#readwomen2014: who will you read in 2014?

2014 has been declared as the year of reading women by the Guardian in an article. This article now went viral with the hashtag: #readwomen 2014, with more and more readers joining, and new notes and links appearing continually in the twitterstream. Here's the key line from the original article:

 "Female authors are marginalised by newspapers and literary journals, and their books are given 'girly' covers. Take action against this inequality by making sure the next book you read is by a woman."

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#readwomen2014 
Here are the links to the original article, the twitterstream and a tagboard with collected messages:  

• the original article by Joanna Walsh: Will #readwomen2014 change our sexist reading habits? 
• Joanna Walsh's blog with cards +list: readwomen2014 - The List
• Twitterstream: #readwomen2014
• Goodreads book list: The Year of Reading Women
• Tagboard: #readwomen 2014

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blog links

And some links to related features in this blog:

• Women to Read in SciFi: Where to Start & New Voices
• Blue Fifth Review: "Male Voices" + & "Glass Woman Special"  with many extra links, including: Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality in Indie Publishing + indie lit scene gender imbalance
• Elevate Difference
• The Glass Woman Prize
• The Afghan Women's Writing Project
• The politics of fiction + Reading and Race

Words without Borders: Kurdish Literature

In their new issue, the international online magazine Words without Borders is featuring Kurdish Literature: "This month we present writing by Kurdish authors. Writers from the various regions and dialects of Kurdistan consider questions of nation, language, and identity, providing fresh perspectives on this ancient culture and its contemporary conflicts."

Issue Link: Kurdish Literature
Bakhtiyar Ali describes an assassin's tipping point. Yavuz Ekinci's widow remembers the true love of her youth. Murathan Mungan draws on the Kurdish oral tradition. Alber Sabanoglu surveys recent writing about the history of Kurds in Turkey. Poet Abdulla Pashew blends political and personal longing...

About Words Without Borders
Founded in 2003, Words without Borders promotes cultural understanding through the translation, publication, and promotion of the finest contemporary international literature. Our publications and programs open doors for readers of English around the world to the multiplicity of viewpoints, richness of experience, and literary perspective on world events offered by writers in other languages.

Recent Issues include:

• October 2013 - African Women, Indigenous Language 
• August 2013 - Brazil
• July 2013 - Iran's Postrevolution Generation
• May 2013 - North Korean Defectors 
• April 2013 - Iraq, Ten Years Later 
• March 2013 - Spain's Great Untranslated

"I Hear the Wind Waiting" - Leaf Press 2014 co-op poem

Since 2009, the editors of Leaf Press organize a collaborate winter poem for the start of the year, collecting couplets from different poets, to publish as co-op poem on the first Monday of the new year.

The theme for 2014 is: "Wind" - the poem is now online at: Leafpress coop poem 2014: I Hear the Wind Waiting

It's composed of lines by 37 poets, here the first 3 lines from 3 contributors:

"Thoughts, tousled by the wind

signposts of past years

There are thos who listen, see it,..."

No one knew what the others wrote, the brief guidelines were: "An entry consists of one line or one couplet. Each line approximately 12 syllables."

The co-op series
And  here, for the joy of poetic cooperation, the previous poems:
2013 - tree
2012 - Lines Drawn from Greening Winds
2011 - The Change in Winter Light
2010 - Cold
2009 - Snow

About Leaf Press
Leaf Press is an independent press located on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Ursula Vaira founded Leaf in 2001 as a poetry chapbook publisher. Since 2007 Leaf has been publishing trade poetry while continuing the chapbook tradition and the weekly on-line Monday's Poem.

"Be There Now" - a collection of true travel stories

"Be There Now" is a collection of true travel stories featuring twenty-two contributors who share adventures and escapades from around the world.

The stories include the tale of an amateurish kidnapping in Nicaragua that could have been told by Woody Allen, and a David Sedaris-esque tale of two ships passing in a Paris art supply store. Existential stories from a man lost on the flooded Amazon River at night, and from a woman who encounters a grizzly–in the same area where her father and stepmother were killed by a bear.

Insightful stories about a woman’s spiritual journey in Peru (complete with hallucinogens!), and about a female journalist’s friendship with an Iraqi translator in Syria. And stories about endangered species in exotic locales, including helping a sea turtle lay its eggs on a Costa Rican beach, and taking a blind man to visit the mountain gorillas in Rwanda.

The book is available as paperback ($12) or as e-book for very travel-friendly 99 cents (link).  It's published by the indie book publisher "Dream of Things", you can find more about the book on their website: "Be There Now". 

Stories, places and authors include: 

• Foreword by Mike O’Mary, Series Editor; Introduction by Julie Rand, Editor
• Once in a Lifetime [Guatemala] by Terri Elders
• Talk About “Embarrasant” [France] by Dominick Domingo
• Día de los Muertos [Mexico] by Kathe Kokolias
• Demon Blockers [China] by Jennifer Choban
• Still Alive [Syria] by Kelly Hayes-Raitt
• The Happiest Place on Earth [Disneyland] by Dina Kucera
• Berlin [Germany] by Jennifer Lang
• A Quick and Cozy Kidnapping [Nicaragua] by Ben Bellizzi
• Turbulence [On a plane] by Roz Warren
• Encounter [Alaska] by Shannon Huffman Polson
• Perfect Pulpo [Mexico] by Suzanne LaFetra
• Where Light Germinates [Peru] by Melissa Heisler
• The Jigg’s Up [Newfoundland] by Carol McAdoo Rehme
• A Trembling Voice [Costa Rica] by Frank Izaguirre
• Horse, Horse, Tiger, Tiger [China] by Ferida Wolff
• Open Eye [New Mexico] by Lynn Pinkerton
• In the Footsteps of Fossey [Rwanda] by Irene Morse
• Driving Compassionately [Bali] by Peter Marmorek
• Pickles and Hiccups [On the way home] by Randy Richardson
• Treks [Kathmandu] by Katherine Horrigan
• Virtual Travel [On the Internet] by Trendle Ellwood
• Nowhere [Drifting in the heavens] by William Hillyard

Mindful Writing Challenge - January 2014

The Mindful Writing Challenge  started in January 2011 with a blog and an invite: "Why would you want to join in? - Because choosing something to write about every day will help you to connect with yourselves, with others, and with the world. It will help you to love everything you see - the light and the dark, the happy and the sad, the beautiful and the ugly. You don't have to be a 'writer' to get involved. The process of paying attention is what's important."

The result: more than 350 people across the world paying more attention to what was around them, and writing mindful notes, also called "small stones". Which induced an ongoing twitter stream: twitter/smallstone.

Mindful Writing Month
Now the next month of mindful writing month is coming closer, with an announcement and an invite to join. The Mindful Writing Challenge will start on January first, it's a great way to enter the new year on a fresh note. Here's the very short version of the invitation:

Mindful Writing Month - The Very Quick Version:  

1. Pay proper attention to one thing every day during January. 

2. Write it down (this is a small stone). 

3. Get daily support & inspiration.

For more, visit the blog paget: Mindful Writing Challenge January 2014

The 2013 storySouth Million Writers Award: Finalists + Notable Stories

2013 storySouth Million Writers Award: Final Voting is open!

Great stories are being published online. The storySouth Million Writers Award for best online fiction of the year will help all internet-based journals and magazines gain exposure and attent. The purpose of the 2013 storySouth Million Writers Award is to honor and promote the best fiction published in online literary journals and magazines during 2012. The award process includes several steps, the first steps was nominations from editors and readers.

The Million Writers Award Finalists are now online, and voting is open, it will end December 31st. The voting will determine the top 3 selections from 2012, to be announced in January. Together with the Finalists, the list of all 50 notable stories of 2012 is online on the same page.

For even more stories, visit the Editor Nominations List: more than 70 online magazines nominated their best stories, creating a wonderful mixed list - great to explore new magazines, new authors and new stories.

There's also a Reader nominations List, but sadly some readers and writers misread the guidelines, thninking that this already is the voting stage and so several stories pop up again and again and again,

The reason for the Million Writers Award is that most of the major literary prizes for short fiction (such as the Best American Short Stories series and the O. Henry Awards) have traditionally ignored web-published fiction. This award aims to show that world-class fiction is being published online and to promote this fiction to the larger reading and literary community.

Guidelines The award is for any fictional short story of at least a 1,000 words first published in an online publication during 2012. To help promote online stories, the Million Writers Award accepts nominations from readers, writers, and editors. There is no entry fee. For more details, visit the Award Rules.

Prize
Each year, the Million Writers Award offers prizes to the authors of the winning story, a runner-up, and an honorable mention. These prizes are possible thanks to your generous support. Please click on the donate link below to offer your support. Donors have the option of being listed on the Million Writers Award Page or remaining anonymous.

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month

The 50.000 word marathon is on again: National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo) is an annual internet-based creative writing project which challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel between November 1 and November 30.

Writers wishing to participate first register on the project's website, where they can post profiles and information about their novels, including synopsis and excerpts. Word counts are validated on the site, with writers submitting a copy of their novel for counting.

Pep talks give advice along the way, and the extended NaNoWriMo forums offer the chance to interact, motivate each other, and procrastinate.

About NaNoWriMo
This writing project was started by Chris Baty in July 1999 with 21 participants in the San Francisco Bay area. In 2000, it was moved to November "to more fully take advantage of the miserable weather" and launched an official website. With more writers joining each year, NaNoWriMo turned into a global event. In 2010, over 200,000 people took part - writing a total of over 2.8 billion words.

Best of luck and energy and inspiration and perseverance to all who join!

NaNoWriMo Website

related links: other web projects; on writing

Open Culture - free e-books, lessons, films, courses, readings..

Open Culture is a web resource for free cultural media in the web.

The mission of Open Culture is "to bring together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free online courses, free movies, free language lessons, free ebooks and other enriching content — it’s all here."

Website link: Open Culture

Some selected categories:
- free audio books
- great science videos
- free Science Fiction classics
- top cultural video sites

It's also worthwile to browse the diverse entries on the starting page, with features like:
- 30 Free Essays & Stories by David Foster Wallace on the Web
- Two Scenes from Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, recreated in Lego
- Listening to Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, (Maybe) the Longest Audio Book Ever Made

Wiki Loves Monuments - photo contest

Wikipedia international photo contest around cultural heritage 

Since September 1st, more than 50 countries from all over the world are in the race to show the best pictures of their heritage to the world through their participation in Wiki Loves Monuments 2013.

It's the fourth year the contest is on, and 2013 might just turn into a new world record photo contest: "This year we are very excited to have for the first time Arab speaking countries join: Algeria, Jordan, Tunesia and Egypt all joined for the first time! But also in Asia the contest sees more participating countries, with China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Nepal and Azerbaijan. Also, the only continent without a permanent population (but with monuments!), Antarctica, is participating this year. But even in Europe where the competition started we’re able to welcome new participating countries, such as Armenia and the United Kingdom. The biggest country participating is Russia, and the smallest is Aruba."

How to join
If you would like to participate in Wiki Loves Monuments (which also includes an international contest and prizes), the only thing you have to do for that is upload a freely-licensed image of a monument in one of the participating countries to Wikimedia Commons. Links to the respective national websites are available in the sidebar of the contest/participate page.

Found Poetry Review - Special Issue: W/R/T David Foster Wallace

September 12, 2013, marks the fifth anniversary of David Foster Wallace’s passing. 

The Found Poetry Review remembers his life and contributions with a special online edition of their journal: W/R/T David Foster Wallace

"Though Wallace’s articles, interviews and books are like he was — finite — our capacity for conversation with him through found poetry continues. In this special issue, nearly 30 poets share their conversations with David Foster Wallace. As the world remembers his life and work this September, I invite you to pick up one of his texts and consider what conversations of your own you might have with him."
- FPR Editor-in-Chief Jenni B. Baker

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30 Free Essays & Stories by David Foster Wallace
For his own words, visit the link list that was collected by the magazine Open Culture: "We spent some time tracking down free DFW stories and essays available on the web, and they’re all now listed in our collection of Free eBooks. But we didn’t want them to escape your attention. So here they are — 23 pieces published by David Foster Wallace between 1989 and 2011, mostly in major U.S. publications like The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, and The Paris Review. "

The list of essays and stories starts, painfully fittingly for this week, with...

• “9/11: The View From the Midwest” (Rolling Stone, October 25, 2001)
• “All That” (New Yorker, December 14, 2009)

...and ends with:

• “Ticket to the Fair” (Harper’s, July 1994)
• “Wiggle Room” (New Yorker, March 9, 2009)

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Women to Read: Where to Start & New Voices

In April, author Kari Sperring started a twitter initiative, basically by asking readers to recommend science fiction and fantasy by women after several frustrating experiences both in bookshops and in review surveys.

Following the initative, SF Signal invited author A.C. Wise to write a series of guest posts, and give a sampling of female sf authors and recommended reads. Here are the links:

SF Signal: Women to Read: Where to Start
Part 1: Le Guin, Jacson, Eskrigde, Hopkinson
Part 2: Morrison,  Bradley, Bell, Files
Part 3: SF books with women to read about

New Voices
A.C. Wise also but a long list together of new voices: "Ccalling on the power of the internet hivemind, I asked for examples of women who made their first speculative fiction sale (pro or otherwise) within the last two years or so. And lo! The internet delivered onto me a glorious list of names, which I’m delighted to share with you:"
Women to Read: New Voices

100 Great SF Short Stories by Women
After reviewing the reprint of the sf-anthology "Women of Wonder", Ian Sales collected a list of science fiction short stories by women: Toward 100 Great SF Short Stories by Women

#Womentoread
The original blog post of author Kari Sperring who started the initiative is online at  Womentoread
Make sure to visit the ongoing twitterstream #womentoread

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Impossible Spaces

"Impossible Spaces" is a new collection of twenty-one dark, unsettling and weird short stories that explore the spaces at the edge of possibility.

Sometimes the rules can change. Sometimes things aren’t how they appear. Sometimes you can just slip through the cracks and end up… somewhere else. What else is there? Is there somewhere else, right beside you, if you could only reach out and touch it? Or is it waiting to reach out and touch you?

Don’t trust what you see. Don’t trust what you hear. Don’t trust what you remember. It isn’t what you think.

The collection is available as paperback + e-book: Impossible Spaces

Authors + Editor: The collection is edited by Hannah Kate, with stories by Ramsey Campbell, Simon Bestwick, Hannah Kate, Jeanette Greaves, Richard Freeman, Almira Holmes, Arpa Mukhopadhyay, Chris Galvin Nguyen, Christos Callow Jr., Daisy Black, Douglas Thompson, Jessica George, Keris McDonald, Laura Brown, Maree Kimberley, Margrét Helgadóttir, Nancy Schumann, Rachel Yelding, Steven K. Beattie, Tej Turner, Tracy Fahey

About Hannah Kate
Hannah Kate is a poet and short story writer based in North Manchester, UK. Her work has appeared in local and national magazines, as well as in anthologies. In her other life, as Dr. Hannah Priest, she is an academic researcher and writer. She blogs at HannahKate.net

book page: Impossible Spaces