Anyways, your homework for this week is to read An End to the Neglect of the Problems of the Negro Woman! by Claudia Jones. It's fairly short and literally good!!
you have to be careful reading too many things that are good/smart/well-written bc then you encounter something that isnt and you get confused like ? why didnt they just make this good ? were they stupid
Today we present some fancy Caslon capitals, borders, and ornaments from The Manual of Linotype Typography, printed by the Plimpton Press for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. William Caslon (1692-1766) famously introduced the first superior British Roman font in his 1734 specimen sheet. Various iterations of the Caslon typefounding house persisted until the 1930s when it was acquired by Stephenson Blake, but the Caslon Roman typeface remains the classic British font.
The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros (ya, historical urban fantasy about a series of murders in 1900s Chicago). Also read his sophomore novel Bone Weaver!
From Dust, a Flame by Rebecca Podos (ya, urban fantasy)
The Ghosts of Rose Hill by RM Romero (YA, ghost story told in verse)
When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb (ya, historical about angel and a demon coming to America)
Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson (mg, urban fantasy murder mystery)
A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft (ya, romantic fantasy about a fox hunt)
The Way Back by Gavriel Salt (ya, historical portal fantasy)
The Girl with the Red Balloon by Katherine Locke (ya, historical time slip) and their stand alone, This Rebel Heart (ya, magical realism and historical)
Feverwake by Victoria Lee (ya, dystopian with magic)
That "Streets of Zine" in the post i reblogged an hour ago is just straight up a website full of free digital zines of very talented artists doing environmental illustrations
Travel the world with your favorite artists. A digital magazine project.
🍖 How to Build a Culture Without Just Inventing Spices and Necklaces
(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)
So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented:
→ Three types of ceremonial jewelry
→ A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed
→ A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn
Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.
And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.
Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.
─────── ✦ ───────
🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style
Ask yourself:
→ Who’s in charge, and why?
→ Who has land? Who doesn’t?
→ What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?
Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.
Start there. Not at the embroidery.
─────── ✦ ───────
2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict
Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?
→ What was destroyed and mythologized?
→ What do the survivors still whisper about?
→ What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?
No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.
─────── ✦ ───────
3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists
Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about:
→ Death?
→ Love?
→ Time?
→ The natural world?
→ Justice?
Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.
You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.
─────── ✦ ───────
4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)
Culture shows up in:
→ What people apologize for
→ What insults cut deepest
→ What people are embarrassed about
→ What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately
For instance:
→ A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?”
→ A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.
This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.
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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals
Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about:
→ Breakfast routines?
→ How people greet each other on the street?
→ Who cooks, and who eats first?
→ What’s considered “clean” or “proper”?
→ How is parenting handled? Divorce?
Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.
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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture
A culture isn’t a monolith.
Even in deeply traditional societies, people:
→ Rebel
→ Question
→ Break rules
→ Misinterpret laws
→ Mock sacred things
→ Act hypocritically
→ Weaponize or resist what’s expected
Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.
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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap
Worldbuilding gets boring fast when:
→ The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure
→ The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric”
→ Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like
You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy.
→ Let ugly things be beloved.
→ Let beautiful things be corrupt.
→ Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.
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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy):
→ Culture is not food and jewelry.
→ Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction.
→ Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter.
→ Let your world feel lived in, not curated.
The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list.
It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.
Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)
—rin t.
// writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range
// thewriteadviceforwriters
Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:
✦ A free (and actually helpful) guide to leveling up your first 10 pages ✦If you're unsure whether your opening is ✨doing enough✨ to hook re
🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:
A gothic prompt pack for writers who love cursed universities, secret societies, and scholarly rot.✎ Write the Darkness ✎A 75-prompt horror
girl who sat next to me at the coffee shop had that Tortured By Computer Work look in her eye so i turned to her and was like Are u doing research? and it turns out she (white) just started working as an indigenous liaison for an ecological wellness surveying company (hired bc she worked with the local nation for a year) so i was like OMG can i share resources with you. and whipped out my 1 million notes and academic papers on ethical Indigenous-settler relations/research and Indigenous perspectives on ecological restoration. she was like omg are u sure this is basically a whole course for free and i wanted to tear my shirt off liek YES!!!! I WANT TO PROMOTE LOW BARRIER EDUCATION TO ADVANCE DECOLONIZATION AND RECONCILIATION!!!!!!!!!!! STEP IN2 MY GOOGLE DOC !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
here's a googoodrive folder containing learnings on Experiential Learning in Ecological Restoration annnddd Research Practice in Indigenous Contexts. each course folder contains a "![Course number] Notes" document as well as PDFs of all the text-based readings that the notes draw from :-)
i plan 2 make accessible the learnings from my other classes too but i think ill only have time to do all that anonymizing & reformatting once i graduate in a few months lol
BEGGING us to read nonfiction every now and then. Like. Words on page. It doesn't have to be the only thing you do, but you gotta keep in practice with it. No easier people to subjugate than those who question nothing they're told.
james baldwin was so right when he said you think you’re alone and then you pick up a book and realise someone else has felt the same way as you and managed to find a language for it. the realest shit
the thing about nonfiction is you come out of it with several more books to put on your to be read list and it's only gonna branch out from there so really the only solution is to read every book in human history starting at the beginning
Some fairytales start in castles. Some start in cornfields.
This week, we’re visiting Zeely, written by Virginia Hamilton and illustrated by Symeon Shimin, published by Macmillan in 1967, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002) was a groundbreaking American author whose work transformed children’s literature. She became the first Black author to win the Newbery Medal and received nearly every major award in the field. From the start, Hamilton centered Black children as complex, imaginative protagonists, something still far too rare when Zeely first appeared.
Symeon Shimin (1902–1984), a Russian born American illustrator known for his expressive, textured style, brings Hamilton’s world to life with warmth and subtle drama. His illustrations punctuate the story with quiet moments of wonder, capturing the magic in both ordinary summer days and the extraordinary presence of Zeely herself.
The story follows Geeder, a spirited girl spending the summer at her uncle’s farm, and the tall, captivating Zeely, who immediately captures her attention. Geeder’s playful imaginings, even envisioning Zeely as a Tutsi queen, give way to something subtler and more important: learning to appreciate people for who they are and seeing herself with the same care and curiosity.
Zeely is a story about cultural identity and the beauty of embracing heritage. Through her friendship with Zeely, Geeder begins to reflect on her own roots and uniqueness. It’s also a story of self-discovery, as Geeder explores the world around her and within her family’s history, she grows more certain of her own place in it. And perhaps most importantly, it’s a story of acceptance and diversity, learning that differences can be celebrated, not feared, and that every person has their own quiet magic.
For Black History Month, it’s a lovely reminder that fairy tales can honor real lives, real heritage, and the enchantment in noticing the remarkable in those around us.
-Melissa (forever charmed by stories that show us how ordinary can feel extraordinary), Distinctive Collections Library Assistant
--View more Fairytale Friday posts
--View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection
Little Free Library Mini Zine – A Pocket Guide to Finding, Using & Creating Your Own!
Half the sales and profits will go to buy books for little free libraries
Love books and community sharing? This 8-page mini zine is your perfect guide to Little Free Libraries (LFLs)! Whether you’re new to LFLs or a longtime book lover, this zine covers everything you need to know in a fun, easy-to-read format.
What’s Inside?
✔ What is a Little Free Library? – Learn how these tiny book-sharing boxes work!
✔ How to Find One – Tips for spotting LFLs in your neighborhood or using the official map.
✔ How to Use an LFL – Take a book, leave a book, and be a good LFL visitor.
✔ How to Make Your Own – Step-by-step tips on building, stocking, and registering your own LFL.
✔ Sharing the Love – Ways to donate, organize book swaps, and spread the word!
✔ Different Types of LFLs – Classic, creative, and themed LFLs from around the world.
Why You’ll Love It
✨ Perfect for book lovers, DIYers, and community builders
✨ Great for kids & adults—simple, engaging, and informative
✨ Print-friendly—easily fold your own 8-page zine from a single sheet!
📥 Instant Download – Get your printable PDF immediately and start exploring the world of Little Free Libraries today!
Little Free Library Mini Zine – A Pocket Guide to Finding, Using & Creating Your Own!Half the sales and profits will go to buy books for
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