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Write about the moment that everything changed. For inspiration, check out Smith Magazine's The Moment (Harper Perennial, 2012), a collection of personal essays about the key experience—"a moment of opportunity, serendipity, calamity, or chaos"—in each of the author's lives, whose effect was revelatory, profound, and life-changing.
Write a story where nothing takes place outside of one small room. You can describe the interior of the room, but refrain from describing anything outside of it. Take note of how this restriction forces you to rely on certain techniques of storytelling.
Can Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher, and Jason Clarke do justice to one of the greatest American novels of all time? We'll find out this Christmas when Baz Luhrmann's eagerly anticipated The Great Gatsby arrives in theaters.
Tom Vanderbilt considers the vagaries of literary fame; film director Peter Weir will adapt Jennifer Egan's 2006 novel, The Keep; Gary Glazner has developed a program that uses poetry to benefit dementia patients; and other news.
Ever felt like the bunny at the dinner party? Inspired by Victorian literature, "Out of a Forest" is a short film by Tobias Gundorff, Katrine Kiilerich Poulsen, Martin Bested, and Frederik Villumsen, shot on location in forests around Viborg, Demark, at night.
Revisit a poem of yours that is longer than one page. Try rewriting the poem by condensing it to ten lines or fewer. Cut and rearrange lines from the original poem, or write a completely new one that gives fresh attention to an evocative image or line from the original.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has filed for bankruptcy protection to restructure its debt; Word and Film wonders what's driving Hollywood's current fascination with literary novels; a one-page note written by Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Josepha Hale was recently auctioned; and other news.
A new weekly journal of fiction from the folks who brought you Electric Literature, Recommended Reading will publish one story, chosen by a diffferent author or editor, every week. "In this age of distraction, we'll uncover writing that's worth slowing down and spending some time with," editors Benjamin Samuel and Halimah Marcus say about their latest project. "And in doing so, we'll help give great writers, literary magazines, and independent presses the recognition (and readership) they deserve."
Longreads has compiled articles about Facebook, Weldon Owen Publishing offers an infographic of the birth of a book, and parodist Mark Crick imagines how Dostoevsky would tile his bathroom.
