Inspiration Monday: Rebecca Solnit

“Certainly for artists of all stripes, the unknown, the idea or the form or the tale that has not yet arrived, is what must be found. It is the job of artists to open doors and invite in prophesies, the unknown, the unfamiliar; it’s where their work comes from, although its arrival signals the beginning of the long disciplined process of making it their own.” — Rebecca Solnit Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Rebecca Solnit

Inspiration Monday: Amanda Palmer

“People working in the arts engage in street combat with The Fraud Police on a daily basis, because much of our work is new and not readily or conventionally categorized. When you’re an artist, nobody ever tells you or hits you with the magic wand of legitimacy. You have to hit your own head with your own handmade wand. And you feel stupid doing it. There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to university, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in … Continue reading Inspiration Monday: Amanda Palmer

Hot Reads & Other Things

So I had really planned to have a good dozen links to a good dozen poems and stories for this post, but then, life happened. I’m flexible, though, and decided to go with what I have because the two flash fictions, one video-poem, and one text poem here are dynamite.  You just can’t get any better than these. So, forthwith: “Hands” by Tara Isabel Zambrano in The Sonder Review and Fictionaut. “I stay up all night. I write. I give up cashews and pistachios. I spend my time looking at his things wishing they were gone too. My only sliver of comfort about … Continue reading Hot Reads & Other Things

Hot Reads 8.22.15

It’s August. A month of heat, humidity, and irritable moodiness in the South. On top of that, the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is coming up and it’s all over the news, all over social media and just everywhere I turn. I am not looking forward to next week. I lived through it and I don’t want to relive it, thank you. I’ll leave it to the politicians and philosophers to “celebrate” how far we’ve come but I’ll be keeping my head down and looking forward to September. Here’s a little list of what I’ve been reading lately: Aubrey Hirsch humorously muses about … Continue reading Hot Reads 8.22.15

Lidia on Vimeo

Well, isn’t this fortuitous. A Twitter friend tweeted this Vimeo this morning so I, of course, had to watch immediately, fan girl that I am. It’s the first chapter of Lidia Yuknavitch’s new book, The Small Backs of Children, read by a group of writers and produced and created by Meg Tuite and Ken Robidoux for Crazy Rabbit Review on Connotation Press. It’s a great sampling of Lidia’s writing so get on over there and dig in. DOnt ya love it when you discover a writer that excites you? Continue reading Lidia on Vimeo