This new blog looks interesting, written by Charles J. Shields, Kurt Vonnegut’s biographer.
On convincing Vonnegut to say yes to the biography:
"I offered myself as Vonnegut’s biographer in July 2006. I had heard he was miffed, that no biography of him existed. In my first letter to him, I came on strong.
…
"His response was cool. A week after my letter to him, I received a large sketch of him smoking a cigarette. “A most respectful demurring by me,” read the caption, “for the excellent writer, Charles J. Shields, who offered to be my biographer.”
On trying to navigate AWP as a biographer in a world of poets, fiction writers, and memoirists:
"Related to this fascination with self was agreement by panelists in two other sessions that they don’t know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Nor does it matter. James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) was spoken of with reverence. So what if he made-up entire episodes for his supposedly real-life experiences? But then would Kerouac’s On the Road be a novel, or a memoir, artfully arranged for maximum effect and meaning? I don’t know."
Read more at Writing Kurt Vonnegut.
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Writer Nick Kocz’s blog Ridiculous Words is also worth checking out. Here, he writes about submission fees:
“Putting aside the question of whether it’s ethical to set up pay hurdles for writers, I worry about the eventual aesthetic consequences. When editors start looking at submissions as revenue-generators, it changes in a very fundamental way the function of the end-product journal.”
Read the rest of this post: http://www.nickkocz.com/1/post/2011/02/submission-fees-aesthetic-consequences.html
Read the blog: Ridiculous Words
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Thanks to Philip for sending along this information about the new Gatsby movie:
“What some consider The Great American Novel is now set to get the Great American Multiplex treatment, as director Baz Luhrmann's upcoming big screen version of "The Great Gatsby" will be filmed in 3D -- and in Australia.”
Oh, ugh. If you must read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/20/the-great-gatsby-3d-movie_n_825740.html