Tidbits of News

Apologies for the lack of a proper crit of anything for the last few days. I’ve been ill and I’m still recovering. I rather feel as if I have hooves instead of fingers when typing. Expect service to resume once fingers become human again.

In the meantime, here are some things to keep you busy:

1) Kill Author, an online magazine I personally didn’t know about but am discovering with glee, has a new issue out. I was made aware of it thanks to Fawn Neun (of Battered Suitcase fame). Below is their inspiring manifesto:

What we’re looking for: a manifesto

Imagination
Writing that burns with a desire to step out of the everyday and into its mirror image, and from there allows the reader to see something different and go someplace else.

Impact
Writing that knows how to leave the reader shocked and reeling, not necessarily just via the events the author is describing—anyone can take the easy way out and labor over gruesome violence or explicit sex—but through the extraordinary power of their well chosen words.

Individuality
There are too many writers aping the style of other writers, especially online. And far too many authors still want to be Charles Bukowski. We love Bukowski, but his work’s been done. He did it and it probably can’t be bettered, so why try to repeat it? We want writing where the author dares to explore the outer reaches of their own voice, and then has an urge to see where it takes them.

Invention
We’re excited by writing that experiments with form and language. That doesn’t mean we’re looking for all-out surrealism, though; we still value work that knows how to tell a story and can take the reader from A to C via B. But it should make that journey in extraordinary ways.”

I always like to check out the ‘About’ sections on website, sometimes they’re barely a line long, sometimes they make you excited. This About falls in the latter category. It makes you want to submit, it wants to make you be worthy of their manifesto, and even better, it makes you want to read what they’ve put together. Not bad.

2) I doubt it’s a thought that’s been keeping you up at night, but if you want to know the influence of servants on Emily Dickinson’s poetry, check out this interview.

3) And for something completely different, I urge you to read Betty’s blog ‘The 52 Seductions’ on a married couple’s attempts to rekindle passion by seducing each other once a week. It’s not as smutty as it sounds. Betty is an intelligent and funny woman who knows how to write irresistible entries. What I particularly appreciate is that she doesn’t shy away from the more icky and embarrassing aspects of sex and, without wanting to sound like an X-factor contestant, it’s quite a journey.