Columns

The Best Book Adaptation I've Seen Is...'Catching Fire'!?!

March 17th, 2014

The adaptation of The Hunger Games was okay. It wasn’t a bad film, but it wasn’t the kind that inspires article writing — even though I <cough> did write one. But I wrote that article because I pitched it before I’d seen the film. I was obligated. This one I pitched after seeing the film (repeatedly) and re-reading the book (twice).

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Drunk Dubliners and Other Irish Writers Worth Reading

March 17th, 2014

Two years ago, I went on a month-long tour of Ireland. During that trek, I reviewed the famous Irish writers, spending time with their work and the famous places associated with them. I was taken aback by just how many talented Irish writers there are, especially given that half as many people live in Ireland as live in New York City. Something about the Emerald Isle yields a disproportionately high number of talented writers.

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When It's Time to say "F*** It"

March 14th, 2014

There is going to come a time when you have to say: Fuck it.

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The Eternal Duel: A History of Commas

March 14th, 2014

Commas are a touchy subject, having divided writers of the English language into two distinct camps for many years. On one side of the battlefield are those in favor the Oxford or “serial” comma, which is endorsed by Oxford University Press and the Chicago Manual of Style. In the other corner of the ring are the Associated Press and New York Times, ever skeptical of any unnecessary punctuation.

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Product Review: TowerBabel

March 13th, 2014

Writers have an abundance of avenues for self-publishing their work, with Amazon and SmashWords perhaps being the two most prominent. So when I was first clued in to TowerBabel, an online eBook self-publishing platform founded in 2013, I was admittedly a bit skeptical. I mean, between Amazon and SmashWords, that's it, right? What more do you need? But after investigating the website further, I think TowerBabel is definitely worth a look. Why?

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Creative Influence Isn't an Excuse for Plagiarism

March 13th, 2014

Remember that talk we had? No, not that one; the other one. No, not the seahorses; the other other one. The time we talked about how creativity is based on the combination of existing ideas. It’s time to revisit that topic because — as with all good ideas — someone has managed to mess it up by taking it to the extreme.

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Poetry Fun-0-1: Greetings from the Emerald Isle

March 12th, 2014

Well, this column hasn't been canceled yet, so apparently there are enough of you out there who truly are interested in poetry. I'll raise a toast to that! Be right back... ::actually going to get a drink to help me write this column:: ...okay, hey. Full disclosure, I only had scotch, so I went out to the store to get something Irish. I'm a Guinness man normally, and there's a nice Irish Beer Discovery Pack with Guinness, Black Lager, Smithicks, and Harp, so that's what I got. Sláinte!

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Amtrak Residency Application Terms and Conditions: Proceed With Caution

March 11th, 2014

When Alexander Chee was asked in a Pen Ten interview what his favorite place to write was, he responded with: I still like a train best for this kind of thing. I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers. And after trains, libraries at night, especially empty ones.

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Write Drunk: The Science of Altered States and Creativity

March 11th, 2014

From Dionysian celebrations in Ancient Greece to vision quests and well beyond, the idea that altered states lead to creativity is an established cultural "wisdom." Many writers treat the Ernest Hemingway saying of "write drunk, edit sober" as a commandment from the Muses. But do altered states really expand our creativity? What are the limits? And, perhaps most importantly, what are the reasons? I'll explore all that in this article, but I'll also be doing something more: Drinking.

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Death Threats and the Death of the Book Review

March 7th, 2014

Book reviews are part of our lives now — particularly if you’re a writer — but what do they actually achieve? I started mulling this over after reading about a case where a book reviewer stated what she wanted in return for her reviews. It made me wonder: What’s the point of a book review in the 21st Century?

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