erin leslie wicks

writer, editor, thinker. bad at stats.

[erinlesliewicks]

‘The self is a set of linguistic patterns. Reading and speaking in another language is like stepping into an alternate history of yourself where all the bad connotations are gone

Helen Dewitt to New York Magazine

Helen Dewitt knows, in descending order of proficiency, Latin, ancient Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Japanese. (New York Magazine)

[erinlesliewicks]

“African American women have been adding to, participating in, and influencing fashion and style in the United States for many years. We only really begin to see Black high fashion models in the late 80's, although women like Lena Horne were paving the way in mainstream media and entertainment much earlier. Women of color have often been looked over in the fashion industry and their history in terms of clothing and jewelry could be highlighted more.”

Images and text from: http://sararavintages.blogspot.com/2012/01/african-american-women-fashion-and.html

[erinlesliewicks]

The best film I have seen in years: STARLESS DREAMS, a documentary by Iranian filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei, that goes inside the walls of a juvenile detention facility for young women in Iran.

[erinlesliewicks]

Rob Valley Talks About His Epic New Film 'Pear Cider and Cigarettes' (Exclusive Trailer Premiere)

Best known for his work on projects like "Gorillaz" and "Tron: Uprising," Robert Valley is making a statement of his own with an electrifying new project.

Rob Valley on creating PEAR CIDER AND CIGARETTES

[erinlesliewicks]

Eleanor Catton on how she wrote The Luminaries

The constellations of the zodiac and New Zealand's 1860s gold rush inspired Eleanor Catton to write her Man Booker-winning novel

Eleanor Catton on writing THE LUMINARIES

[erinlesliewicks]

The highlight of this year’s Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

[erinlesliewicks]

'Please, Jimmy, tell me what you are asking.' Oh, very cool.  He wanted to shake her. 'Did they rape you?' He could barely squeeze it out. What answer was he expecting, what did he want? 'Why do you want to talk about ugly things?' she said. Her voice was silvery, like a music box. She waved one hand in the air to dry the nails. 'We should think only beautiful things, as much as we can. There is so much beautiful in the world if you look around. You are looking only at the dirt under your feet, Jimmy. It's not good for you.' She would never tell him. Why did this drive him so crazy? 'It wasn't real sex, was it?' he asked. 'In the movies. It was only acting. Wasn't it?' 'But Jimmy, you should know. All sex is real.'

Margaret Atwood, ORYX AND CRAKE

[stellamccartney]

Abstract stripes and checks from the #Summer16 collection take shape in the latest issue of The Gentlewoman Magazine.

Shot by Alasdair McLellan.

[rock-my-boatey-deactivated20200]

[thefiftyeight]

Wu Guanzhong - Roar

[life]

Sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia De Havilland - From LIFE, 1942: “As successful movie stars, Joan (left) and Olivia make one of their rare appearances together in a window at Joan’s home. This year they were winner and runner-up, respectively, for the Academy Award.” (Bob Landry—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) #LIFElegends #siblingday

[erinlesliewicks]

The Old New World, by Alexey Zakharov

[erinlesliewicks]

Magic spells only work until the person until the person under the spell is really and honesty tired of it.  It ends when continuing simply seems too ghastly a prospect."    "I'm not sure I. . ."    "Pester your subject, Boy.  Pester this person, whoever it is.  Make the enchantment inconvenient for them, find myriad ways to expose their contentment as false, show them that the contentment is part of the spell, engineered to make it last longer.

Helen Oyeyemi, BOY, SNOW, BIRD

[explore-blog]

Exercise every day… Pay attention to what makes you angry or upset… Instead of thinking about what other people want from you … think about what is just eating away at you… Get enough sleep. And don’t panic.

Heather Havrilesky’s advice to aspiring writers from this altogether fantastic Longform podcast interview with her. 

(via explore-blog)

[erinlesliewicks]

In some ways, writing a memoir is knocking yourself out with your own first, if it's done right.  Sure, there's the pleasure of doing work guaranteed to engage you emotionally—who's indifferent to their own history?  The form always has profound psychological consequence on its author.  It can't not.  What project can match it for that?  ....    But nobody I know who's written a great one described it as anything less than a major-league shit-eating contest.  Any time you try to collapse the distance between your delusions about the past and what really happened, there's suffering involved....    No matter how self-aware you are, memoir wrenches at your insides precisely because it makes you battle with your very self—your neat analyses and tidy excuses.  One not-really-a-joke saying in my family is, 'The trouble started when you hit me back,' Your small pieties and impenetrable, mostly unconscious poses invariably trip you up.

Mary Karr, THE ART OF MEMOIR

[heaveninawildflower]

‘February’ (crows in snow squall). 1906 calendar page by  Theodorus van Hoytema (1863–1917).

Image and text courtesy MFA Boston.

[garbodietrich]

Greta Garbo with Leo the Lion, 1926.