Book Photo Challenge: Part 2

I'm back with round 2 of the photos I've collected for Books & Cupcakes' August Book Photo Challenge.  I'm uploading my pictures to Instagram and Tumblr as I go, but since I've been so bad at keeping up with it they're coming out at weird times and slightly out of order.  Sorry.  Anyway, that's part of why it's nice to keep track of them here; where I can see the photos laid out all orderly and organized.

9 // New Book Discovery - Short story collections!  It's so interesting to see a writer's signature style from so many perspectives.
10 // Favorite Author - Neil Gaiman, of course.
11 // Reading Outside - This is one of the best things about summer.
12 // Sunny Book Cover - I wasn't sure what this meant until I scanned the other books posted under this tag, but finally dug out the two sunniest cover designs I could find.  Though they look a bit more like sunsets than bright, daytime sun.
13 // Bookish Item - My two favorite bookish items are my Books. Cats. tote and Gatsby flask.
14 // Back To School Reads - I don't buy textbooks for another few weeks, but here are some books from past classes that I've especially liked.
15 // Book Store - One of my favorite Chicago bookstores is Myopic Books in Wicker Park.
16 // Favorite Fandom - I couldn't find a good picture of the Harry Potter books so I had to settle for this, even though I can't stand J. K. Rowling's adult fiction. Quit while you're ahead girl!

This has been fun!  Be sure to check out Part 1 of the challenge here.

Read on,
Elizabeth

The Real Problem with "Sick-lit"

According to some news sources, in particular The Daily Mail, a new (made-up) genre of YA fiction is rising in popularity.  “Sick-lit” is defined as books that exploit serious issues such as depression and illness, which in turn can be traumatizing for its readers.  Some titles supposedly included on this list are The Fault in our Stars by John Green, whose protagonist has cancer, and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which tells the story of a teenage girl who recently committed suicide.  Both books have received tremendous praise from both readers and critics.

So the fact that there are people who believe sick-lit is a legitimate genre is itself sick.

It’s true that some doctors claim that exposure to novels dealing with topics such as depression, suicidal thoughts, and eating disorders have led to these behaviors in young teens.  This is extremely tragic, and I believe people for whom these books may be triggers should have the ability to pass up on them if necessary.  

But consider the alternative of not exposing teenagers to these topics: by not having a healthy, supportive way to be introduced to serious issues in the first place, teens are being sheltered from the realities of the world.  Fiction, as well as art as a whole, gives us a way to examine our own lives from a unique lens.  It draws attention to topics that might have otherwise been ignored by starting conversations and introducing new perspectives.  And I find it hard to believe that those who have actually read these books really think its authors are writing them out of morbid enjoyment; it’s clear from the first page that authors such as John Green are handling their difficult subject matter with complete respect.

After all, it’s not as if cancer or depression will magically go away if we stop talking about them.

Though I personally am not a huge fan of YA lit, I realize that this genre has recently grown exponentially in popularity among both teens and adults, and I applaud authors who are using this genre to shed light on the issues real teens are facing.  Discussing depression, terminal illness, and other serious topics through literary fiction does not romanticize the subject; instead, it proves that these issues are real, and serious, and worth knowing how to handle if the time should ever come.

Here are the titles of a few more literary young adult books considered “Sick-lit” by certain dumb adults:

Never Eighteen by Megan Bostic

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Daelyn Rice

Red Tears by Joanna Kenrick

So Much to Live For by Lurlene McDaniel

Zoe Letting Go by Nora Price

Read on,

Elizabeth

Book Photo Challenge: Part 1

Toward the beginning of the month, I stumbled upon this August Book Photo Challenge by the Tumblr blog Books & Cupcakes.  It's hard to stay motivated to do anything more than sleep in, lay out in the sun and eat cheap food during the last month of the summer, so I love that this challenge has kept me motivated to keep thinking about books over the next few weeks.  A daily update of this challenge can be found on my Tumblr, but below is a recap of the first eight days.

1 // Whatcha reading? - The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
2 // TBR Pile - Mine is made up mostly of books I bought discounted or borrowed from friends.
3 // Your Bookshelf - Mine is currently the underside of my desk, as most of my books are at my parents' house in Minnesota.
4 // Bookmarker - Favorite bookmarks include ticket stubs, bookmarks from my writing center, and free bookmarks from Unabridged Bookstore.
5 // Where You Read - I can't fall asleep without reading before bed.
6 // Favorite Book Cover - I love the design of Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog and the back cover of Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
7 // Words On A Page - This super short story by a third grader, which reads, "If I had a sidekick he would watch TV.  He would watch TV and eat chips and Nutella." resonated with me for obvious reasons.  Who doesn't want to be this sidekick?
8 // Most Reread Book - Coraline by Neil Gaiman

I've had a lot of fun coming up with what to snap a picture of for these first eight days.  Hopefully I can keep up with this challenge for all of August!

Read on,
Elizabeth

Currently Reading: Memoirs

My dream has always been to write fiction, and for years I was adamant about my refusal to read nonfiction for fun (picture: pretentious teenage Elizabeth claiming "Oh, I only read fiction.")  Obviously, this was really stupid, and over the past several months, creative nonfiction, personal essays and memoirs in particular, have been some of my favorite genres to both read and write.

I am 100% a product of the 21st century, so when my internet spontaneously stopped working a few nights ago, I panicked trying to figure out how I would entertain myself.  Obviously, I headed straight to the bookstore in search of something mindless and fun to read during these dark times, and came back with Diablo Cody's memoir, Candy Girl.  This book is fantastic, and inspired me to write about a few of my other favorite memoirs.

Candy Girl by Diablo Cody - I have been a fan of the famous stripper-turned-screenwriter ever since the release of Juno, so I knew her writing would be clever, unique, fast-paced, and very very funny.  This book chronicles the year Cody spent working as a stripper in Minneapolis, and in addition to the fascinating behind-the-scenes look at these establishments, as someone who grew up in Minneapolis, I was infinitely entertained by trying to count how many strip club names I recognized from driving past them on the way to my summer creative writing classes.  Not to mention her descriptions of Minnesota, such as, "Minnesota is like a church basement with a leaky popcorn ceiling and a bingo caller who's afraid to amp things up past a whisper" are spot-on.

On Writing by Stephen King - This book is half-memoir, half-how-to-write, and strikes a perfect balance between the two.  King gives an intimate insight into several personal details of his life, including his experiences writing for small publications as a teenager to his terrifying drug and alcohol addiction.  He counters this with step-by-step descriptions of the writing process and advice on everything from vocabulary to the publishing industry, while always maintaining a conversational tone that is easy to read, and never comes across as textbook.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers - This fictionalized memoir is Dave Eggers' first book, and though Eggers writes both fiction and nonfiction with success in both genres, his memoir seems to receive the most praise.  At age 22, Eggers moved from Chicago to California following the deaths of his parents to raise his 8-year-old brother, and he recounts this time in his memoir through not only stories, but lists, fictionalized interviews, and charts.  It's sad, and funny, and creative, and takes crazy risks in its writing but succeeds immensely.  The personalized writing advice I received from Eggers at a signing when I told him I wanted to be a writer definitely only added to my love of this book.

Just Kids by Patti Smith - I read Patti Smith's memoir about living as a starving artist in New York in the late sixties and early seventies before really knowing anything about her music or career, and fell in love with it so much that I quickly developed an unhealthy obsession with her music and art.  (I even skipped my poetry night class one night to see her in concert, using my grocery money to buy the ticket, which is so Patti Smith in and of itself that I can't even handle it.)  This novel is beautifully written and illustrates perfectly and honestly what it means to be an artist.  I love this book because it allows those of us who have dreamed of the starving artist lifestyle to live vicariously through Patti Smith's.  I'm not exaggerating when I say is one of my all-time favorite books.

Read on,
Elizabeth

Currently Reading: Short Stories

It’s a little embarrassing that I’m told to write short stories in almost all of my fiction writing classes, yet I rarely read short stories that aren’t homework assignments.  With this in mind, I decided to pick up a few collections by authors I admired.  What surprised me most (but probably shouldn’t have surprised me at all) about reading these collections was how many trends and reoccurring themes I found in each author’s work.  Even though I might have at first thought, “Really?  You’re using that same trick again?” as I was reading, I ended up really appreciating how much I was able to learn about each writer’s distinct voice.  Anyway, I decided to share what I loved about each of these collections below.

Self-Help by Lorrie Moore – Lorrie Moore is able to get her readers deep inside the heads of her characters, oftentimes by writing in the second person, so that by the time I finish one of her stories and take a step back I’m surprised to realize that I would probably hate these characters in real life.  She writes about everyday people and events, but with enough details that their worlds always feel colorful and tragically deep.  I loved her novel Anagrams as well and will definitely try to read more of her work.  (I also really want to mention that there’s an episode of Gossip Girl where Blair tries to get Lorrie Moore invited to a party to impress the editor of a magazine, and as I was watching it I freaked out thinking Lorrie Moore might cameo.  She didn’t.)

Reasons to Live by Amy Hempel – I first heard about this book from my high school writing teacher who liked to talk about how much fun this book was to read in public due to its self-help-style cover, making it ironic that I read it back-to-back with Lorrie Moore’s collection.  Even though I avoided the comments of, “there, there, don’t jump,” he claimed strangers would make on the train, I loved reading the collection that included one of my all-time favorite short stories, “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried.”  Even though I didn’t totally understand every story in this book, many of the stories contained such beautiful, thought-provoking passages that I often found myself going back a few pages just to re-read them.  There aren’t many characters in her stories, and hardly any dialogue, and I was immediately impressed that any author could pull off this much self-reflection without it feeling at all amateur.

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell – Karen Russell’s novel Swamplandia! was one of those books I initially had mixed feelings toward, but haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I read it over a year ago, so when a friend told me that the novel was actually inspired by the short story, “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” that starts off this collection, I knew I had to read it.  She pulls off magical realism perfectly, writing stories that remain in the realm of reality but always feel just a little off.  Most of her stories contain adolescent main characters, but wouldn’t at all fall under the genre of YA, allowing adult readers the chance to reflect on the mysterious, fantastical, often twisted ways young people see the world.  Considering how much success Russell has already had at only 31 years old, I’m looking forward to the amazing work this writer is bound to produce in the future.

I think I’ll take a break from short story collections for a while, but I already know Tenth of December by George Saunders is next on my list.  For now, these collections have given me plenty of inspiration to continue working on some short stories of my own. 

Read on,
Elizabeth

New Lit Mags: The Pros and Cons

There’s a scene in the first season of HBO’s Girls that often gets forgotten among the much more GIF-able quotes from the show.  In this scene, Jessa meets up with an ex-boyfriend, who begins to brag about his new, older girlfriend.  “She’s a publisher,” he says, “She has a small press.” To this, Jessa instantly replies, “Have you ever looked into that?  She could just be running off copies at Kinko’s, and saying she has a press, but who’s to say that she actually has one?”

I love this quote because Jessa is actually touching on a fascinating trend in the contemporary literary world.  With the rise in online- and self-publishing, several people do claim to be published authors, when in reality, they’re working with nothing more than a printer or a WordPress site.  And one of the most common places I’ve noticed that writers are finding to quickly publish their work is through small online literary magazines, dozens of which pop up every week. 

As someone who loves the idea of DIY and underground art, I think it’s amazing that nowadays anyone can get their work out into the world.  But not everyone shares this view, especially when taking into account the many potential issues that can come along with submitting to just any online magazine.  Brandon Tietz’s column, "Author Beware: New Lit Mags," gives a cynical heads-up to writers looking to submit to a new lit mag.  As Tietz writes, “here’s the reality: anyone can register a domain and designate it as a lit mag. Anyone.” So in many cases, the editors actually have no experience or credibility in the literary world.  In addition, he goes mention how “a large percentage of new businesses fail within the first year, and lit mags are no different,” meaning submitting to one of these mags could easily be a wasted effort.

There are other potential issues that can arise when submitting to just any magazine too.  Victoria Strauss's blog post, titled "Submission Guidelines to Beware of: Midwest Literary Magazine," points out a few more red flags to watch out for, including publications with anonymous editors (giving them no credibility), and publications who claim the right to publish work at any time in the future, with or without the author’s input.  In extreme cases, publications may even ask for copyrights to the piece, or could eventually make money off of it without ever compensating the author.

Yet despite the potential dangers that come along with sharing one’s work with the world, there’s something very cool about submitting to a brand new lit mag as well.  Creating, supporting, and submitting to small lit mags can be a great way for writers to network and take part in a community, assuming they’re still maintaining ownership of their writing, even while accepting that they may not receive any major recognition or compensation in return.  After all, every project has to start somewhere, and there’s nothing to say a certain publication won’t one day lead to literary success.

My personal rules for submitting are that I’m not comfortable sending my writing anywhere that doesn’t grant me full rights to my work, anywhere where I don’t either know the editors personally or know them to be qualified, or anywhere that asks me to pay to submit.   These are some of the biggest issues I’ve come across while exploring the lit mag world, and I’m only just learning the ropes myself.  However, I think it’s important for every writer to acknowledge these potential dangers, in order to start to develop their own personal set of rules when it comes to submitting.

Write on,

Elizabeth