When I say beach read, what do you imagine? Perhaps you think of a tantalizing summer romance in a coastal town where the passion is as hot as the sun and sand. Maybe you’re more in the mood for a cozy mystery about a body washing up on the shore, and the quirky local… Continue reading “More Seawater Than Blood”: They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe
If you’ve been a bibliophile since words first became stories then you know the all too real struggle of maintaining a growing collection of old favorites, new additions, and the ever-growing To Be Read. The size of my shelves has ebbed and flowed over the years, and so have their contents. At least four… Continue reading Shelfie 2022: Childhood Favorites
I don’t know about you, but the inherent voyeuristic pleasure in observing others’ bookshelves is one of life’s gentlest joys. You can find common ground in shared reads, new titles for your TBR, question their taste, and so much more. Plus, in the years since social media has pushed the ‘reader aesthetic’, the organization… Continue reading Shelfie Update 2022
At the end of each year I usually provide a list of my favorite books. However, I’ve found that, since graduating and in the midst of life, the selection to choose from has lessened significantly. A 2016 study found that the average American reads about 12 books a year. Since I keep track of… Continue reading My Year as an Average Reader
By now, we can all generally acknowledge that, along with films, horror is in the midst of another boom. (A Renaissance if you will). Even outside of the month of October fans and general audiences alike are hungry for horror and gaga for the Gothic in ways they haven’t quite been since the 70s… Continue reading 6 Scary Stories to Haunt Your Waking Hours
Every MFA may be different, but there is a reasonable enough assumption that all anyone in an MFA does is sit around reading the canon and espousing repetitive wisdom that “this is how it has been done and how we must do.” Well, maybe that’s how they did it in the 1800s, but this… Continue reading My MFA Reading List
If you’re interested in or pondering a Masters of Fine Arts degree but write genre, it can often feel like the odds are stacked against you. This can be disheartening which can then lead to the titular question of this blog—“Is the MFA useless for genre writers?” I’ll do my best, using my experience… Continue reading Is the MFA Useless for Genre Writers?
Generally, in my almost fifteen years of experience, I’ve come to discover there are three types of writers. Drafters spend the most time in the development, brainstorming, and first draft stage of a project. Editors focus on the small details in a text, constantly tweaking this word or that. Revisionists, on the other hand,… Continue reading 10 Tips for Ruthless Revision
I didn’t read many books in 2020. Some of this may be because of post-MFA burnout, and some of it may be due to the mental fatigue of dealing with a pandemic. I started a lot of books—didn’t finish them. I read plenty of fan fiction; it is easier to delve into familiar worlds… Continue reading My Favorite Books of 2020
A great piece of advice I learned early in my college career was that “every –ism is not a noun but a verb, and we are either constantly doing or undoing that action.” Feminism is an active verb. Classism is too. Most of all, so is racism. In this way, the beliefs and thoughts that… Continue reading Black Literature Matters
You must be logged in to post a comment.