Search Results for: Rookie

Reading List: The Writing Life vs. The Blinking Cursor

Emily Perper is a word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker.

Over the weekend, I attended the annual National Book Festival in Washington D.C. One of the highlights was Tamora Pierce’s presentation. Pierce is a young adult fantasy lit author, known for her great writing and awesome female characters. The tent was packed with fans of all ages, and once the Q&A microphones were opened, tween girls rushed to be the first in line. One girl, probably six or seven years old, asked how Mrs. Pierce dealt with writer’s block. Precocious, indeed, but that moment made me think—almost every aspiring writer struggles with the terror of a blank mind and a blank page, from time to time. In every panel I attended over the weekend, at least one person asked about writer’s block. Get out your pencils, punks.

1. “Getting Unstuck” (Caitlin, Rookie, November 2012) features ideas for overcoming writer’s block from many writers, including Joss Whedon, Adrian Tomine and Fran Lebowitz.

2. “The Daily Routines of Famous Writers,” compiled by Brain Pickings’ Maria Popova, is great for its anecdotal charm, as well as its practical advice. Don’t be surprised if you feel envious.

3. In “Ask the Writing Teacher: Story Arc(s),” author and teacher Edan Lepucki expounds upon her understanding of the definition and purpose of story arc, with a little help from Eileen Myles, Margaret Atwood and Orange is the New Black. Includes writing exercises and reading suggestions.

4. The beautiful “A Writer’s Room” (John Spinks, New York Times, August 2013) slideshow includes pictures of the authors in their treasured workspaces, as well as their meditations on writing and the books they’re publishing this fall.

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Photo by Jeremy Levine

Reading List: The Writing Life vs. The Blinking Cursor

Longreads Pick

This week’s picks from Emily includes stories from Rookie, Brain Pickings, The Millions, and The New York Times.

Source: Longreads
Published: Sep 29, 2013

Reading List: Fashion Week

Emily Perper is a word-writing human for hire. She blogs about her favorite longreads at Diet Coker.

It’s Fashion Week at Longreads. From street sense to the ethics of cool, fashion is a fitting follow-up to last week’s “Believe in Your Selfie.”

1. “Girls on the Street.” (Katie Haegele, Utne Reader, September 2013)

Forget Fashion Week—zine maven Haegele would rather cruise the streets of her city for inspiration.

2. “Cool Front/Hot Mess.” (Danielle Meder, The New Inquiry, September 2013)

In the 21st century, in-your-face fashion trumps casual-cool elegance.

3. “4 Models Spill About the Plus-Size Industry.” (Liz Black, Refinery29, September 2013)

Interviews with ladies who rock their curves—Fluvia Lecerda, Candice Huffine, Jessica Milagros Guzman Sanchez and Whitney Thompson.

4. “Happy Birthday, Iris!” (Tavi Gevinson, Newsweek, August 2013)

Rookie Magazine editor and fashion maven Tavi Gevinson interviews nonagenarian style icon Idris Apfel about purpose, growing up, and her New York essentials.

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Photo by Jennifer Livingston for Newsweek.

Reading List: Identity

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Emily Perper is a freelance editor and reporter, currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps.

1. “I Was A Manic Pixie Dream Girl.” (Laurie Penny, New Statesmen, June 2013)

The difference between playing a leading role in your own life and playing a supporting role in everyone else’s.

2. “Promises of an Unwed Father.” (Ta-nehisi Coates, Oprah Magazine, June 2013)

Upon the birth of his baby boy, the talented Coates examines his different entwined roles as partner, father, son and son-in-law.

3. “I Fake It So Real I Am Beyond Fake.” (Emily, Rookie Magazine, July 2013)

The author explains her process of adopting the confidence of others to create her own confidence, from teenage fashion to a career in comedy.

4. “Notes From A Unicorn.” (Seth Fischer, The Rumpus, February 2012)

Fischer faces criticism from many facets of the sexual spectrum for his bisexual identity.

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Photo by Photologic

Reading List: Identity

Longreads Pick

Picks from Emily Perper, a freelance editor and reporter currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps. This week’s picks include stories from the New Statesman, Oprah Magazine, Rookie, and The Rumpus.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 14, 2013

Reading List: Sunrise, Sunset

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Emily Perper is a freelance editor and reporter, currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps.

A few weeks ago, I was reading my weekly horoscope, courtesy of The Rumblr’s Madame Clairvoyant. The last three words of Leo’s outlook caught in my mind: “Don’t even worry.”

“Don’t even worry,” I whispered over and over. So many people have told me not to worry about the future in one breath, only to interrogate me about my future plans in the next. “Don’t even worry,” I say to myself. These are pieces that make me feel hopeful about the future — not in the naive hope that it will be easy, but with calm assurance that good things will happen to mediate the bad.

1. “The ‘Handicap Icon’ Gets New Life.” (Jennifer Grant, Christianity Today, June 2013)

A philosophy professor and an artist collaborated to create a “symbol of access,” angered by the stigma and ignorance directed toward differently abled citizens.

2. “The Empty-Nest Yard Sale.” (Kevin Sampsell, The Rumpus, June 2013)

Sampsell, a bookseller and independent publisher, considers his son’s teenage tendency toward aloofness and his own desperate, emotional response.

3. “Internship From Hell.” (Michael McGuire, The Chronicle of Higher Education, June 2013)

Once an intern at El Nuevo Heraldo in Miami, McGuire’s internship sums up a lot of what today’s working youth face: disgust, exhaustion, disillusionment, bouts of hysterical laughter and sweet relief at the end of it all.

4. “Slouching Towards Babylon.” (Anna McConnell, Rookie Magazine, June 2013)

Her hippie peers sneer at her New York upbringing, and sometimes, she does, too. But nature’s sublimity is no match for homesickness.

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Illustration by Kim

Reading List: Sunrise, Sunset

Longreads Pick

Picks from Emily Perper, a freelance editor and reporter currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps. This week’s picks include stories from Christianity Today, The Rumpus, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Rookie.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 7, 2013

Reading List: Summer Camp

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For anyone who wants to run away to Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, to make new, fun, friends, to live as though summer is forever: This one’s for you.

1. “Into the Woods and Away from Technology.” (Chris Colin, The New Yorker, June 2013)

Welcome to Camp Grounded, where you’ll bring your sleeping bag but not your iPhone. Navarro, Calif. hosts this three-day adult summer camp where campers seek to understand themselves and their relationship to the screens they treasure.

2. “A-Camp May 2013 Recamp #1: Over the Mountain and Into the Woods We Go.” (The Team, Autostraddle, June 2013)

Autostraddle hosted the third installation of A-Camp, a summer-y camp for queer folks, chockfull of workshops, dance parties, feelings, discussion panels, swimming, and arts and crafts. Here, counselors, interns, and campers provide heartfelt, hilarious recapitulations of their experiences and epiphanies. (This is the first of four installments.)

3. “Summer Camp.” (Tyler, Rookie Magazine, June 2013.)

The author’s favorite place in the world. “Noncampers just don’t understand,” he writes.

4. “Transmissions From Camp Trans.” (Michelle Tea, The Believer, November 2003)

Author Michelle Tea explores “Camp Trans,” the campout-music festival that protests the trans-exclusionary policies of the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.

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Share your favorite stories in the comments.

Image: Universal Studios

Reading List: Summer Camp

Longreads Pick

Picks from Emily Perper, a freelance editor and reporter currently completing a service year in Baltimore with the Episcopal Service Corps. This week’s picks include stories from The New Yorker, Autostraddle, Rookie, and The Believer.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 30, 2013

Reading List: 21 Outstanding Stories from Women's Magazines and Websites

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Are women’s magazines avoiding “serious journalism”? Guess it all depends on who’s deciding what’s serious.

The New Republic asks that question in a new article, and our biggest problem with this debate (and, to be honest, the term “longform journalism”) is that it can often run everything through a male-skewed filter of what counts as “serious journalism.” We’ve seen serious storytelling in both.

The other problem is that we’re still relying on National Magazine Awards and print-only publishers to reflect the zeitgeist. I’ve mentioned that 65% of all #longreads started out in print, but we also should spotlight the work of online publishers who are pursuing in-depth storytelling.

So, here’s a start: 21 stories from women’s magazines and sites that we’ve featured on Longreads. On Twitter, Rebecca Traister is curating some of her favorite serious work. And we’d love for you to add your favorite women’s magazine stories in the comments.

Allure

The F Word, Jennifer Weiner

Marie Claire

The Big Business of Breast Cancer, Lea Goldman

Tiger Beatdown

The Percentages: A Biography of Class, Sady Doyle

O, The Oprah Magazine

‘I Will Never Know Why’, Susan Klebold

‘We Thought the Sun Would Always Shine on Our Lives’, Paige Williams

Promises of an Unwed Father, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Is Ecstasy a Viable Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?, Jessica Winter

Rookie

Higher Learning, Staff

XO Jane

How A Gun-loving West Texas Girl Learned to Fear Assault Weapons, Haley B. Elkins

It Happened To Me: My Parents Adopted a Murderer, Amity Bitzel

More

How I Lost $500,000 for Love, Aryn Kyle

Vogue

Notes on a Scandal: Jenny Sanford Vogue Interview, Rebecca Johnson

Sheryl Sandberg: What She Saw at the Revolution, Kevin Conley

Susan Rice: She’s Got Game, Jonathan Van Meter

Elle

I’m For Sale, Genevieve Smith

The Hairpin

My Brother, My Mother, and a Call Girl, Mara Cohen Marks

He’s So Unusual, Jane Marie

A Goodbye to Ambien in Dubai, Amy Schumer

The Evolution of Ape-Face Johnson, Carolita Johnson

Glamour

Relationship Violence: The Secret That Kills 4 Women a Day, Liz Brody

Jezebel

What Can a Civilian Possibly Say to a Wounded Soldier?, Chloe Angyal

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Share your picks in the comments