident anxiety: their private, personal selves are being subsumed by the group.

Silent Voices is anthology of contemporary writing by five British Somali writers who powerfully express their views of being Somali in Britain, covering some of the controversial issues that have impacted each of their lives. The book was born as part of Monsoon Press’s Hidden Voices Programme funded by the Arts Council and has enabled previously unknown writers to product this fascinating and touching collection of extraordinary literary pieces. After more than a century of Somali presence in the UK, there is still a lack of knowledge about who they are. Many are misrepresented and the assumption is made that all are asylum seekers, are involved in crime gangs or are uneducated and unskilled. Silent Voices attempts to dispel some of these bigoted perceptions by presenting to the wo

We are pleased to announce that Frank Weimann from The Literary Group International is now Edward Winterhalder's literary, television and film agent, effective October 31, 2007; Frank can be contacted at 212-274-1616.Steve Lassiter from APA-Nashville remains Winterhalder's agent for personal appearances; Steve can be contacted at 615-297-0100.Edward is the author of "Out In Bad Standings: Inside The Bandidos Motorcycle Club - The Making Of A Worldwide Dynasty" (Nov 2005); a contributing author to "The Mammoth Book Of Bikers" (Oct 2007); the co-author with Wil DeClercq of "The Assimilation: Rock Machine To Bandidos - Bikers United Against The Hells Angels" (Jun 2008); the co-author with Dr. Arthur Veno and Dr. Julie van den Eynde of "Women Bikers and Biker's Women"; and the co-author with J

I remember when I first started this blog, I was lusting after the new Melissa de la Cruz book 'Crazy Hot', the 4th in 'The Au Pairs' series. Unfortunately, after 6 months, I still am. But, just like the Ralph Cool, this will be the year. 'Crazy Hot' isn't alone on my wishlist this year, however. Authors Sara Shepard and Zoey Dean have also caught my eye, of late...Crazy Hot -- Melissa de la CruzIt's been a year since the hottest au pairs ever saw the Hamptons, and they're certainly older -- though not necessarily wiser. Or drama-free.Eliza, Jacqui, and Mara thought they'd be spending the summer apart, but when Eliza's new stepmother finds herself in need of some nannying help around the megamansion with the step-monsters, Eliza makes a call...and Jacqui and Mara wind up with two first-class tickets to the Hamptons.The A-List -- Zoey DeanMoving from Manhattan's elite world to "Hollyweird" presents Anna with quite a culture shock, but one that she's ready for. White gloves

....so the least I can do is link you to this interview in The HinduI like this part, in especial--Do you get tired of people calling you a poetic novelist? Only because I think it’s being misinterpreted. People’s complaints about poetic novels are that the writing is lush, ornamental. But you know poetry is laconic, it’s tight. In poetry, the language is focusing on tightness, not saying everything like in a novel. It’s exactly the opposite of what they think. I don’t mind though. Whenever they want to criticise it they’ll say, “Oh he’s a poet,” with a wink in their eye.