Literary Links of the Month
WGBH Forum Network: This site, hosted by Boston's public radio station WGBH, features an entire section dedicated to online lectures. Lectures can be browsed by subject, including topics such as poetry, sports, theater and history.
Previously Featured Links
101 Best Web Sites for Writers: Writer's Digest annually compiles this fabulous and useful list of web sites for those in the writing/publishing industry. The list is broken out into sub-categories (making it extremely easy to browse) such as "Job Sites", "Self- & E- Publishing", and "Writers' Organizations". You can also peruse previous years' best sites.
American Life in Poetry: Current Poet Laureate Ted Kooser has started a column for American newspapers to bring poetry to everyone by showing how poetry can highlight our everyday experience. The column is offered free to newspapers, but anyone can sign up to receive emails on a regular basis.
Americana Books: The Americana Books web site provides small to medium publishing houses an opportunity to present their products on the Internet. Support the small presses!
Apple Valley Review: A free, online journal of contemporary literature published each Spring and Fall, featuring poetry, fiction and essays.
Arts Opportunities: Are you an artist looking for gallery calls? Or do you just want a job with an arts-related organization? Either way, Arts Opportunities will be a great source for you. Search by location or by area of focus. Arts organizations can register to post job vacancies and internships as well.
Banned Books Week: The American Library Association sponsors Banned Book Week to make people more aware of how precious our freedom to read really is, and how often even the most popular books are protested. Take reading for granted? Don't!
Bartleby Online: This is a fantastic online reference site featuring free online copies of dictionaries of quotations, an encyclopedia, Roget's Thesaurus, and other reference books. Additionally, Bartleby provides free online books by authors such as Melville, Goethe, Shakespeare, and Cather, and online poetry collections by poets such as Gertrude Stein and Oscar Wilde.
Beatrice: Hip and funky, this site provides interviews with hot contemporary authors, including Mary Karr, John Banville, Matthew Klam, Terry Jones, Douglas Adams, and so many more! Hundreds of interviews dating from 1995 to present. WOW is the first word that jumps to mind. Check it out!
Beltway - A Poetry Quarterly: Beltway is a fabulous quarterly on-line journal of poetry by authors who live or work in the greater Washington, DC metropolitan area, edited by Kim Roberts. Each issue features two to six poems by four or five authors. A Poetry News section is updated monthly, listing new book publications by DC area authors, new issue releases by DC area journals, calls for entries open to DC area writers, readings by featured poets, and other events of interest.
Black Books Central: From Simon & Schuster comes this site focused on African-American authors. The site features audio interviews, reviews and even excerpts from books by such authors as Bernie Mac, Quincy Jones, and Gloria Naylor.
Blithe House Quarterly: An online literary magazine featuring short fiction from gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered authors. Authors featured in the Spring 2004 issue include Patrick Roscoe, Bethany Harvey, and Martin Hyatt.
Book Crossing: Have a book that you want to pass along to another interested reader? Want to track the path of your beloved novel once you pass it on? Book Crossing is a fascinating site for people who enjoy a book enough to pass it on (and track its movements) but not to keep it. Instructions for how this "reading game" works can be found on the web site.
The Book of Cliches: Need a cliche? Here's where you can find cliches on death, life, indecision and heartbreak. You can even get a dose of "cliches on cliches"... for remember, There is truth in every cliche.
The Book Promotion Newsletter: This is a bi-weekly newsletter to help authors of all genres of books. The web site also features archives of "Book Marketing with Fran", a radio show.
Book Sale Finder: Wherever you go in the United States or Canada, you can find out where the book sales are happening thanks to this site. While the home page is an unattractive collage of advertisements assaulting you, you can sign up for "Sale Mail", specify how far you are willing to go for a sale, and the folks at BSF will email you listings as they are added.
Bookopoly: Buy a book, sell a book. It's an online marketplace that beats auctions. Better than those "take a penny, leave a penny" trays at 7-11.
Bookwire: Go "inside the publishing industry" with Bookwire, which features the latest news, interviews and statistics from the world of book publishing. You can even subscribe to free Bookwire updates.
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: This eighteen volume encyclopedia of literature and literary discussion - from "The Beginnings" (including Runes and Manuscripts) to later American writings of the Civil War era, and non-English writings - is available online, for free.
A Celebration of Women Writers: This digital online library, provided by the University of Pennsylvania, provides links to a wide range of resources on women writers. You can browse by century or by country.
Cliche Finder: For those concerned with eliminating the cliches in their own writing, just enter your text here and let them do the rest. Instantly scan text for cliches and common turns of phrase. Also a nice time-killer for those who just like to point out the faults in the writings of others.
The Complete Review: Yes, it's a competitor to berniE-zine, but I'm mature enough to recognize that when a site's good, it's worth touting. Great collection of reviews of contemporary fiction. They've got a big staff and they aren't afraid to use it. Plus, they've graciously linked to berniE-zine reviews of books featured on their site.
Critical Mass: This is the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors, featuring news, reviews, and discussion on all things literary. Dangerous territory for bibliophiles. I lose track of time surfing the links on this site.
The Dabbling Mum: Helpful hints and inspiration for writing parents. Includes a wide variety of resources, like contests, recipes and product reviews.
Dee Rimbaud: Dee Rimbaud is an artist, writer and the editor of 'The Book Of Hopes And Dreams' and The AA Independent Press Guide, which is a detailed listing of over 1,500 independent literary magazines and publishers. On her web site, there are links to over 300 internet magazines and 100 print magazines. Dee is a major booster for independent writers and thinkers!
Fish Publishing: Information on books published by Fish as well as the numerous fiction and poetry competitions they sponsor.
Free-Fiction.com: Full-length fictional works available for free online. No E-reader is necessary for these books, which are readable directly from the site. Reader reviews will help you decide what to check out.
Giggle Poetry: A wonderfully spirited site that celebrates funny poetry for children. There are fill-in-the-blank poems, school poems, contests, and even a poetry class with lessons on how to write a wide variety of types of poems.
Godchecker: An invaluable resource for any writer (or reader) who just can't figure out which were the Greek gods, which were the Roman gods, and who was that sneaky Norse god that gave birth to an eight-legged stallion despite being male?
Granta: This well-known and highly regarded literary magazine publishes theme issues of fiction and essays. Extracts from back issues of the publication are available online. Granta is also a publishing house, offering fiction and non-fiction books on subjects as varied as the British drug underground and Buenos Aires bandits.
Gumball Poetry: Have you seen the Gumball Poetry machines yet? Gumball Poetry is a literary magazine that publishes its poetry on the web, and by installing gumball machines that dispense poetry capsules instead of tiny plastic tchotchkes!
Heisler Ink: Articles and resources for fiction writers. Included are recommendations for books for writers, as well as ideas for stumbling your way out of writer's block.
iPOET.COM: Homeless people who peddle poetry on the streets of San Francisco now have an outlet for their creativity. Thanks to the dedication of John Porter, a part-time computer programmer, iPOET works to give validation and support to the poems of itinerants.
The Internet Writing Workshop: A series of mailing lists providing a community where writers can submit and critique work via email. The site also serves as a forum for discussion of all aspects of writing, including creative non-fiction, freelance writing and speculative fiction.
It's Only Ink!: This is the official web site for Jennifer LB Leese, a writer and editor who provides a wealth of links, as well as a newsletter, for those who are interested in her book reviews. Check out her newest release... a children's ebook.
Lannan Foundation: This premier foundationn for funding cultural programs has a great web site with audio archives featuring audio recordings and some videotaped events as well as selections of Lannan's "Bookworm" interview program.
Library of Congress Young Readers' Toolkit: Developed as part of the National Book Festival, this site provides information on authors of books for young readers, as well as video of the authors (including Rosemary Wells) reading at recent National Book Festivals. In addition to a wide range of links for kids, there are also resources for educators on the site.
LitLine: A Website for the Independent Literary Community: I could get carried away roaming around a site like this. With a plethora of links to independent presses, online journals, and information about authors. The only problem I had with the site is the lack of a "home" link once you are on one of their subpages. Despite the logo at the top of each page, the logo does not link to the home page and I found myself having to retype the home page every time I wanted to go back to it.
The Literary Traveler: Provides literary tours for vacationers who like to walk in the footsteps of their favorite authors. Information on writer's haunts, birthplaces, favorite bookstores, etc.
LiteraryHistory.com: This web guide provides an index of 19th Century English Literature. Each entry gives briefly annotated links to web sites, critical and biographical articles, and e-texts for over 50 well-known authors in nineteenth-century English, American, and Scottish literature.
Lys Anzia: Updated monthly, this web site features the poetry of Lys Anzia.
MightyWords: Digital marketplace for reading, writing, buying and selling short written content, including essays, short stories, chapters, and additional works that may fall outside the classic length and mass appeal print voume boundaries set by traditional publishing..
The Mississippi Writers Page: Created and maintained by the University of Mississippi, the site features information about Mississippi authors -- such as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams -- including summaries of the authors' careers, a list of the authors' work, and numerous links to posted articles and interviews. The site also boasts a Mississippi Writers Timeline that covers 400 years of births, deaths, publications, awards, and other events in the literary history of the territory now known as Mississippi. Listings of Mississippi-based journals and publishers are posted as well.
Moby Lives: Referring to the whale, not the musician, this site provides a great commentary on the publishing industry, small press, book news, gossip and interviews. Edited by Dennis Loy Johnson, the weekly columns that appear on the web on Mondays are also syndicated in several newspapers around the United States.
Moytura's Irish Bookshop: In honor of St. Patrick's Day, March's link-of-the-month features a promotional site for books by Irish writers. Well-organized, but some of the links to categories are dead. Great listing of Irish authors.
New Pages: You won't know where to look first on this site. It is quite possibly the best site I've seen for keeping up-to-date on new independent literature both in print and on the web. It features reviews of new issues of literary publications, and links to new poems on the internet. Also, get lost in their fantastic index of literary links.
New York Times First Chapters Archive: Though you do have to register with the New York Times, you can get free access to this archive of hundreds of book excerpts. Fiction, non-fiction, and poetry...with chapters from the latest books by authors such as A.S. Byatt, Nicholson Baker and Anita Brookner, and poems by poets such as Charles Bukowski, Sharon Olds, and Adam Zagajewski.
The Online Literature Library: This site features the full and unabridged texts of classic works of literature. Authors featured include Louisa May Alcott, Emily Bronte, Charles Darwin, Thomas Hobbes, John Milton, Mary Shelley and Jules Verne.
Poems and Love: While this site may have started as a "Love Quotes and Poems Repository," it is plain to see that it has evolved into much more. Painstakingly categorized to make it easy to find just the right quote for the right occassion, this site contains much more than just quotes and poems related to love. I dig the Inspirational Quotes for Writers.
Poetry 180-A Poem a Day for American High Schools: This program was started by Billy Collins, who took the office of U.S. Poet Laureate in 2001. The project is designed to make it easy for students to hear or read a poem each day of the 180 days of the school year. All 180 poems will be archived on the web site.
The Poetry & Literature Center of the Library of Congress: Check out cybercasts, info on events at the Library of Congress, and much more. Also features information about the U.S. Poet Laureate position, opportunities to read your writings at the Library of Congress and information on fellowships available to writers!
Poetry Brook: Radio station WUSB features this hour-long program of poetry every Thursday night from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. You can listen online.
Poetry of WWI: If you're familiar with the poem "In Flanders Fields" but don't know much more about the poet who penned the famed verse, check out this web site for info on him and the other poets who served in World War I.
Poetry Daily: A poem a day...what more could you want? This site culls the best of new journals and poetry collections to bring you a weekly email filled with poetry news, info about new collections, and, of course, a list of poems that will be featured each day for the coming week.
Poetry Foundation: Daily podcasts of interviews with and readings by poets. The site strives to be "the" place for anyone interested in poetry - news, reviews, interviews, etc. This is a site that really knows how to celebrate National Poetry Month.
poets4peace: This site is run by poets who list their missions as being to "construct a monument 4 peace, poet by poet, poem by poem, paying tribute to creating peace on earth for all."
Project Gutenberg: More than 2000 e-texts online thanks to the work of volunteers who have built a repository for free copies of books with outdated copyrights. Books are stored in ASCII so that they can be viewed by a wide variety of platforms. Available books include: Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence; Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; David Copperfield by Charles Dickens; Les Miserables by Victor Hugo; and The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot.
PRWeb: This news web site provides a free promotion outlet for authors who can't afford to pay the high prices of PRNewswire or BusinessWire.
Resources for Poets: You don't have to spend three weeks in Tuscany at an expensive writer's retreat to hone your craft. This site provides links to free online audio lectures, articles and lesson plans for poets who want to continue learning.
Sendecki.com: This is an impressive new e-zine featuring the works of emerging poets, artists and writers from Canada, and abroad. Poetry is mixed with visual works by other artists. Writers and artists featured recently include Janet Buck and Richard Denner.
The Small Press Distribution Center: The Small Press Distribution Center, also known as SPD, carries thousands of underground titles. You probably won't find these books on your local Borders bookshelves. There's a thriving literary market here and if the writer's aren't underground, they're at least below the radar of the literary machine that focuses on books that will make Oprah's list!
Smartish Pace: A Maryland-based literary journal that has featured poetry by world-renouned poets such as Lyn Lifshin, Diane Thiel, and Kevin McFadden. The site provides samples of poetry contained in the journal, as well as information on the Erskine J. Poetry Prize.
This Day in History: What happened on this day during the Civil War? What about on Wall Street? And how about back in the Old West? Or in Literary History? This remarkably easy-to-use feature of the web site of The History Channel allows you to find out what happened on this day in history for a wide variety of categories
Today in Literature: A person could really get in trouble on this site. When I brought up the front page, I knew I could easily spend several hours perusing all the interesting items in this web site. Find out what literary event happened on this day in history, read author bios and anecdotes. Subscribe to the site's daily, or (if daily is too often) weekly newsletter. All book lovers will enjoy this site.
Today's Woman Writing Community: Articles, workshops, free writers' community for men and women, publication how-to's and discussions, free e-books and weekly newsletter.
Tower of Babel: This is a multicultural, multilingual online journal and community of arts and ideas. Features a Links Library you could get lost in! The page transitions are a little slow, but the beautiful artwork and graphics are worth the wait.
Tribute to August Wilson: This page is the National Public Radio news story about August Wilson's death. The page provides links to previous stories about the famed writer.
Web Del Sol: This site is the portal to 35 literary journals as well as the InterBoard Poetry Competition. You'll find loads of online prose and poetry, as well as lit blogs and the latest news from the literary world.
The Will To Travel: Author Andrew Bergman is helping to spread the word -- just because you have a disability shouldn't stop you from traveling anywhere in the world you want to go !! (update: Sadly, I have learned that Andrew has passed away and that his site no longer exists. I will keep this listing on my links list as a tribute to a very special person who never let his disability be an excuse for not doing what he wanted to do.)
The Women's Review of Books: Published monthly since 1983 by the Wellesley Centers for Women, the Review touts itself as "a feminist guide to good reading." Indeed, the publication is the best resource for information on new books by women authors and poets. The Review also features essays on socio-political subjects related to books published.
The Word Works: This Washington, DC-based literary organization sponsors an annual poetry book competition, as well as a reading series n Rock Creek Park. The Word Works fosters poetry by high school students, and hosts the Cafe Muse Reading Series (fiction and poetry) in Friendship Heights, Maryland.
Words Without Borders: A project of the PEN American Center and Bard College, aims to ensure that more world literature is translated into English. Currently, 50% of all books in print are translated FROM English, but only 6% are translated TO English.
The Writer's Almanac: Narrated by Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion fame, The Writer's Almanac is a nationally-syndicated five-minute radio program featuring Keillor reading one poem and noting important literary factoids about each eay in history. The show usually can be heard on public radio stations, but if your local market does not broadcast this fine feature, you can listen online. The web site has an easy-to-use archives, as well as a "bookshelf" where you can listen to interviews with poets who've been featured on A Prairie Home Companion.
Writing.com: A huge online community for writers, readers and reviewers of all ages and skill levels. The community includes such interactive elements as a "campfire" around which writers pass a story that each can contribute to. Community members can set up their own profiles and upload writings to the site.
Xlation.com: I had originally been directed here by someone who told me this site has a great index of links to online glossaries on any subject imaginable. Once at the site, however, I realized what a great tool the whole site is. Xlation promotes itself as a resource for Translators. With more than 1600 available dictionaries/glossaries, I personally think its a great resource -- period!
ZuZu: Named for the little fevered daughter from the Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life", this web site features a wealth of childrens writing, including poetry, mysterious stories and photography. Check this out if only for the "mysterious story" of Tom, the super bunny, by Lynn Frieda Gold, age 6.
