Resources
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25 Animations of Great Literary Works
This article at Open Culture features links to short films animating such literary classics as an Emily Dickinson poem, the parable of Plato's Cave, and excerpts from Kafka's diaries and Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf.
Bookish & Writer Events: Sarah Nicolas Newsletter
Sarah Nicolas is the author of the YA novels Keeping Her Secret and Dragons Are People, Too. Her weekly newsletter on Substack features listings of upcoming author readings, book fairs, and writing workshops.
SuperSummary Poetry Writing and Analysis Guide
SuperSummary is an online compendium of plot summaries and study guides for notable contemporary and classic literary works. This page on their website features resources to begin your basic education in poetry writing and analysis. Links include tips for understanding a poem, glossaries of literary terms and poetic forms, and sites with kid-friendly poems.
The Blue Mountain Review
Published by the Southern Collective, the Blue Mountain Review is a quarterly journal of arts and culture. They publish interviews with writers, lit mag editors, artists, and musicians, plus original poetry, fiction, and essays. See their website for the current theme for their annual poetry chapbook contest.
The Nature of Objects
By Anna K. Scotti There was a time traveler who moved very slowly through time, and in just one direction, in halting jerks, made baffled and headachy by dials to pushbuttons, the dog's grey muzzle, a cracked lipstick, her daughter's Easter shoes: first stuffed with paper, then too tight, then tucked neatly in a carton marked cheerlessly, Goodwill. Stumbling left, then right, as if her limbs had grown too heavy, or else too light, she ended staring at the window, as the dirty river flowed, or flows, beneath the overpass then swelled, overran, and dried again. Leaves flamed, dried, dropped, the car died—the dog, too—while the daughter, grown large as if by potion, telescoping distant and close again, fled, came home, and finally shot away, a comet trailing books, socks, blocks, outgrown skirts and scratched CDs, a plastic cow, a spaceship. And the traveler moved very slowly through time,... [continue]
At Meiji Shrine
By Rick Lupert
Long path from train
through gates, large like trees
A sea of umbrellas come
to visit the enshrined souls of
Emperor Meiji and his consort
the empress.
We wash hands
ritually like before a Jewish meal.
We bow and clap.
We drop coins in box.
People hang votive wood notes
like prayers in a Western Wall.
This is not an ancient place
But it is quiet like history.
Until young boy with his
bird sounds video game
forces us to move to a
more quiet corner.
The soul of the emperor
is broken up by rain drops.
We take him away in our wet clothes.
Writer’s Online Toolkit
At the online portal for Maryville University, a Catholic college in St. Louis, MO, this article reviews a number of popular software programs for authors and explains their purpose. Included are website blockers to filter out distractions, programs for keeping track of your drafts, and plotting and editing tools for fiction writers.
Author’s Guide to Agency Agreements
This 2017 article on the Authors' Guild website discusses the provisions that should be included in author-agent contracts and what they mean.
Noname Book Club
Noname Book Club is an online and in-person community dedicated to uplifting POC voices. Each month they discuss two books written by authors of color, and send copies to incarcerated comrades through their Prison Program. They make their book picks available to local libraries so that the club can be financially accessible.
98 Free Online Writing Courses
The website CouponChief compiled this list in 2020, with links to numerous free online mini-courses and full semester classes in business communications, creative writing, technical writing, and journalism. Sponsors include well-known universities like Yale, Wesleyan, MIT, and UC-Berkeley, as well as online workshop providers like Creative Writing Now and The Crafty Writer.
The Racket Journal
The Racket is a reading series and weekly online literary journal based in San Francisco. They accept poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and artwork. Written submissions should be 750 words maximum. Browse their archive to get a sense of their aesthetic.
F(r)iction
A publication of Brink Literacy Project, F(r)iction is a triannual literary journal with a contemporary design and a strong personality. They accept short fiction, creative nonfiction, flash fiction, comics, and poetry, illustrated with custom artwork. See their "What We Look For" page for editorial preferences and sample published work in each genre. They also offer contests judged by prominent authors. Editors say, "We embrace the new, the weird, and the unconventional."
ProofreadingServices.com
Author services at ProofreadingServices.com include manuscript critiques, developmental edits, line edits and proofreading, e-book formatting, and book cover design. Pricing is transparent and affordable. Affiliated with QueryLetter.com.
Voyage: A Young Adult Literary Journal
Launched in 2020, Voyage is an online literary journal dedicated to young adult literature. They publish new essays and stories weekly, and also host a first chapter contest with a cash prize and literary agent review.
Cartoonists of Color
This database maintained by comics creator Mari Naomi features cartoonists of color who work in a wide variety of genres from fantasy to historical fiction.
The Eyes
By Harry Bauld Neue Gallery, Self Portraits, June 2019 Most of these Germans scare the paint out of you, Felix Nussbaum in the camp, a few bones in the background and another figure struggling up from voiding in a trash can, the sky dark with its human smoke. Everyone's looking at you except Max Beckmann. Otto Dix's gaze is all Aryan accusation but you do not confess. And he is no Nazi. That is just you soiling yourself. Your daughters are Jewish. Keep repeating. Lovis Corinth gives himself in the mirror another mirror. Does he even have a good side? Do we any longer? Kirchner's garish complementaries look forward— to what, in that Germany? Always now it seems we look at art and it looks back at us on trial. Your daughters are Jewish. Your gorge rises against history. You are not getting anywhere that way, seen... [continue]
Copy Write Consultants
Copy Write Consultants assists with market research for shopping your book project to editors and agents. If you have a query letter and synopsis ready to go, they will generate a list of publishing professionals who are seeking work in that category.
Wedge of Blacktop, Saturday, 1955
By Paul Scollan
All they could wish was this wedge of blacktop
by the back-porch stoop of this matchbox cape
in this shirt-cling evening of a dog-day swoon,
the breadloaf radio set out on the rail,
the longneck beers, dead soldiers on the stairs,
Blanche kicking high in her grease-stained dress,
her great girth tweaking like she's traveling light,
Chaz winging free right into tomorrow in
his busman's pants, his spit-shined shoes,
a sleeveless top, sweet jazz in his moves
to the toot of Duke in "It Don't Mean a Thing,"
and a switch of the dial to slow it all down
to arms ringing round to doo-wop sounds could
roll honey up the hill of the house next door.
Standard Ebooks
Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-run nonprofit that converts public domain literary classics to attractive, professionally formatted e-books that are compatible with the most popular e-reader platforms (iBooks, Kindle, and Kobo). If you don't see the book that you want, look for a plain text version at Project Gutenberg and contact Standard Ebooks for help converting it to their format.
StoryADay Writing Prompts Archive
StoryADay is a twice-yearly writing challenge where participants complete one short story per day in May and September. This website is the online hub for participants, offering inspiration and tips to keep the momentum going. The site includes an archive of prompts from past challenges, going back to May 2010.
More Odds Than Ends
More Odds Than Ends is an online community for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Weekly blog posts offer a selection of quirky photos and one-sentence prompts, some provided by the site editors and others submitted by members.
YeahWrite
Founded in 2011, YeahWrite is an online writing community that offers weekly themed challenges in the genres of fiction, poetry, personal essay, and micro-story. The YeahWrite Coffeehouse is a discussion forum where members can share inspiration, ask questions, find out about publishing opportunities, and post their successes. There are also quarterly fiction and essay contests with modest prizes.
Book Traces
Book Traces is a project of the University of Virginia. They scan and digitize interesting margin jottings and other objects left inside old books. As libraries de-accession copies of books that are not rare or widely read, pieces of history are being lost. The curators say, "Thousands of old library books bear fascinating traces of the past. Readers wrote in their books, and left pictures, letters, flowers, locks of hair, and other things between their pages. We need your help identifying them in the stacks of academic libraries. Together we can find out more about what books were and how they were used by their original owners, while also proving the value of maintaining rich print collections in our libraries."
Deskbound
By Claire L. Frankel
When you are deskbound
Poetry is the only possibility
You can start a novel
Or a non-fiction
On your Corporate edition of WORD
But weeks of DELIVERABLES
(Now ! Now ! Finish it !!)
Will wear you down
And remove your focus.
A poem is a burst
A starlight
A breakthrough
So clear, so happy,
So breathtaking.
Unbound.
Postcards to the Future: A Protest in Place
To support black civil rights activism in the summer of 2020, feminist literary publisher Kore Press is offering an online thematic presentation/installation of work from their 2018 anthology Letters to the Future: Black Women/Radical Writing, edited by Dawn Lundy Martin and Erica Hunt. New selections will be posted from July through November 2020, in various media (print-based text, audio clips, and visual art). The first theme is Legacy, which lays the ground for the arc of the series, followed by Horror, Activism, Joy, and Future. Contributors include Harryette Mullen, Sonia Sanchez, and Yona Harvey.
Auroras & Blossoms
Launched in 2019, Auroras & Blossoms is dedicated to promoting positive, uplifting, and inspirational art and creativity. They accept short stories, flash fiction, essays, drawings, paintings, photography, and digital art. As a family-friendly platform, they want work with no swear words, dirty words, politics or erotica. Payment (adults only): ongoing royalties and complimentary copy of publication. No simultaneous submissions. Reprints are eligible if you own the rights. There is no submission fee as of 2023, but they require a small donation if you would like a digital copy of the issue where your work appears.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit's email marketing service can help you send out professional-looking author newsletters. Service is free if you have fewer than 1,000 subscribers.
Sistah Scifi
Sistah Scifi promotes speculative fiction by black women. Site founder Isis Asare says, "Sistah Scifi is a cauldron of all things afrofuturism; afro-mysticism; Black sci-fi; and voodoo casting spells to uplift literature written by Black women."
The Gallaghers of Derry
By C.L. Nehmer
May 21, 1932
Mr. Gallagher's cattle feel it first—
a red buzzing that cracks open the sky,
a great shadow gliding across their hides
like a ghost. It brings the children
running. The farmhands, too, are curious,
first to greet the curly-haired woman
all streaked with gasoline and go get it
come from America,
come from America, alone,
inquiring of the nearest line
to telephone her husband.
Mrs. Gallagher prepares a stew,
lays out clothing, fresh sheets,
demands nothing of this sensible
stranger, only wonders at how she came,
through the banshee storm of lightning, the ceiling
of low-hanging fog, to be vested
in Ireland's rolling green.
Juneteenth Book Fest
From writers, to artists, to industry pros, the goal is to shine a light on the width and breadth of Black American literature, to strengthen the connection to the communities we write for, and to honor the legacy of Black American storytelling. The inaugural 2020 festival took place online because of the COVID-19 epidemic, but the organizers hope to plan in-person events in future years.
The Update
By Joshua Corwin I tread transgressions against how far I've come as a kid diagnosed on the autism spectrum at the age of 5 and processing delay at 6 along with anxiety disorder and ADHD— I don't want to repeat circles, with my feet. One smaller and the other —reminds me of my mind. Neurotypical. [also, alcoholic— Thank God I'm sober, but that's another story.] Like a pacifist in rage I need to accept my brain chemistry. But persevere. Circles. Those feet make them. Quake. And color loses its vivacity... Like the squeamish self I am— (Just see me at the doctor. Please. Don't. I'm embarrassed, by how I fade.) O, it's so hard to fit in when you're hardwired to differ. Range like a spectrum of shapes: I circle, but I transcend. But because I do, I have these fits {usually every 3 months or so, sometimes... [continue]
Nappy Stock Photography
Looking for diverse book cover art on a budget? Nappy offers high-quality free stock photos featuring black and brown people.
Editors of Color
Founded by Karen Yin, creator of the Conscious Style Guide, the Editors of Color database is a networking tool for publishers and authors to hire language and content editors, sensitivity readers, proofreaders, and other editorial professionals from underrepresented communities and cultures. The site includes a Database of Diverse Databases that links to directories of LGBTQ, disabled, and POC journalists, cartoonists, editors, and experts in various fields.
Interlink Books
Based in Northampton, MA, Interlink Publishing is a literary small press with a cosmopolitan perspective. They publish literary fiction, history, contemporary politics, art, cultural guides, international cuisine, and illustrated children’s books from around the world. Interlink has a special interest in introducing Americans to topics and areas of the world often ignored by the Western media. Their list includes many thought-provoking works by Palestinian and Middle Eastern authors.
Poets & Writers: Resources for Writers in Support of Justice and Action
Poets & Writers magazine compiled this list of racial justice resources to support protesters against police violence in the summer of 2020. It includes links to anti-racist books, bail funds, activist groups, and author fundraisers.
African Poetry Book Fund
Affiliated with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the prestigious journal Prairie Schooner, the African Poetry Book Fund supports African and diaspora literature through readings workshops, publisher collaborations, and awards such as the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry and the Sillerman First Book Prize.
Subscriber Poems for Black Lives Matter
Winning Writers launched this feature in June 2020 in response to police brutality against black Americans. Below is a selection of subscriber poems inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. COME BACK HOME! (Letter to a Moving Target) by Mike Guinn Dear Son, This life is nothing but Saturday night autopsies, pre-ordered grave stones, a freedom you'll never know. It's hoping the Negro National Anthem justifies your skin just enough for you to realize that tattoos and K2 will never replace the scar tissue on your soul. Your heritage is more than rope burns around history's black neck. It’s a deep desire for survival no matter how loudly homicide speaks of rivers. This melanin is so rich that when this nation denies you your color, it will be impossible to feel safe in this house arrest called America. And even after you've given this country all of your... [continue]
Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space
By Amanda Leduc. A hybrid of memoir and literary criticism, this important and engaging book challenges us, as writers, readers, and myth-makers, to resist the habitual misuse of disability as a symbol of tragedy or villainy. Canadian novelist Leduc interweaves her thesis with personal memories of growing up with cerebral palsy and interviews with modern disability activists.
Ballad of the Arthur and Edith Lee House
By Yvonne Like an itty-bitty dollhouse. Made of pretty, white wood. Happy green grass in front and back. Cozy and still it stood. Some say it came right out the box. Right off a train from Sears. It came from heaven Mama sang, An answer to our prayers. Papa checked the basement and roof. The windows, doors, and stairs. Then he nodded his head and winked, Mama's eyes bright with tears. We came in a big friendly truck. Truck full of old and new. Beds, chairs, tables, lamps and dishes. We thought the sky smiled blue. That night we heard a far rumble. We thought it came from dreams. Next morning flung at our doorstep: "Get out!" "No colored!" Screams. "Fighting in France, who moved me out the mud? "I will make this house, my home." Papa said. All day the sidewalk grumbled A storm up from the ground... [continue]
Anti-Racist Resource Guide
Education scholar and anti-racist researcher Victoria Alexander compiled this extensive list of anti-racist resources in response to the wave of police brutality against African-Americans in spring 2020. It includes links to books, documentaries, articles, activist groups, and black-owned bookstores. Whether you're an ally looking to educate yourself, an activist wanting to support protesters and black creators, or just a fan of great literature, you will find something here to enlighten and empower you.
In the Year of the Disease
By Phyllis Klein after reading Joy Harjo's poem "Grace" there was nothing more to lose until there was. It was one thing after another, the spring we hardly could notice although it went on without a second thought. It was the fabric of the human world unraveled. No haircuts, no friends around the table, no doctor visits. It was going to work, buying, selling, all lost, or morphed into sitting in front of our machines of connection. It was grace, had we lost her or did she watch from her balcony as the world pitched into a chasm of mystery and gloom? Was she a woman, or had she shapeshifted into a dream? A tulip or a violet open in the sun? Some of us knew they could find her, knew the places she liked to hang out, while others kept trying for a glimpse, like looking for... [continue]
Virtual Literary Events Calendar at the Washington Post
Launched in May 2020, this calendar curated by the books editors at the Washington Post lists online literary events from publishers, authors, libraries, festivals, and bookstores around America.
Notable Online at The Rumpus
Due to the coronavirus, most literary events and book launches moved online in 2020. Literary journal The Rumpus now offers this weekly calendar of noteworthy online literary events. To submit your event for consideration, contact notableNYC@therumpus.net. In the subject line of the email, please include the event's date. Please include the virtual platform, time zone, and a link to the event information in the body of your email.
Madhouse Media Publishing
Madhouse Media Publishing is a self-publishing services company based in New South Wales, Australia. Their offerings include editing, book and cover design, print/e-book conversion, and marketing assistance. Visit their blog for how-to articles for indie authors. Their Ebook Revolution Podcast features author interviews about craft and career topics.
Keeping Poetry Close: Copper Canyon Poets Read to You
Monica Sok, Ellen Bass, Philip Metres, and other authors of recent titles from prestigious poetry publisher Copper Canyon Press share excerpts from their work in this video series. Editor George Knotek says, "For this time when poetry is abundant but in-person communion with our loved ones is not—a time when we're turning to technology to help us connect with the faces and voices we miss—we offer here the faces and voices of our spring 2020 poets reading from their newest books to bring you both poetry and human connection, from their homes to yours."
sad boy/detective
By Sam Sax. In this innovative, sensual chapbook about a possibly-neurodivergent queer boy's coming of age, the central metaphor of "the boy detective" expresses the protagonist's separateness from, and scandalous curiosity about, human bodies and the social world they inhabit. Phenomena that everyone around him take for granted are a fascinating mystery to him. The sadness comes from the paradox that as he tries to get under the world's skin and see what it's made of, he pushes it farther away, because his probing has violated social conventions. Winner of the Spring 2014 Black River Chapbook Competition from Black Lawrence Press.
US Font Map: The United Fonts of America
This entertaining article at The Statesider shows a map of 222 typographical fonts named after US locations, some with quirky stories behind them. (For instance, Georgia, one of the more common fonts used today, got its name from a tabloid headline that read "Alien Heads Found in Georgia"!)
Rene Magritte’s “The Unexpected Answer”
By Joseph Stanton
The way out or the way in
might be a jagged hole
that breaks through
where you need to go,
despite the door
you might simply have opened.
Your advance cracks
a passage unexpected into
a darkness grim and oddly inviting.
The floorboards carry you forward
as if yours were an ordinary life,
while the absence of light
in the place that waits
would seem to be horrific
and comic all at once,
like the life-and-death
exits of Bugs Bunny
and Road Runner that rely
on impossibilities
through which no nemesis
could pass.
Poems for Ephesians
Poems for Ephesians is an online journal of poetry that leaps out of the images, ideas and inspirations of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament. It is edited by D.S. Martin, Poet-in-Residence of McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario.
Storyline Online
Storyline Online features picture books being read aloud by well-known actors such as Kristen Bell, Ernest Borgnine, Viola Davis, James Earl Jones, and Kiernan Shipka.
