“I didn’t want her to be dark like me.”
Fascinating trailer for Dark Girls, a new documentary on skin color, self-image, beauty, ideology.
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The problem with a blurb from Neil Gaiman on a cover is that, invoking Gaiman, it inevitably diminishes the book by comparison. This is not the book’s fault. Gaiman is one of our most gifted contemporary writers. Catherynne M. Valente may not be, but I wouldn’t even be thinking about the comparison if Gaiman’s endorsement
Brisbane: City of Free, Public Art
Coming from a U.S. state whose governor is working tirelessly to defund the arts, I’ve been delighted to see so much art in Brisbane, Australia – most of it at no cost to the visitor. Â GoMA’s Surrealism exhibit requires a ticket, but the rest of the museum has no admission fee. Â Back in the States,
The exquisite corpse will drink the new cappuccino
Half-way through the “Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams” exhibit at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) here in Brisbane, museum-goers encounter this: A clever riff on the Surrealist game that exploits the mysteries of accidental juxtapositions, this mid-exhibit bar also offered a welcome rest to travel-weary visitors (such as your humble narrator, who visited the
Have a Psychedelic 4th of July
With a hat tip to Mark Newgarden‘s Facebook feed, here’s a short film made for the American Bicentennial. Â Funded by a Bicentennial Project Grant and produced by the United States Information Agency, the cartoon looks like its director may have viewed Yellow Submarine a few too many times. The director is Vincent Collins. Â Here’s a
Harry Potter’s Library
Nine years ago, I started teaching a course I called “Harry Potter’s Library: J.K. Rowling, Texts and Contexts.” Â This coming fall, I’ll be teaching it for the seventh time (eighth, if you count the semester I taught two sections). Â The course has been so popular that Kansas State University uses it in its promotional materials.
Radical Children’s Literature Now!
Many folks who attended Julia Mickenberg’s and my “Radical Children’s Literature Now!” lecture today at the Children’s Literature Association Conference in Roanoke asked: “I didn’t get a handout. Â Could I have one?” Â Since we only made 200 copies, here is that handout. Â (The entire lecture will be on the Children’s Literature Association’s website in the
Summertime: The Box Set
Happy First Day of Summer! Â Here’s a “Summertime” box set. Â I will now take your questions. Q: Are there good “summer” songs omitted from these four mixes? A: Yes, of course there are. Â I came up with an additional 133 songs that I did not use. Q: Will you assemble more mixes including those songs?
Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss biography: The Text’s in the Mail
An update. Shortly after yesterday’s blog post, my editor said I could go ahead and send it all in. This means either that he (or someone else) will now seek places to cut or that it’s moving ahead to the copy-editing stage. Either way, it’s off my desk until [unknown date]! With a mixture of
Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: biography outtakes, Part 8
On Monday, I finished the eighth edit of The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, and sent it to my editor. I’m really happy with all of the edits I’ve made. I finally understand his advice, and have cut anything that feels purely “completist,” and focused