Welcome To the Post-Writing Web
Here are two recent articles about BuzzFeed:
You Don't Owe It to Your Boss To Turn Your Trauma Into Content for Time Inc.
On Friday, xoJane published a most necessary confession. The women’s site that brings you the “It Happened To Me” first-person essay series (“It Happened To Me: There Are No Black People In My Yoga Classes And I’m Suddenly Feeling Uncomfortable With It,” “It Happened To Me: My Gynecologist Found a Ball of Cat Hair in…
Inside the Shady World of Craigslist Ghostwriters
The mainstream media is but one slice of the paid writing world. The deeper you go, the murkier it gets.
Are You a Writer? Has a Publication Screwed You? Tell Us.
Even in ideal conditions, it is not easy making a living as a freelance writer. It is much harder when the places you write for don’t pay you promptly. That’s where we come in.
Innocence and Revision: The Life of Aaron Rushing
Aaron Rushing was a freshman then. He had dark skin and cottony dreads that mostly covered his eyes, and sometimes his mouth—although not enough to conceal his gentle and knowing smile. His eyes were puppy-doggish, steady. Later I would learn he was a virtuoso on the guitar and a rockstar on stage, but that afternoon…
Writing to Survive
Last week, while visiting a liberal arts college in Oakland, I sat on a small couch and listened to the only white male on a panel boast at least three times that he’s “never been qualified for any of the jobs” he’s had. He laughed and chuckled at his dumb luck. The white woman beside him bragged, “I haven’t…
Dead Dog Slideshow Gets Six-Figure Book Advance
In January, Yahoo published a piece by a woman named Lauren Fern Watt titled "I Took My Dying Dog on a Bucket-List Adventure." The piece wasn't really an essay, per se, but some introductory text and eleven photos accompanied by captions that described Watt's relationship with her dying dog, Gizelle, who had been…
US-Bangladeshi Blogger Murdered For Views Against Religious Extremism
Avijit Roy, an atheist American-Bangladeshi writer, was brutally murdered in the streets of Dhaka on Thursday while returning home from a book fair with his wife. Roy had written frequently against religious fundamentalism on his blog Mukto-Mona, which means Free Mind.
What Is The Best Pen?
For better or for worse, Gawker.com is run by humans—humans with needs, and man, we really need some pens.
Here Is the VICE Style Guide
Many media outlets have style guides, which governs all matters related to writing style. We got a copy of Vice's style guide. Here it is.
Against Editors
In the writing world, there is a hierarchy. The writers are on the bottom. Above them are editors, who tell the writers what to change. This is backwards. How many good writers has Big Edit destroyed?
One Man's Take, by Taylor Berman
There are already too many websites.
"I have always liked Coldplay," the composer Nico Muhly writes, reviewing the band's new album with a delightful barrage of epigrammatic affection, expertise, and cruelty: "It unfolds perfectly, like a row house: there is no other place for the toilet to go, so obviously it goes there, at the top of the stairs."
Chipotle Cups to Publish New Writing From Saunders, Morrison, Gladwell
If you've ever thought to yourself, while eating a burrito, "Hey, I'd love to read a story by a famous author on my cup of Diet Coke," great news: Starting today, Chipotle's cups will feature original stories by Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Lewis, and Jonathan Safran Foer.
Screw Amtrak, Here Are Nine Corporate "Writer's Residencies" We Need
Writers are toddlers. We're pampered, we cry about everything and we like choo-choos. When some of us cried that we should get to ride and write on Amtrak for free, Amtrak said "Okay!" So, fine: Here are more corporations whose largesse could give writers time and space to practice the craft:
After retiring from writing novels in 2012, Philip Roth has felt "no desire to write fiction," he says in a new interview. Having taken up swimming, music, and appreciating nature, he has "barely time left for a continuing preoccupation with aging, writing, sex, and death." It's difficult to make room for all your…
Types of Books That Should Be Illegal
1) Person Under Age 30 Writes About Dating Life or Lack Thereof.
Reminder: do not write 35-page freelance erotic fiction stories for strangers on Craigslist without getting paid in advance.
You Simply Must See Carrot Top at the Luxor, Reports National Newspaper
"No Vegas experience would be complete without seeing the Entertainment Capital of the World's funniest resident headliner, Carrot Top," according to a news story on the home page of America's third-largest newspaper this morning.
Malcolm Gladwell, Professional Softball Player
Wildly successful proverb investigator Malcolm Gladwell is a writer for The New Yorker, the most prestigious magazine journalism outlet in America. Despite this fact, he says that—as a policy—he does not do journalism.
