Hello, my poetry-nerd friends! Today I can’t help gushing about poetry books I’ve read recently and loved. First off, I want to talk about the poetry collection What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer. Then I want to delve into a classic book on poetry as a craft, A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver. We’ll… Read more »
The good news about Chelsea Cain’s Mockingbird, which had an eight-issue run from 2016-2017, drawn by Kate Niemczyk and colored by Rachelle Rosenberg (an all-woman team! You love to see it) is that off the bat it’s funny, action-packed, explicitly feminist, and it won’t take you long to get through the eight issues. The bad… Read more »
In my last column, I talked about classic girl detectives. This time, the modern girl detectives get their chance. The girl detectives from the late 20th-early 21st century comprise a much more diverse group. But they share with each other and their predecessors the qualities of intelligence, bravery, and grit. Some of you might notice… Read more »
I’m back for the third installment of my 2021 Virtual Writers Sabbatical (“VWS”) series and hope your own VWS is rolling along into the back half of 2021. If you missed the first two installments, Create Your Own Virtual Writers Sabbatical describes how to build an adventure focused on you and your writing craft, and… Read more »
Why Should LGBTQ+ Writers Read LGBTQ+ History? There are so many benefits to reading non-fiction to inform your fiction writing. Not only is history edifying, allowing us to ensure that we’re crafting stories that are accurate and plausible, but reading non-fiction is also a great way to expose ourselves to new ideas. If you want… Read more »
It’s already September! The new school year may be starting, but I am still clinging to the last vestiges of summer. Last month was a great reading month for me, despite a beach vacation where I didn’t actually get much reading done. That’s all right though. I had a great time and can’t wait to… Read more »
I’ve been having such a hard time doing anything productive. All I want to do is sip a cold drink and read…yet my attention span isn’t super great right now either. Thank you, August heat. (We’re actually having a bit of a weird cool spell at the time of this writing, but whatever.) I haven’t… Read more »
It’s July and we’re hitting the dog days of summer here in rural Oklahoma. Nothing is moving out there, not even the wind. (I might be exaggerating slightly) Still, you’d think if it was that hot outside, it would be perfect for some indoor reading. Not exactly. I’ve struggled to concentrate for whatever reason. I’ve… Read more »
One of the greatest things about being a writer today is that there is a market for every flavor of story in any genre. This is even true of genres-within-genres, those special gems of writing that pursue one strand of writing within another context. For example, LGBTQ+ stories can now be found in any and… Read more »
Greetings, Speculators! May was Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. So, yeah, I’m a little late with this recommended reading list, but you can read these great books any time. Diversify your reading game and include some of these suggestions in your to be read (TBR) list. Ken Liu Ken Liu is author… Read more »
