back to school

Yes, it's that time of year, but right now I'm not thinking about the kids, but myself.

A FB friend posted a link to this free course on Modern poetry through University of Pennsylvania. I'm strongly considering it. The first half of my autumn is very busy, but I think it might be nice to have a different focus for the next few months, something outside of myself, my normal routine. I think it could help with my craft, too, which is always a good thing. The question is, will I have the time and energy to make the most out of it.

Should I do it? Care to join me?

bullshit stereotypes – harmful stereotypes – still exist

"Follow it down the rabbit-hole, and the concern about bad book covers traces back to the central issue that, for all recent strides, bullshit stereotypes – harmful stereotypes – still exist. And crap begets crap. What great works can arise if books by women are only sold to an imagined female reader, only interested in "women's things"? If great novels, ambitious and daring, are neutered and forced to compromise or pray for readership on a tiny press? Again: these books do exist. They're just hidden behind ugly covers and cowardly marketing."

from Transgressive Women: How Bad Covers And Sexism Threaten All Of Literature

What She Said: Lynda Barry

"The same thing with writing or anything that we call the arts: there's this idea that they're just an elective, they're just decoration and they have nothing to do with our survival...or why we're here....That's the reason why I made it to 53 is because of finding these things that poetry or paintings or plays contain, that's the stuff of mental health. And we ignore it at our peril."

Lynda Barry in an interview at The Poetry Foundation that's been making the rounds on social media sites this past week. I can't stop watching it.