Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Karl is a daydreamer


Karl Wirsing's column "Walter Mitty on the Morning Commute" appeared in The Washington Post a week or so ago.

For as long as Karl can remember he's been a nut for daydreaming.


Bring Back the Shh...


Shuchi Saraswat's column on shhshing appears in today's The Weekly Dig. You can find the column here.

In the column, Shuchi mentions library Nancy Pearl, the librarian who posed for a 5-inch action figure of herself shhshing. You can buy the action figure at Archie McPhee and other fine establishments.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Beer + Girls = ?!?!

I never expected the public response I received from my little Soapbox rant in this Boston's Weekly Dig, but so far I've dealt with one very pissed off coworker, one threatening Facebook message, and one delightful marriage proposal (which you can view on the Dig's site). Who knew beer loving girls would illicit such an outcry?

ESB (Extra Special and Bitter)

And really, I did write this completely sober.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The Texas BBQ Trail


Two weeks ago I went to Texas to try and eat at as many legendary barbecue restaurants as possible in one day.


I only made it to five and it was much more difficult (and delicious) than you can imagine.


The full story and photos are up now at Everywhere magazine's website.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

News from Kirthana Ramisetti

Kirthana Ramisetti writes that she attended the first meeting of a new writing group a few days ago in New York City and that it is mostly made up of Column Writing alum. I'm not sure who else is among the group, but Kirthana described the first meeting as "a huge success," which is great to hear.

She also reports that she just had two articles published.

The first article was published in her neighborhood newspaper, The West Side Spirit. It's about a bar that her boyfriend and she go to called Jake's Dilemma--and how that used to be, well, a dilemma. It can be found here.

The second article was published online at PopMatters.com. The theme is "Life Savers," about a form of popular culture that changed your life in some way. She chose a YouTube clip. The article can be found here and the YouTube clip should be below.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Justine Tal Goldberg's Review of ELM

Justine Tal Goldberg has a review of Eureka Literary Magazine in The Review Review. You can find her review, "Give Me Life or Give Me Death," here.

The collection of characters in the issue she reviews, writes Justine, "are figures without substance, ineffectual and unaffecting; thus, we are unmoved."

Justine writes that she'll be reviewing regularly, so you can check back for more pieces from her on the site.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Mischevious Hannah

If you get a chance, take a look at Frank Bruni's review of the Manhattan restaurant, Momofuku Ko in today's New York Times.

It's a glowing review and in it, he writes:

"Its sense of mischief is underscored by the 'wine pairing' for a course of soft-shell crab: a glass of chilly Budweiser, bringing to mind a day at the beach."

That mischievous pairing is the doing of column writing alumn, Hannah Selinger, who is the beverage director for the Momofuku Group.

Oy!Chicago


[UPDATE: Libby has provided a picture of the bunny -- see image at left.]


Libby Ellis is part of the team that launched Oy!Chicago, a new online publication that describes itself as "a gathering space for socially conscious, intellectually curious, community-minded contemporaries. Oy! is home to articles, columns, reviews and ongoing discussions about Jewish life—whether you define yours as eating matzo ball soup at The Bagel, watching The Sarah Silverman Program, volunteering to help kids with homework or getting together with friends to celebrate Shabbat. You’re living Jewishly—or Jew-ishly—in Chicago and we want to talk about it."

You can view a fetching picture of a helmeted Libby here. Libby did not provide a photo of the 350-pound beer-swilling bunny with whom she lives.

Brittany Flynn at MOG.com

News from Brittany Flynn. She's relocated to Oakland, CA, and writes, "The west coast has been oh so good to me."

After an internship at Seal Press in the fall, she was an intern at MOG, a music blog website.

She was hired full-time in January and has moved on from just serving as a "community ambassador" to now writing weekly hip hop album reviews, under an editor-in-chief who Brittany says started the first music blog, Addicted to Noise, and was at Rolling Stone for a while.

Among her reviews at http://www.mog.com/brittanybf, Brittany also has posted assorted other pieces keeping, she says, "the community alive!"

You can scroll through all of her reviews/posts, read comments from readers, and post your own comments at http://www.mog.com/brittanybf.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Covering Beijing Olympics


Three column writing alum -- Rose Mellion, Andrea Mooney, and Mike Nagel -- are among the 35 students chosen from Emerson College to work with the Olympic News Service this summer covering the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing China.

Pub Buzz Blog

This from Kim Liao about a new blog of interest to current and former graduate students at Emerson:



Finally, Emerson graduate students are creating a virtual community to share the news and witty musings of WLP students and alums! While professors may hear about the wonderful news and accomplishments of your former students, and even share this news with fellow alums of your classes, we're bringing you and your alumni a way to link all of these updates and achievements together:

Pub Buzz, a new blog made especially for Emerson Graduate Students and Alumni of the WLP Department.

To MA and MFA Alumni: Subscribe now to get your daily dose of literary news and snark! Or, better yet, send us YOUR news and snark and we'll post it in our weekly publicity shout-out. Email us your achievements, upcoming events, or witty writing at pubbuzz@gmail.com.

WLP Alumni, stay in touch with the department and with each other via Pub Buzz!

When you email us, feel free to also include a brief bio, photo of yourself or your periodical, upcoming book, or other relevant media we can link to (have you staged a dramatic reading of your Dig column on Youtube? send us the link!).


Thanks very much for sharing this with your current and former students,

Kim Liao
pubbuzz.blogspot.com

News about column writing alum Jason Wiener from Christopher Hennessy in Emerson's public affairs office: "Emerson MFA student Jason Wiener won a 2007 Cecil B. Hackney Literary Award for his story 'Footprints.' Contest winners were announced at the 28 annual Writing Today Conference on March 7 and 8, 2008, at Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama. The event included a public reading of Jason's first place story. Sponsored by the Cecil Hackney family of Birmingham, the literary competition awards $5,000 at the national and state level for poetry and short fiction each year. One novel is also selected for recognition. Past winners of Hackney prizes have included Rick Reiken, Associate Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson. Wiener's story 'Damages' was a finalist in the 2007 Sonora Review Short-Short Contest. Before coming to Emerson, Jason worked as a 3D animator and college instructor for film and video games, including a summer contract at Pixar Studios. He is currently completing his graduate thesis, a novel."

Friday, May 2, 2008

Kristina Wong on grammatical fulfilment in the Phoenix



Kristina Wong has a piece in The Boston Phoenix about Lawrence A. Weinstein's book, Grammar for the Soul: Using Language for Personal Change.

Kristina's review is titled, "Yet Another Path to Enlightenment," and is worth checking out here.


Thursday, May 1, 2008

Llalan Fowler, Isabelle Davis, and Laura Dargus in Weekly Dig



In this week's Weekly Dig, Llalan Fowler writes the "Check it Out" piece: "Publick House Provisions: The Sweet Beerafter."

Isabelle Davis writes capsule reviews of Madonna's latest CD and The Roots' new CD

And Laura Dargus reviews the new Harold and Kumar movie.