Nemoguće je zaista izabrati "najbolje" književne blogove, ali vrijednosno "sužavanje" u tom beskrajnom prostoru jednostavno pomaže u orijentaciji i pripitomljavanju hipnagogičkog želea.
The Great Taxonomy of Literary Tumblrs: Round Two
By Nick Moran
Alas, six months in the real world is different from six months online, and Tumblr now has not only its own Storyboard curatorial system (run by the vaguely Soviet-sounding Department of Editorial), but it’s also grown by a few million blogs. The site boasts a growing number of blogs that have inked book deals. Rachel maintains a running tally of poets and writers who use the platform in exciting ways. This past week, Molly Templeton organized a blog, The How-To Issue, specifically aimed at countering the gender imbalance in the recent “How-To” installment of The New York Times Book Review. As a testament to the number of smart, engaged literary folks on the site, that blog has since received posts from a Salon writer, a former New Yorker staffer, and quite a few artists and freelancers.
So with all of that in mind, I’ve decided it’s time for another list — a better list, a bigger list. This list aims not only to cover blogs I missed last time, but also new blogs that have been born only recently. To that end, my rubric has been simple: 1) I’ve chosen blogs I not only believe to be the best and most compelling accounts out there, but also blogs that were overlooked on the last list — in some cases, readers helped me out in the last post’s comment thread. 2) I’ve done my best to ensure that these blogs are active members of the Tumblr community. 3) I’ve tried to make sure that the content on these blogs is “safe for work,” however I am but mortal, and perhaps some NSFW material will slip in between now and when you read this list. For that reason I can only caution you to use your judgment as you proceed.
For your convenience, I’ve organized the list in a similar manner as last time. “Single-Servings” are blogs organized around one or two particular, ultra-specific themes. The rest of the categories should be self-explanatory.
Please feel free to comment and shout out the ones I omitted or did not cover in Part One.
0. Shameless Self-Promotion
- The Millions: duh!
- Book and Beer: The combination of everybody’s favorite duo will tease you from your office chair.
- Match Book: Or is it, instead, that books and bikinis are an even better pair?
- Movie Simpsons: An encyclopedic recap of every film reference in The Simpsons. Now open to submissions.
- Underground NYPL: Pairs well with CoverSpy. I’ve yet to find a match, however.
- The Unquotables: Brought to you by Dan Wilbur (Better Book Titles, which is going to be a book!) and Robert Dean. The premise is simple: Gandhi didn’t say that.
- Infinite Boston: A catalog of the locations mentioned in The Great Bandana’s Infinite Jest.
- Write Place Write Time: Remember our WriteSpace project? (Which we Storify’d?) This is ongoing.
- The Composites: Composite sketches of characters in famous literature. Creepy ones, at that.
- Poets Touching Trees: Happy Arbor Day, poets!
- You Chose Wrong: The tragic fates of mistaken “Choose Your Own Adventure” readers. It’s like reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies.
- Doodling on Famous Writers: Those warped lines beneath Proust’s eyes really suit him.
- Old Book Illustrations: A visual treat for nostalgic book nerds.
- Visual Poetry: Exactly what it says it is, yet also much more.
- PBS’ This Day in History: So much better to get this stuff on your Dashboard than in your inbox.
- Historical Nonfiction: This blog pairs well with the one above. Follow both and you’ll rival Howard Zinn in no time.
- Writers and Kitties: I have often wondered about that particular feline-author bond.
- Page Twenty Seven: The text from one reader’s collection of twenty seventh pages.
- Book Storey: Eye candy for lovers of book design.
3. Foundations, Organizations and Writing Centers
- 826 Valencia: Dispatches and success stories from the California writing center focused on kids aged six to eighteen. It was co-founded by Dave Eggers.
- The National Book Foundation: They’ll announce finalists for their big awards in October, so you’ve got some time to get acquainted with the foundation.
- The Moth: Fabulous stuff from the story gurus. I’ll let Kevin Hartnett take it from here.
- The Poetry Society of America: Nice to see the nation’s oldest poetry non-profit embrace one of the newest mediums for storytelling.
- Harry Ransom Center: They have more than David Foster Wallace’s papers, you know.
- The Academy of American Poets: The organizers of National Poetry Month deliver some excellent Tumblr material, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t super relieved when they finally found Rob.
- PEN Live: A great example of a fresh, exciting way to use the blogging platform. PEN Live covers events put on by the PEN American Center.
- Poets & Writers: A great source of guidance for creative writers.
- Button Poetry: Performance poetry delivered straight to your Dashboard from the Twin Cities.
- VIDA Community: The creators of publishing’s annual gender-imbalance list curate a really interesting list of updates on women, culture, and writing.
- Sh*t My Students Write: Proof positive that more MFA graduates should be teaching in secondary schools.
- The Monkeys You Ordered: These literal New Yorker cartoon captions are topped only by this one comment applicable to all of them.
- What Should We Call Poets: Based on the grandmother that started them all. This is the GIF blog poets deserve, but not the one they need right now.
- Title 2 Come: You can never follow too many GIF blogs. This one is for for writers of every stripe.
- News Cat GIFs: Same as above. Last but not least, this one is for journalists. (Who like cats.)
- Least Helpful: The worst of the worst reviews from the annals of the internet.
- Hey, Author: It’s like a Regina George’s Burn Book for the literati.
- Alt Lit Gossip (Can be NSFW): HTMLGiant is leaking.
- Recommended Reading: Home of the marvelous ongoing fiction series run by Electric Literature.
- Words Without Borders: Spreading the gospel of international and translated literature one Tumblr post at a time.
- Tin House: You (should) know the magazine. Now you should know their blog.
- VQR: The brand new companion to the invaluable source for great long-form and narrative journalism.
- n+1: They recently decided to kill off their Personals blog, so perhaps this one will become more active.
- New York Review of Books: Need I introduce them? Also, not to be missed, check out the NYRB Classics blog, A Different Stripe.
- Granta: Follow these guys for updates on the magazine’s new releases and competitions.
- Guernica: Hey, you’re spilling your art into my politics!
- Full Stop: Who else would recommend Errol Flynn’s memoir, posit an alternate Olympics Opening Ceremony, and then review the work of Victor Serge?
- Vol. 1 Brooklyn: As their banner says, “If you’re smart, you’ll like us.”
- Rusty Toque: An online literary and arts journal backed by Ontario’s Western University.
- Book Riot: How can you help loving the kind of people who reblog photos of Faulkner’s oeuvre alongside galleries of literary tattoos?
- Berfrois: Some highbrow curiosities for that eager, eager brain of yours.
- Literalab: Dispatches from Central and Eastern Europe, which as anybody who knows me knows to be my favorite parts of Europe.
- Triple Canopy: The online magazine embraces yet another means of communicating.
- fwriction review: Finally an honest banner: “specializing in work that melts faces and rocks waffles.” (See also: fwriction)
- Little Brother: The latest project from our own Emily M. Keeler.
- Asymptote: Dedicated to works in translation and world literature.
- Glitterwolf Magazine: Devoted to highlighting UK writers and writers from LGBT communities.
- The Essayist: Aggregated long-form writing from all over the place.
- Smithsonian Magazine: “Retina” consists of the best visual content from Smithsonian Magazine.
- The American Scholar: Follow them. You’ll be more fun to talk to at cocktail parties.
- Boston Globe: News and photos, and we all know they’ve got plenty of both.
- Salon: Finally! We get to read Salon without actually having to go to Salon.com!
- The Morning News: Our friends who host the annual Tournament of Books have a Tumblr presence, too.
- Mother Jones: Politics and current events, ahoy!
- Tomorrow Mag: Ann Friedman & Co.’s new venture.
- Lively Morgue: Typically awesome photos from The New York Times archives.
- Bonus: This article covers the ways in which twelve news outlets are using Tumblr in innovative, fresh ways.
- Random House Digital: Dispatches from the Random House digital team.
- Vintage Books Design: As they say, “vintage design from Vintage designers.”
- Harper Books: The publisher’s flagship imprint sets up shop on Tumblr.
- The Penguin Press: They publish Zadie Smith, in case you need validation of their taste.
- Simon Books: Straight from Rockefeller Center to your Dashboard!
- Pantheon: News and miscellany from Random House’s literary fiction and serious nonfiction imprint.
- Penguin English Library: Celebrating the Classic Penguins we all love so much. Plus, get a load of that animated masthead!
- Back Bay Books: Little, Brown’s paperback pals. Their list of authors is incredible.
- Mulholland Books: This group fully embraces Tumblr’s multimedia capabilities. A solid A+ in my book.
- Penguin Teen: Excellent content for younger readers.
- Free Press Books: Let’s just say these folks enjoyed the week Michael Phelps had at the Olympics.
- HMH Books: Be sure to check out their Translation and Poetry blogs, too.
- Riverhead: Of all the publisher Tumblrs, they boast the cutest mascot.
- Little, Brown: Their Daily First Line posts are tantalizing.
- Duke: Hate the basketball team, love the press. (And their blog.)
- Chicago: Their posts are excellent. Continually substantial and interesting.
- McGill-Queens: Fun Fact: some folks up North would have it that Harvard is “America’s McGill.”
- Cambridge Exhibitions: Alerts and updates on the myriad academic conferences and events attended by the CUP staff.
- Chronicle: These folks have been known to turn Tumblr blogs into books, so of course they know their way around the platform.
- Grove Atlantic: I’m not a tough sell, but giving away books related to The Wire is my kryptonite.
- Open Road Media: Worth a follow for their YouTube discoveries alone.
- Two Dollar Radio: They published Grace Krilanovich‘s book (the one I recommended), so you know they’re good.
- Timaş Publishing Group: These Turkish publishers are so generous, they give away eBook credits on a bi-weekly basis.
- Quirk Books: These Philadelphia-based publishers sure find a lot of pretty bookshelves to reblog.
- The Feminist Press: The important indie operating out of NYC delivers some really interesting, innovative stuff in addition to the classics they “rescue.”
- The Lit Pub: Recommendations from The Lit Pub‘s staff.
- Muumuu House: No doubt this account is run by Tao Lin’s legion of interns.
- Overlook Press: Their About page even features a TL;DR version. They get Tumblr.
- Arte Público Press: Your dashboard destination for U.S. Hispanic literature.
- Coffee House Press Interns: Bonus “little” points because it’s run by their interns.
- Unmanned Press: They just joined Tumblr, but their “Sunday Rejections” posts seem promising.
- Emily St. John Mandel: Millions staffer whose most recent book is The Lola Quartet.
- Edan Lepucki: Millions staffer whose most recent book is If You’re Not Yet Like Me.
- Patrick Somerville: This Bright River.
- Neil Gaiman: American Gods.
- Roxane Gay: Ayiti.
- Sheila Heti: How Should a Person Be?
- Emma Straub: Other People We Married.
- Jami Attenberg: The Middlesteins. Bonus: check out her advice, too.
- Nathan Englander: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank.
- Matthew Gallaway: The Metropolis Case.
- Miles Klee: Ivyland.
- John Green: Looking for Alaska.
- Alexander Chee: Edinburgh.
- Tayari Jones: Silver Sparrow.
- Rosencrans Baldwin: Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down.
- Tao Lin: Richard Yates.
- Dan Chaon: Stay Awake.
- Christopher Dickey: Securing the City.
- Reading Ardor: Two readers go through Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle.
- Chuck Palahniuk: Don’t forward this blog to any Turkish publishing houses.
- John Banville Spectates Tennis: Serving up some observations on tennis. (I’ll excuse myself now.)
- Martin Amis Drinking: This should really just be a livestream video feed of Amis at all times.
- A. O. Scott Zingers: The film critic’s best one-liners.
- Fitzgerald Quotes: F. Scott’s got lines for days.
- Reading Markson Reading: Brainchild of Millions contributor, Tyler Malone.
- Leigh Stein: Dispatch From the Future.
- Michael Robbins: Alien vs. Predator.
- Paolo Javier: The Feeling Is Actual. Full disclosure: Paolo was one of my college professors.
- Zachary Schomburg: Fjords Vol. 1. He’s also one of the founders of Octopus Magazine.
- Saeed Jones: When the Only Light is Fire. This blog is really cool. It’s like the poet’s global travelogue.
- Unabridged: Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood.
- Community Bookstore: Park Slope, Brooklyn.
- McNally Kids: Manhattan.
- Skylight Books: Los Angeles.
- Open Books: Chicago.
- Emily Books: The Internet.
- Mercer Island Books: Seattle.
- Luminous Books: East London.
- Politics & Prose: Washington D.C.
- Micawber’s: St. Paul.
- City Lights: San Francisco.
- 57th Street Books: Chicago’s Hyde Park.
- The Little Book Room: Melbourne, Australia.
- Tattered Cover: Denver.
- Uncharted Books: Chicago.
- Green Apple Books: San Francisco.
- Taylor Books: Charleston, WV.
- Darien Library: Excellent posts from one of the best libraries in the nation.
- Looks Like Library Science: “Challenging the librarian stereotype.”
- Live From the NYPL: Events and goings-on at the NYPL.
- Library Journal: The editors of LJ share what they’re reading.
- School Library Journal: Ditto for their scholastic counterparts.
- Espresso Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Public Library has an espresso on-demand book printing machine. How cool is it that it has its own blog, too?
- Horse_ Fan Fiction: Look no further than your Twitter timeline for the best writing prompts on earth.
- Annotated Horse_: A valuable resource for the inevitable scholarly study of Horse_’s oeuvre.
- 33, Pyramid, and Dalton: Max Read’s impressive catalog of recurring Horse_ themes.
- Oxford American: Maybe not the best time for the magazine at the moment, but my wish from last time still stands.
- Garden & Gun
- Oxford University Press
- More authors and poets!
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