Posts by author
Roxie Pell
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The Real Deal
Many of us choose to pursue MFAs; many of us are also plagued with doubts about the value of a degree in creative writing. Former teacher Ryan Boudinot shares his thoughts about programs, publishing, and the unlikely chance that you’re the…
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What Gender Means
The Marvel universe is about to get a much-needed dose of perspective when G. Willow Wilson’s all-female team of Avengers arrives this May. NPR talked to Wilson about gender, identity, and ladies who draw: If we’re going to have an…
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So You Think You Can Write?
A recent poll shows that the majority of Brits would choose the writing life as their ideal career. At the Guardian, Tim Lott isn’t sure they could handle it: To master dialogue, description, subtext, plot, structure, character, time, point of view, beginnings,…
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Fun with Jane
Awe-inspiring literary legacy aside, one thing is for certain: Jane Austen could definitely hang. A new collection of some of her shorter works shows the writer in peak form, sharply mocking her social milieu with expert comedic timing: The young Austen…
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Getting It Right
People have been writing about civil rights for years, but it’s taken Hollywood until now to warm up to the subject (of course, not enough). Bill Morris traces the history of the movement’s cinematic representations leading up to Ava DuVernay’s…
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Call Yourself Ishmael
Finally, a practical way to pursue your dream career as both writer and pirate. For ten days in April, you can set sail for the Caribbean with the Writing at Sea program organized by environmental journalist, writer, and poet Elizabeth…
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Drop the Book and Put Your Hands Where I Can See Them!
Turns out borrowing that Jodi Picoult tearjerker was an affront to the State. In many cities, those pint-sized homemade libraries of the “take a book, leave a book” variety are considered illegal obstructions.
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Fifty More Shades of Grey (And Counting)
Prospects for your serialized proto-fictional new generation adaptation of The Hunger Games are bright. As fan fiction solidifies its status as a literary genre in its own right, publishers are catching on: …what was once viewed as either uncreative, a…
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Party like the Publishing Industry Isn’t Collapsing in on Itself
Like parties? Like literature? Come to the ACE Hotel Los Angeles this Thursday to party with LA’s writing community, namely hosts Anna March and Antonia Crane and co-hosts J. Ryan Stradal, Claire Bidwell Smith, Wendy C. Ortiz, Rob Roberge, Jen…
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Different Worlds
While the boundary between fiction and nonfiction has never been clearly defined, no one said crossing over would be easy. For the Daily Beast, Esther Freud describes how she made the jump: If I was writing about a real person,…
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Big Brother is Analyzing
These questions have been posed before: are we writing for the book or the reader? Is the modern publishing machine destroying the integrity of the novel? Taking a look at Kobo’s creepy digital reader engagement analytics, Joseph Bernstein tells us…
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Show Me the Money
It’s no secret that writing doesn’t pay. Ann Bauer wants to talk about where the money comes from: In my opinion, we do an enormous “let them eat cake” disservice to our community when we obfuscate the circumstances that help us…