A Couple of Cool Blogs

You know, maybe I was too hard on Mr. Koch and his formatting intensive book The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop in my post earlier today. I mean, after all, who am I? He ran a prestigious program for decades, he’s published two novels and at least three nonfiction books. Meanwhile, I’m a nobody sitting here blogging, just trying to get the cat to refrain from sitting on top of my computer monitor. What do I know? Maybe Koch is correct. He is the expert, after all. So instead of criticizing him, maybe I should learn from him. So the rest of today’s posts will be presented in Koch-style. Maybe I’ll get a book deal by showing how emphatic my emphasis is!

Anyway, I’ve recently discovered two AWESOME “blogs” that you simply must check out now. First, Syntax of Things is written by a fellow “Southerner” who proudly proclaims One person’s crap is another person’s “blog”…. This “blog” handles a lot of literary topics, but recently Jeff has had OTHER things on his mind–still residing in the South, with family in the path of Hurricane Katrina– so he’s been focusing on much more important posts. But he’s discussed F. Scott Fitzgerald, Harry Crews, and Charles Bukowski in past posts and I’m sure he’ll return to “bookish” discussions one the weather starts cooperating.

Secondly, The Creative Writing MFA Handbook is run by Tom Kealey, a former “Wallace Stegner Fellow” at Stanford University–IMPRESSIVE stuff indeed–and a graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This “blog” strives to take some of the mystery out of MFA programs. He discusses topics such as choosing the RIGHT program, applying to schools, and making the MOST of creative writing education.

These are two “blogs” I definitely suggest you check out–read them regularly, use them for future reference–and generally enjoy the FINE writing.