Real Kids. Good Books.

Jorge Rivas at Colorlines has interviewed a diverse group of adults who were kids during the L.A. Riots in 1992, giving a unique perspective on what happened twenty years ago. 

malindalo:

It’s been about 10 days since I turned in the first draft of the sequel to Adaptation. Since then, I’ve been catching up on the zillion things I didn’t do while making the final push to meet my deadline (OK, I missed my deadline by a week), but I’ve also been thinking about what it felt like, this time, to write a rough draft.

The common wisdom among writers (or at least the writers I’ve talked to) is that you never learn how to write books. You learn how to write each book. That’s because every book is different, so the process is different every time.

By and large this is true, but there are some things that you can learn in the course of writing multiple novels…

And elsewhere on the web at: www.open-books.org

I’m loving their Tumblr and their work in general. Very inspiring. 

Eating Poetry by Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. 
There is no happiness like mine. 
I have been eating poetry. 

The librarian does not believe what she sees. 
Her eyes are sad 
and she walks with her hands in her dress. 

The poems are gone. 
The light is dim. 
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up. 

Their eyeballs roll, 
their blond legs burn like brush. 
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
 
She does not understand. 
When I get on my knees and lick her hand, 
she screams. 

I am a new man. 
I snarl at her and bark. 
I romp with joy in the bookish dark. 

The Words Under the Words by Naomi Shihab Nye

for Sitti Khadra, north of Jerusalem

My grandmother's hands recognize grapes,   
the damp shine of a goat's new skin.   
When I was sick they followed me,
I woke from the long fever to find them   
covering my head like cool prayers.

My grandmother's days are made of bread,   
a round pat-pat and the slow baking.
She waits by the oven watching a strange car   
circle the streets. Maybe it holds her son,   
lost to America. More often, tourists,   
who kneel and weep at mysterious shrines.   
She knows how often mail arrives,
how rarely there is a letter.
When one comes, she announces it, a miracle,   
listening to it read again and again
in the dim evening light.

My grandmother's voice says nothing can surprise her.
Take her the shotgun wound and the crippled baby.   
She knows the spaces we travel through,   
the messages we cannot send—our voices are short   
and would get lost on the journey.
Farewell to the husband's coat,
the ones she has loved and nourished,
who fly from her like seeds into a deep sky.   
They will plant themselves. We will all die.

My grandmother's eyes say Allah is everywhere, even in death.   
When she talks of the orchard and the new olive press,   
when she tells the stories of Joha and his foolish wisdoms,   
He is her first thought, what she really thinks of is His name.
"Answer, if you hear the words under the words—
otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,   
difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones."

Celebrate national Poem In Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 26, 2012!

The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends. You can also share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Poems from pockets will be unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores. Create your own Poem In Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or let us know how your plans, projects, and suggestions for Poem In Your Pocket Day by emailing npm@poets.org.

Lynda Barry and Ernie Pook’s Comeek was one of the formative reading experiences of my life. Each week in college, I’d grab the local free paper and turn right to her comic. Her stories were charming/ sad/ lonely/  triumphant and real. 

An oldie but goodie re-found thanks to Longform and Slate. (More coming out articles there, too.) 

Some insights from George Monroy, Caine Monroy’s dad. 

“Here’s the whole thing about parents,” he said. “They want to create their kid into what they want it to do. And they force upon them sports, books… This book is good for you, read it. Play T-ball. Play soccer.

“But he’ll be so miserable on the soccer field if he doesn’t want to play, you’re wasting his time and your time too. You have to let the kid decide what he wants to do.”

It’s retro and counter-intuitive, in an era of Tiger Moms and competitive nursery schools.

But it’s pretty basic to the man whose son is our current video icon of resourceful creativity:

Enjoy yourself. Spend time with your kids. And treat them like individuals, not widgets.

nerdylikearockstar:

baralgin:

Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Librarians share the bad books that they find on actual library shelves as a bit of blast from the past, but mostly to show that libraries need constant updating to stay relevant. 

Found with the help of The Rumpus. 

Ruta Sepetys says you must read Shaun Tan’s The Arrival. 

rachelfershleiser:

annadevries:

The recent news that the DOJ has brought a lawsuit against major publishers over e-book pricing with tales of secret meetings and greedy publishers has pushed the industry into the headlines. Even Brian Williams covered it.

For people who…

morerobots:

I have collected so many articles on the Hunger Games about race, disability, and female portrayal. I am going to compile them all here. I know there are some missing, because unlike good librarians, I didn’t make a book mark folder (good going cait!).

race:

White Until…

indiancountry:

Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian has made it onto the American Library Association’s (ALA) list of most-challenged books once again, though it has slipped from number two to number five since last year.