Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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How to Enjoy Poetry
Poetry can intimidate. Casual consumers of other art forms like film or fiction often willingly offer uninformed opinions, even if that only means rating a product on Amazon. But asking readers for opinions on poetry regularly leads to avoidance and…
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Notable NYC: 5/10–5/16
Saturday 5/10: Stephen Boyer and Holly Pester join the Segue Series. Boyer compiled the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Rachel Kushner and Rob Spillman discuss The Flamethrowers (2013), Kushner’s novel set in the 1970s New…
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Literary Citizens Also Need to Write
The writing community has lately been buzzing with literary citizenship—attending readings, writing reviews, supporting other writers with blurbs or buying their books (preferably from independent bookstores). But not everyone is happy with the literary estate’s citizenship requirements. Last month, Becky…
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Influence Without Anxiety
Inspiration comes from many sources, including the books we read. As we internalize other authors’s work, they inevitably influence our writing (often without us ever knowing). The novelist Kim Triedman explores the relationship writers have to the books they read…
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Talking About Oppression
Writers who deal with oppression are as varied as the forms of oppression they face. Kiese Laymon and Leigh Stein come from two disparate backgrounds, writes Rachel Edelman in Critical Flame, but both end up critiquing gender and racial oppression…
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Details Emerging for Amtrak Writing Residency
The Amtrak Writer Residency—an impromptu marketing program conceived of over Twitter—finally seems to be taking shape. After Alexander Chee mentioned his enjoyment of writing on trains, Amtrak jumped at the chance for some positive press and announced a residency program that…
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In Defense of Literary Agents
The rise of self-publishing and smaller independent presses has left many writers questioning the value of literary agents and their fifteen percent commissions. The collaborative nature of publishing depends on these middlemen though, warns Bethanne Patrick at Beyond the Margins: …agents…
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Life Lessons from Children’s Literature
The stories we read as children often stick with us for a lifetime, and so children’s literature can have a far greater impact on readers than books written for adults. Writing in Plougshares, Annie Cardi explains how children’s literature influences young…
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Profiling Roxane Gay
Tim Obaro profiles Rumpus Essays Editor Roxane Gay and looks at her debut novel, An Untamed State, for Chicago Magazine. The novel follows a middle-class newlywed kidnapped while on vacation in Haiti. Obaro writes: Born in Omaha, Gay conceived the idea…
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Notable NYC: 5/3–5/9
Saturday 5/3: Joanna Fuhrman, Dan Magers, and Debora Kuan launch the Hyperallergic Poetry reading series. Berl’s Poetry Shop, 7:30 p.m., free. Melanie Neilson and Kate Zambreno join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Sunday 5/4: Kodi Scheer and…
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White People Everywhere
White male editors still dominate publishing and white male authors still dominate bestseller lists. Writing over at Plougshares, literary agent Eric Nelson explores the problem: I have frequently presented books as an editor to a room full of only white people.…
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Police Called on Teens Giving Away Banned Book
After Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian was banned by an Idaho school district, a crowdsourced funding effort bought a book for every kid in the local junior high school. Nearly all of the books…