By: Maryann Yin,
on 7/28/2014
Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar this week.
To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.
Writers Jenny Milchman and Lori Rader-Day will appear together at the Mystery One Bookstore. Meet them on Monday, July 28th starting 7 p.m. (Milwaukee, WI)
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 9/22/2011
Ed Park, founding editor of The Believer magazine, has joined Amazon New York as a Senior Editor. In his new role, Park will be responsible for acquiring and editing literary fiction.
Park, who got his M.F.A. at Columbia University’s School of the Arts where he now teaches, has worked as literary editor of The Village Voice and as an editor at the Poetry Foundation. He is also a judge of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize’s graphic novel category and chairs the reading committee of the New York Public Library’s Young Lions award.
Park is also the author of the 2008 novel Personal Days, which was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award. He teaches writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he received his M.F.A.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 7/8/2008
What if bombastic director Michael Bay wrote the next Batman movie?
Spill.com has a fake script that imagines how Bay would screw up the upcoming installment (The Dark Knight) of the comic book franchise, including this choice quote: "GENERAL: Okay, I like it. But which one of the internets do we hack? [BATMAN]: All of them."
Read it for two reasons. Number one, it's funny. Number two, a little bit of parody can go a long way in your novel. A couple weeks ago, Ed Park told us how he created fake self-help books that gave his satirical novel a new texture.
Check out his interview, and start mapping out your fake works of art today.
"I’ve always loved the vertiginous method of including fictional books within a work of fiction, whether the author provides tantalizing passages or just titles."
By: Jason Boog,
on 6/25/2008
"[I was] thinking about that E.B. White passage you once showed me ... the swooning bit where he says that it's the native New Yorkers who give the city its stability, and the commuters who give it a daily tidal rhythm or something, but it's those dreamers from elsewhere, the striving poets and wannabe circus performers and so forth, who power it with enough heat and light to dwarf the consolidated Edison company..."
That’s one of Ed Park's characters paraphrasing a famous line from E.B. White.
Park's new book, Personal Days, explores how that idealism gets wrecked on the shoals of Manhattan office culture. In addition to his fictional work, Ed Park is a founding editor at The Believer and literary blogger over at The Dizzies.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
At the end of your book, you meditate on all the millions of pages of lost, dull prose produced by people in offices every year. When you worked in an office environment, how did you manage to stay creative and productive in your writing? Any advice for writers who feel dulled by their day-jobs?
Ed Park:
Discipline will take you a long way—if you set aside time every day to write, you will find something to write, even if you don’t know what you’re doing as you approach the desk. Continue reading...
By: Jason Boog,
on 6/24/2008
"Yes, I Drank the Kool-Aid--and I Went Back for Seconds"
"Three Easy Rules for Impressing the Powers That Be (and Maybe Becoming One Yourself, A Simpleton's Guide)"
"The Pegasus Plan: How to Get the Job You Want, the Respect You Deserve, and the Employees You Need in Order to Succeed for Life"
Those are just a few of the imaginary self-help books that novelist Ed Park invented for his book, Personal Days. His office satire is jam-packed with exaggerated career advice from fictional gurus.
Today Park--a founding editor at The Believer and literary blogger over at The Dizzies--shows us how imaginary books can improve your fictional world. It's part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.
In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
Your book also features one of my favorite literary tricks--satirical imaginary books-inside-the-book. How did you craft these hilarious faux-self-help books? Any advice for writers looking to add some fake-book satire to their work?
Ed Park:
I’ve always loved the vertiginous method of including fictional books within a work of fiction, whether the author provides tantalizing passages or just titles. Continue reading...
By: Jason Boog,
on 6/23/2008
"I've been stuck in the elevator, suspended in utter coffin blackness somewhere between the third and fourth floors—listening to the cables quiver, and every so often hearing the distant shouts of emergency workers saying, Hang in there buddy! or what sounds like a very heavy wrench clanking on assorted beams as it tumbles into the abyss—and even though my laptop’s on, it sheds no light...”
That’s one of Ed Park’s ever-suffering office workers trapped inside an elevator and typing a long love-letter in the void. It’s a single block of text banged out on a busted laptop-computer, the breathless conclusion to his first-novel, Personal Days.
In addition to dreaming up this surreal fable about contemporary cubicle culture, Ed Park is a founding editor at The Believer and literary blogger over at The Dizzies. He’s our special guest this week, explaining how he wrote his this book and giving us a glimpse into the mind of an editor.
Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.
Jason Boog:
The final third of your book makes use of one of my favorite literary forms--for a lack of better term, I'll call it the long, one-sentence stream-of-consciousness slam-bam prose style. As far as I know, no writer has ever given specific advice about how to handle this tricky form. How did you do it?
Ed Park:
The final section is both my favorite part of the book and the one that caused me the most agony. I knew, relatively early on in the composition process, that the final portion of the book would be, at last, in the voice of a single, identifiable character. Continue reading...
By: Jason Boog,
on 5/27/2008
I should have linked to this over the long weekend, but I forgot. Sorry, but...
Bat Segundo returns! Check out more thoughtful podcasts featuring everybody from novelist and editor Ed Park to cartoonist Mort Walker.
Next, the Harper's book blog strikes again, archiving the 85,000-most-meaningful-words of criticism all published in the last three weeks. Wyatt Mason makes the best argument against critics (like Cynthia Ozick and Laura Miller) who think that literary thought is withering on the digital vine--he actually does the math and links to under-appreciated essays. Here's his sad conclusion:
"I would insist, to anyone who might take the time to read the variously rigorous and intelligent essays below—not to say the mass of them that accumulates over a year, year in and out—that the 'mass of critics' can not be said to have been gauged, much less mulled, with great thoroughness."
What happens when three women band together to share their literary adventures? Things get purple. Last week I discovered Purple Hearts and quickly subscribed for literary tips, publishing secrets, supportive community and thoughtful link round-ups.
By: Jason Boog,
on 5/14/2008
The work doesn't stop when you publish your book.
Earlier this week Ed Park--my editor at The Believer and one of my favorite literary essay-writers, published his first novel. It's called Personal Days, and he's taking off for a book tour as we speak.
Besides the tour (check him out at McNally Robinson next week), Park has a guest spot on a blog, a long-running printable newsletter called The New-York Ghost, a book website and an email list to help people find his book.
Worn out yet? That's just the beginning...here are some links that might help you get out the word about your book, blog or other kinds of writing.
Over at the Urban Muse, here are some tips about How To Get People To Read Your Blog. On this blog, Jeff Gordinier recently explained how he built his book promotion effort from scratch. Finally, over at The Book Publicity Blog, there's some great advice about reaching out to book clubs:
"A lot of marketing departments reach out to book groups. Booklist’s Book Group Buzz blog lists some sites that feature online reading guides."
By: DAC,
on 2/6/2008
The ad says it all:
By: Cindy,
on 11/16/2007
