Cory Doctorow denies that blogging is dead; killed off by newer forms of social media:
I still blog 10-15 items a day, just as I’ve done for 10 years now on Boing Boing. But I also tweet and retweet 30-50 times a day…. the more media I have at my disposal, the more ways there are for me to work out my own ideas.
Nearly 70 tweets and blogs every day? Truly, Doctorow is a man for the times.
Proving that blogging is alive and well is Queensland Poet-in-Residence, Emily XYZ. When fighting the writers’ demons – the doubts and distractions that plague us all – Emily convinces us that action brings answers! (And she proved it at the recent Speed Poets gig).
Emily XYZ in action at Speed Poets
And have you seen Tom Cho’s beautiful blog? Full of writerly wisdoms, like the ones he offered at last night’s Writing Race:
- "We who write live in a kaleidoscopic world of ever-shifting assessments and judgments, unable to determine whether it is revelation or supreme self-delusion that fuels our most crucial efforts" – Joyce Carol Oates
- "Ask yourself ‘What am I too lazy or afraid to write?”’ – Gerald Murnane (Tom’s former fiction teacher).
You can catch Tom at the upcoming Byron Bay Writers Festival.
The opportunity to interview founders and editors of literary magazines is one of the most exciting and humbling aspects of my job. This interview with John Tranter, poet and founder of Jacket magazine, brought home to me how much great work is being done in the Australian literary scene by people who are dedicated to their craft, and savvy about their industry. Read on to find out more about this wonderful publisher of modern Australian poetry.
Sp: When and why did you set up Jacket - what’s the best anecdote from the early days of Jacket?
JT: I set up Jacket in 1997. I was the sole employee (unpaid) for the first eight years, then we doubled our staff: Pam Brown joined as Associate Editor (unpaid) in 2005. We are up to issue number 37 now (mid-2009).
When I began, I had no idea if anyone would ever get to know that the magazine was there, among the millions of pages on the net, or what kind of reach it might have. In the first issue I published an interview I’d done with the British poet, Roy Fisher. In a week or so I received an email from a fellow thanking me for publishing it. He said ‘I’m a great fan of Roy Fisher’s and it’s hard to find work on him up here in Nome, Alaska.’
Sp: Your favourite paragraph from a published submission and why?
JT: ‘Three sentences on the way to Belize’ (by Eliot Weinberger)
Sitting in the last row of the plane next to a Belizean woman of uncertain age. The choice for lunch was pasta, fish, or chicken, but by the time the meal cart reached us, there was only pasta or fish. My seatmate smiled sweetly at the stewardess and said, "Next time you’ll have to kill more chickens."
Sp: Your favourite image from any edition of Jacket and why?
Photo copyright (c) Walter Crump, from Ruth Lepson and Walter Crump:
"Morphology", reviewed by John Mercuri Dooley (Design, Christina
Strong) BlazeVOX Books, 2007. http://www.blazevox.org/bk-lc.htm
JT: I like it because it seems to be trying to tell a strange story, and I think the clouds look beautiful.
Sp: Top 3 things that will turn you off a submission?
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Tired, conventional ideas
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Sloppy, careless or egotistical writing
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Writing that tries too hard to be cute
Sp: What are you most interested in at the moment in Australian publishing?
JT: The need to reduce the proportion of "Australian" publishers which are entirely owned and managed by foreigners from the current 90% to about 40%. This would take the emphasis away from the idea that every single title must turn a profit, and replace it with something more civilised: the idea that a great publisher carries a wide range of titles: from blockbuster profit-makers to massively popular biographies of "media" "celebrities" and sporting "heroes" to a small but distinguished list of poetry titles that will inevitably lose a small amount of money: that is, a tiny fraction of the obscene profits that the other books make.
Sp: Speakeasy is interested in gaining a snap shot of the future of publishing in Australia. Where do you think your mag will be in 5 years?
JT: I really don’t know: still there, I hope.
SP: We hope so, too!
Check out the submission guidelines for Jacket: they are an exemplar of good-humoured professionalism, and a great guide to understanding the special requirements and opportunities of online publication.
Yay, Friday – random links day!
- An incredible opportunity for Australian playwrights just got even better!
- Drive trucks? Write poetry? Then get on board dust poems! But truckie poets take note, if you want to contribute to the anthology, the deadline is tomorrow…
- All the postulating about the recession leading to better book sales might come true, if this article is anything to go by. Apparently, hard liquor sales and art class attendance soars in hard times .
- Starting at 5 bucks and going as high as your wallet and compassion extends, Issue #1 of Hope is ready and waiting for you! ‘Hope is a new multi-part fanzine raising money for bushfire relief in the Australian state of Victoria. It is edited by [...] Grant Watson, with contributions donated by writers, artists and fans in Australia and from overseas. It is supported by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation (WASFF), and has received assistance from the Film & Television Institute of WA, Supanova and Big Finish Productions.’
- And of course, you already know about the Daily Cabal, don’t you? Bite-size fiction to enliven each and every working day!
Have a great writing weekend. I’m going to write a scene set in a pathology lab. Can’t wait!
