The Mark Blog.

A PEN Center USA blog that aims to inspire, educate, and support literary expression.

[penmarkblog]

The List: 14 Must-Read Books for Hispanic Heritage Month

Make a promise to read one of these amazing books this month!

“Whether you’re Latino yourself or you want to learn more about the 17 percent of the US population that is, discovering more about this culture is a great way to celebrate. Scroll on for our fave books that tell a compelling story about what it means to be Latino. Some are classics, some are out this month, but trust us — they’re all worth reading.” - brit

http://www.brit.co/books-by-latin-hispanic-authors/#/.Vg0zlfC1dcs.faceboo

[penmarkblog]

First Lines and Dedications: Night by Elie Wiesel

“They called him Moishe the Beadle, as if his entire life he had never had a surname.”

Honoring Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who was born in Romania on this day, in 1928.

[literarystarbucks]

Maggie Nelson

1. Sweetness has an urgency; Maggie Nelson takes her tea with extra honey.

2. Maggie Nelson tells the woman sitting at the table next to hers about the beekeepers in Alsace whose hives began producing blue honey a few years ago. That honey is just as sweet, but it is the shade of the night sky.

3. The honey turned blue when the bees began using waste from a nearby M&Ms factory as food. The dyes passed through the bees’ bodies and transformed from waste product into unique nectar, sweet and miraculous. 4. The woman at the table next to her takes out her headphones. “Sorry,” she says. “What were you saying?”

[penmarkblog]

Freedom To Write: The Courage of Journalist Khadija Ismayilova/ Video

“If we can continue to reject the thinking that is imposed on us and believe that human dignity is not for sale, then we are the winners, and they, our jailers both inside and outside prison, are the losers.”

–Khadija Ismayilova

Journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested on Dec. 5, 2014. She has been convicted of criminal libel and faces other charges, including tax evasion and embezzlement. PEN believes the charges against her are retribution for her investigative reporting on corruption in Azerbaijan's government, and that she is being detained for exercising her right to free expression and silenced ahead of the global spotlight on Azerbaijan as Baku plays host to the 2015 Olympic-organized European Games in June. 

“Yes, there is a price to pay, but it is worth it!” she writes. “We need to build a new reality where truth will be a norm of life and telling the truth will not require courage.” 

Take action on behalf of Khadjia here: http://www.pen.org/content/take-action-khadija-ismayilova

[penmarkblog]

Deep Cover: Tuli Kupferberg, born on this day in 1923.

“When patterns are broken, new worlds emerge.” ― Tuli Kupferberg

Kupferberg was an American counterculture poet, author, cartoonist, pacifist, and anarchist. 

[penmarkblog]

Bookmark This: PEN Center USA Member Profile, Bayne Gibby

One benefit of being a Literary Awards judge is receiving a one-year membership to PEN Center USA. As a new PEN Center USA member, what excites you most about the organization? Anywhere that the love of reading and creating stories is being ignited in others excites me!

What did you enjoy most about serving as a Literary Awards judge? I read such a huge selection of books, some that I would've never been exposed to otherwise. It gave me a sense of the enormous amount of work that exists out there to be enjoyed. I also really enjoyed discussing the books with the other judges. We had a very intimate, very interesting little book club of our own!

PEN Centers share a Freedom To Write mission, which means we believe that people should be able to read and write freely. What does Freedom To Write mean to you? Expression is empowering! The freedom to write means that all expression is encouraged and valid. Everyone's voice deserves to be heard.

You just finished reading a large number of submissions for the 2015 Literary Awards. What are you reading now? Aside from this questionnaire, I am reading picture book manuscripts of works in progress by fellow writers in my critique group. We are busy utilizing our freedom to write!

Bayne Gibby is an actor and writer who lives in Los Angeles. Her first children's book You Mean the World to Me(Scholastic) was published in 2013.                     If you would like to become a PEN Center USA member click here: https://penusa.org/membership

[penmarkblog]

The List: The 10 Most Challenged Books in 2014 

From the americanlibraryassoc  

“Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than 11,300 books have been challenged since 1982 according to the American Library Association. There were 311 challenges reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom in 2014, and many more go unreported."

The 10 most challenged titles of 2014 were:

1)      The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence. Additional reasons: “depictions of bullying”

2)      Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi

Reasons: gambling, offensive language, political viewpoint. Additional reasons: “politically, racially, and socially offensive,” “graphic depictions”

3)      And Tango Makes Three, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Reasons: Anti-family, homosexuality, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “promotes the homosexual agenda”

4)      The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “contains controversial issues”

5)      It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

Reasons: Nudity, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group. Additional reasons: “alleges it child pornography”

6)      Saga, by Brian Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Reasons: Anti-Family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Additional reasons:

7)      The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini

Reasons: Offensive language, unsuited to age group, violence

8)      The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, homosexuality, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group. Additional reasons: “date rape and masturbation”

9)      A Stolen Life, Jaycee Dugard

Reasons: drugs/alcohol/smoking, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group

10)  Drama, by Raina Telgemeier

Reasons: sexually explicit

Want to take action??  Click here to join PEN Center USA as we honor Banned Books Week. https://penusa.org/banned-books

[therelatableimages]

[animalsnaps]

Are you a teen? Check out this blog?!

[penmarkblog]

Quote This: Banned Books Week 

In honor of Banned Books Week (BANNED BOOKS WEEK 2015: September 27-October 3) we give you a quote from The Color Purple. 

Contribute your voice to Banned Books Week 2015! 

Using the camera on your computer or phone, record yourself reading up to 60 seconds of a banned or challenged book.  For all the details on how to upload your video go here: https://penusa.org/banned-books

Also here is a link with quotes from banned books you can use in your video: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/ninebooks.html

[penmarkblog]

Freedom to Write: Translating Amanuel Asrat’s The Scourge of War

“Something growled Something resounded Pervading the serenity It echoed something. …Stuck In that where two brothers pass each other In that where two brothers meet each other In that where two brothers conjoin In the piazza of life and death In the gulf of calamity and cultivation In the valley of anxiety and peace Something resounded.”

How many languages do you speak and read and write? We are asking for your help in honor of International Translation Day, on September 30, 2015.

What Can You Do?

1. Take the poem, The Scourge of War, written by imprisoned Eritrean editor-in-chief and award-winning poet, Amanuel Asrat, and translate it (or a portion of it) into one of the languages you are familiar with. 2. Submit it to us at [email protected] by September 25, 2015.

PEN Centers around the world are collecting as many translations of this poem as we can, since Amanuel Asrat will occupy one of our Empty Chairs at the 81st PEN International Congress.

You can read the full poem here.

[penmarkblog]

Deep Cover: Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir (HarperCollins) 

“On the first day of a memoir class, I often try to douse my students’ flaming uncertainty about the unassailability of their memories. Usually I fake a fight with a colleague--prof or student--while a videographer whirs in the back. Then the class is asked to record right after the event what happened.”

See Mary Karr and David Ulin in a craft conversation this Thursday, September 24th as part of The Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ ALOUD series. If you haven’t already made a reservation for this “master class with a master craftsman” you can come stand by, and take your chances on a first-come, first-served basis.

[penmarkblog]

Bookmark This: A Good Dollar is Hard to Find 

Many writers are willing to share their thoughts about the craft of writing––the hard work, if they write in a tiny study or with a pencil at sunrise––but very few talk about money. How to make a living, a life, as a writer? What does one have to do to create a room of one’s own? 

This week we wanted to share with you three articles that face the issue of money head on. 

The first is by writer Jean Ho, The Financial Lives Of Debut Novelists.  

Jean Ho spoke with two novelists “who had their literary debuts in 2015, Angela Flournoy, author of The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and Tanwi Nandini Islam.” Both writers give great insight on the realities of making a living wage while trying to live the dream of that first book. 

“The way adjuncting works at most universities is so exploitative...because ostensibly you only come in two days a week, but all of the hours of grading, preparing for class, it doesn’t add up.” - Angela Flournoy 

The second is a report generated by the Writer’s Guild . Because the graphs and pictures really say it all, here are a few of their survey findings. 

And the third, to make sure not leave you too depressed, is this beautiful essay by Alexander Chee, Imposter

“I knew I was not rich in a way that anyone else in the building would recognize, but I was writer rich. I had money earned from writing that I would spend on more time to write, and the cheap deal on the beautiful apartment meant the money would last even longer—it even felt like the beginning of more of that money and more of that success.”

[liquidnight]

Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.

Ray Bradbury (via liquidnight)

[penmarkblog]

The List: 2015 National Book Awards Longlist for Fiction 

Today we want to congratulate the ten finalists for the National Book Awards. We have included a quote from five of the longlisted books in case you are thinking of purchasing this list--we think you should! 

Jesse Ball, A Cure for Suicide (Pantheon Books)                                    “We are the wreck of what we have been, and the place of our own future demise.” 

Karen E. Bender, Refund: Stories (Counterpoint Press)                   “...nothing but numbness and résumés. Trying to figure out how fast we could keep from sinking. Could we dream money and see it show up in the checking account? How little could we spend, eat?”

Bill Clegg, Did You Ever Have a Family (Scout Press/Simon & Schuster)  “Rough as life can be, I know in my bones we are supposed to stick around and play our part. Even if that part is coughing to death from cigarettes, or being blown up young in a house with your mother watching. And even if it's to be that mother.”

Angela Flournoy, The Turner House (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)            “He look like the type to bring a list with him into the bedroom, and he ain’t done makin love till he check off everything he got in his mind to do.” 

T. Geronimo Johnson, Welcome to Braggsville (William Morrow/HarperCollins)                                                                   “Berkeley was Berzerkeley, while Berkeley the school was Cal. The East Bay, where Berzerkeley was located, supposedly suburban, felt plenty busy. Collectively, it was the Bay Area, a megalopolis—oh how that word polished his tongue—where the elsewhere unimaginable was mere mundanity.” 

[wordsnquotes]

I just want some space to myself every now and then. Every time I’m with you I have this sense that you want something from me.

Junot Díaz, This is How You Lose Her (via wordsnquotes)

[penmarkblog]

First Lines and Dedications: At Home With Rapper’s Delight by Chris L. Terry in the Best Small Fictions 2015

“Rapper’s Delight didn’t feel out of place at school because there were a lot of other people with apostrophes in their names – Ju’Juan, De’Andre, Moni’que. He graduated in 1997, with the honor of being the very last person to finish without email.”

Chris L. Terry’s short story “At Home with Rapper’s Delight” was selected to be in Best Small Fictions 2015, published by Queen’s Ferry Press. If you want a free copy, enter this Goodreads giveaway before 9/22. You can also purchase a copy here.

You can also read the full story here.

And when you’re done, Chris is teaching again this weekend. Sign up now for “So, what are you?” Continuing the Cultural Narrative with Chris L. Terry.

[penmarkblog]

Freedom to Write: Banned Books Week 2015

Today, public school libraries are being systematically defunded, and every year hundreds of books are banned or challenged in public schools and libraries across the country.

What can you do?

1. Using the camera on your computer or phone, record yourself reading up to 60 seconds of a banned or challenged book, before Friday, September 18, 2015. You can find a list of titles here.

2. Upload your video securely through PEN Center USA’s website.

3. Come to WeHo Reads: Banned Books at the West Hollywood Library on September 26, 2015, to see how you helped make silenced voices heard!