I remember assigning Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” in a composition course for college freshmen. One of the students who read it was aghast at the idea of selling children as food. Somehow she’d missed the satire. It’s tough to pull off good satire in writing, where it shouldn’t be necessary to add cues (wink, wink, nod). Here’s an example that’s newer than the 1700s, and not in The Onion.
Scientists: Earth Endangered by New Strain of Fact-Resistant Humans – The New Yorker.
http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/scientists-earth-endangered-by-new-strain-of-fact-resistant-humans
Author: sharon
award-winning writer, editor
To write well
I remember reading On Writing Well — parts of it, anyway — in college. Zinsser offered valuable tips. It’s sad to hear he’s died. It may be time to take another look at the book.
William Zinsser, Author Of ‘On Writing Well,’ Dies At 92.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7270170
Pack up
Last year, before I went to Italy, I spent a lot of time looking for the best travel writing tips. But I had forgotten that merely traveling is a way to improve one’s writing. This sensationally-headlined blog post (super-sexy?) does offer several good reasons for getting away. And now I have a couple of trips I need to plan.
The Simple, Super-Sexy, Science-Backed Way to Improve Your Writing Skills.
http://writetodone.com/improve-your-writing-skills/
Who gets translated?
Perhaps because I’ve been working with a translator every day for a little more than a year now, I found this post interesting. I also have a couple of friends who have had books translated into languages other than English. But I had no idea there was such disparity between men and women when it comes to translating books and poetry. It didn’t surprise me that, on average, far more male than female authors get their work translated.
Talking Translation at the 2015 PEN World Voices Festival – TRANSLATIONiSTA.
http://translationista.net/2015/05/talking-translation-at-the-2015-pen-world-voices-festival.html
How short can you go?
May is short story month. Here’s a way to take part.
The #TwitterFiction Festival is reinventing short stories for millennials.
http://mashable.com/2015/05/09/twitter-fiction-festival-2/
