Every month, I share the articles and sites that I found most interesting. Here’s what caught my attention in August.
• On Woman’s Weekly, and why we should all care about their new contract policy by Joanne Harris: “Womag writers are the canary in a very deep literary mine. If we, the more influential and better-protected folk of the literary world, allow their rights to be exploited, then sooner or later companies like TI Media will come for the rest of us.”
• Jami Attenberg’s #1000WordsofSummer Turned a Corner of the Internet into a Supportive Literary Community by Amy Carleton: “Writing is work. And writing well, amidst all of our available distractions, online and otherwise, can be hard work. But this summer, one writer found a way to turn a potential distraction — the internet — into a motivational force and an affirming pop-up literary community in only two weeks.”
• Is social media influencing book cover design? by Holly Connolly: “Like the recent revival of zines, the encroach of digital has resulted in a renewed appreciation for the physical – and beautiful.”
• Writing and the Creative Life: The Tactile Experience of Writing by Scott Myers
The only paper remnant I have kept this whole time are the index cards. That I have refused to give up.
So I asked myself why keep working with index cards? I knew the answer immediately: Because of the tactile experience.
• How to accept rejection: why failure can be the first step towards success by Donna Ferguson
• Canaries and Coal Mines: Women in Games and the Birth of the Alt-Right by Leena van Deventer [video, 16 minutes]: “To me, navigating creativity in a post-truth world hinges on communicating and working within your values, and assisting others to do the same.”
• The Internet of Garbage by Sarah Jeong: “Today, The Verge is publishing an interim edition of Sarah Jeong’s The Internet of Garbage, a book she first published in 2015 that has since gone out of print. It is a thorough and important look at the intractable problem of online harassment.”
• Electronic Devices Privacy Handbook: A Guide to Your Rights at the Border by the BC Civil Liberties Association
This handbook is meant to help you make sense of the current state of play with respect to electronic searches at the Canadian border and at US preclearance zones in Canada, and to provide tools to protect your privacy when travelling with electronic devices.
• Mike Garson’s first performance of “Life on Mars” with David Bowie, 22 September 1972
What’s the most interesting thing you saw online this month?
Reghan Skerry 