chimamanda adichie has a wonderful piece in newsweek, reposted in the daily beast, that asks whether the jury would have believed dominique strauss-kahn or his alleged victim, guinean immigrant nafissatou diallo. On television, she was familiar: the skin tone that suggested cheap bleaching creams, the ambitious hair weave, the melodrama. An American friend of mine thought her interview too theatrical [...]

the guardian asked zadie smith, one of a handful of contemporary writers, to comment on her rules for writing. since i found zadie’s list to be depressing, pessimistic, and utterly without joy, i wrote my own.  keep in mind that i am not an award-winning published author, although that doesn’t mean i’m not also a writer. 1. write first thing in the [...]

i read the Caine Prize-winning stickfighting days by olufemi terry yesterday. boy. writing is such an interesting thing. we all have such different psyches, so many different energies and urges manifesting within us. i honestly had to wonder what would possess someone to write a story about street children bludgeoning each other to death with sticks. i am not good [...]

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