Word Pirates

Memoirs are tricky business. As someone who writes almost exclusively about things that have happened to me, I am interested in the ethics and conventions of the memoir. James Frey aside, there was also the whole hullabaloo with Augusten Burroughs settling with the foster family portrayed in “Running With Scissors” and changing the author’s note […]

Maybe I should move? Other places have lower housing prices AND they are more literate overall. According to some people, the most literate cities in the U.S. are:

1. Minneapolis
2. Seattle
3. St. Paul, Minn.
4. Denver
5. Washington, D.C.
6. St. Louis
7. San Francisco
8. Atlanta
9. Pittsburgh
10. Boston

“The rankings, originated and […]

Cocktails inspired by Dickens.
Smoking bishop
“‘A merry Christmas, Bob!’ said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. ‘A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you, for many a year! I’ll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will […]

One of my favorite blogs is Chicks Dig Poetry by poet Sandra Beasley. Today’s post had insight to the short essay:
There’s a musculature to the short essay (under 1,000 words) that is really winning me over. “Just enough time to open a subject, expand it, and close it again,” said my friend Richard. Just […]

I prize clarity in writing above linguistic cartwheels. But am I straying away from the “big words” (or more accurately, obscure words) out of fear in a way that is slowly homogenizing my writing? Am I ignoring something that could enhance my writing?
In a book otherwise devoted to simple, straightforward writing, the style manual The […]

Here’s a really cool short story by Jennifer Egan in The New Yorker: Found Objects..
~ Joy