7 Nigerian authors currently setting the pace
Omotoloani Odumade | Pulse NG
From winning prestigious prizes and writing remarkable books to getting a movie deal and creating a great series, these are the Nigerian authors setting the pace.
‘I really wanted that student to feel censored’: A poetry class confronts slurs, and finds grace
Jennifer L. Knox | Washington Post
Words that hurt people — like slurs against races, religions, ability levels and sexual orientations — can stop all forward momentum in a poem. Writing a poem is like cooking a dish, and words are your ingredients. Some words will render your dish sickening — even inedible.
‘Women’s bodies were absent from Irish history, except as tools, cyphers or vessels’
Kathy D’Arcy | The Irish Times
I’ll just say what I say whenever I read my work: that I wish I could write poems about flowers and horses and The Odyssey, but that that won’t be happening until I can prise de Valera’s cold, dead hands off my uterus. I can feel them there when I say the words, grasping, assaultive. I can feel them giving way, wizened interphalangeal joint by joint.
‘The Recovering’: One young writer’s intoxicating journey to sobriety
Matt McCarthy | USA Today
Jamison made a name for herself in 2014 with The Empathy Exams, a wide-ranging collection of essays that catalog poor choices, bizarre setbacks, and her complicated relationship with alcohol. In The Recovering, we learn that the romance with booze has faded — she increasingly finds herself drinking alone, vomiting during blackouts— and Jamison gradually acknowledges that she’s an alcoholic.
Red flags in writing class: Surviving their violent fantasies and targeted rage
Laura Jean Baker | Salon
Since I began teaching at UW Oshkosh in 2004, we’ve witnessed our share of student violence. A disgruntled student packed a hatchet in his backpack. Another posted so-called gun porn on Twitter and mentioned Women in Literature. A senior biology major was arrested and sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for making ricin, a deadly toxin that is basically a chemical weapon. Most tragically, another UW Oshkosh student killed three people on the Trestle Trail Bridge in Fritse Park just 17 miles from campus before committing suicide.
BWW Blog: What Do You Do with a B.A. in English?
Monique Hebert | Broadway World
Being an English major also taught me how to handle criticism. Before I started college I was really sensitive to criticism especially about my writing. I eventually learned over the years how to take constructive criticism and actually apply that to what I was working on. It helped me gain tougher skin, and taught me that I was strong enough to handle the constant criticism that is thrown at you when you are a writer.
Read more: https://www.broadwayworld.com/seattle/article/BWW-Blog-What-Do-You-Do-with-a-BA-in-English-20180330
Mary Flannery O’Connor: Embracing Uniqueness
Danielle Kennedy | The Inkwell
Mary Flannery O’Connor lived a full life. She took chances and didn’t conform to the conventional ideals of her time. She was a brave inspiring innovator that fearlessly showed the world that a Southern woman is a formidable force to be reckoned with. She was witty with a keen sense of irony and dark humor that shattered the perceived stereotypes of the South.
Read more: https://theinkwellonline.com/2018/03/28/mary-flannery-oconnor-embracing-uniqueness/
Hip hop as a superior art form
Sravasti Datta | The Hindu
“The writing is personal. You dive deep into yourself, knowledge and biases. I love to fashion my text that way. In the studio, though, you fashion it outwardly. This is how I make people receive. I enjoy the contact with the audience because there is not too much analysis of the song, but the feeling of the song gets conveyed.”
Read more: http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/hip-hop-as-a-superior-art-form/article23356308.ece
Vital People: Prison book club offers inmates room to grow
Pedro Arrais | Times Colonist
The program is not intended to teach inmates how to write for profit. Rather, it is meant to improve their communication skills, boost their self-esteem and help build social skills for a successful re-entry into society.
“We are hoping the program will lead to self-growth and self satisfaction for the inmate as well as a benefit to the community.”
‘Allow imaginations to lead’: igniting the creative spark in young writers
Emma Sheppard | The Guardian
Torday would like teachers to show more support for self-expression – in whatever form it takes. “Whether you’re a child or JK Rowling, writing is hard for everyone. You’re making yourself vulnerable,” he says. “I’m often asked to judge children’s writing competitions and some of the best stuff I’ve read is where children have preserved their own regional dialect or the spelling is phonetic. Perhaps it’s not the spelling you’d want on a perfect CV, but in terms of self-expression it feels true.”
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