Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
-
Exploring Witch Culture
Alex Mar spent five years immersed in Paganism to write her book Witches in America, an examination of the practice and culture in America. Biographile speaks with Mar about the experience: In Paganism, there is a belief that of course,…
-
Notable NYC: 11/7–11/13
Saturday 11/7: Diana Hamilton, Kaveh Akbar, Shira Erlichman, Jason Koo, Katy Lederer, Matt Longabucco, and Angel Nafis celebrate the launch of issue 2 of Prelude. Baby’s All Right, 3 p.m., $10. Lee Ann Brown and Kit Robinson join the Segue…
-
Keep Working, Keep Submitting
Electric Literature’s editor-in-chief Lincoln Michel released his debut collection of stories, Upright Beasts, earlier this year. For the Quivering Pen, Michel explores the challenges first-time authors experience in writing and submitting their work to publishers: It would be nice here…
-
Nobler in Modern Language than the Mind
Earlier this month, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival commissioned thirty-six playwrights to “translate” Shakespearean plays into modern English. Not everyone is happy about this. However, Sheila T. Cavanagh over at The New Republic argues there is nothing wrong with modernizing Shakespeare. While updated…
-
This Week in Indie Bookstores
A bookstore-themed hostel will open in Tokyo this month allowing guests to sleep inside bookshelves. Kate Gavino launched her illustrated bookstore tribute Last Night’s Reading and she offers up some illustrated advice for attending readings at bookstores. An Indian duo…
-
Exposure Doesn’t Pay Your Rent
Last week, author and Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton wrote an essay about the seven things he did to reboot his life. The Huffington Post, a publisher recently purchased by Verizon Communications for $4.4 billion, offered Wheaton the opportunity to…
-
Notable NYC: 10/31–11/6
Saturday 10/31: Sandra Simonds and Meld Nichols join the Segue Series. Zinc Bar, 4:30 p.m., $5. Monday 11/2: Angela Lockhart-Aronoff, Jaime Shearn Coan, Chelsea Lemon Fetzer, Morgan Parker, and Jon Sands join the Writing Aloud Reading Series. BookCourt, 7 p.m.,…
-
Alain Bourget: A Rumpus Roundup
Associate professor Alain Bourget refused to assign his students the $180 textbook recommended by the department at the University of California at Fullerton because he found an alternative that cost half as much. Unfortunately, unlike the more expensive book, the…
-
GOP Candidate Would Censor Free Speech at Universities
Tenured professors might soon be a thing of the past, and that could prove particularly frightening if one Republican presidential candidate gets a hold of the Department of Education. Tenure protections were created in order to foster original thinking on…
-
Do Reading Fees Exploit Writers?
In recent years, many reputable publications have taken to charging reading fees and earlier this year, Nick Mamatas set off an Internet kerfuffle over The Offing‘s reading fee policies. The ethical quandary surrounding reading fees persist—not only are reading fees obstacles…
-
This Week in Indie Bookstores
Hong Kong is dominated by two kinds of bookstores—the independent shops specializing in political books and pornography banned by China and the shops secretly owned by Beijing’s communist government. A Tokyo-based bookstore hosting a book fair centered around democracy and…
-
Amazon’s Self-Publishing Scam Artists
Amazon’s self-publishing tools mean its never been easier to publish a book—and scammers have figured out how to churn out low-quality content to earn large amounts of money. The Washington Post (a company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) takes the time to explore…