Ways to Give Now to Haiti

From what I read, it seems like the most wanted help is funds for all the groups taking food, clothing, medicine, water to Haiti. So I had to post these two links that came my way, in case anyone is looking for a women's group to donate to, or a quick way to donate online or from a cell phone:

http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2010/01/how-you-can-help-in-haiti/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/186937/haiti_relief_how_to_use_tech_to_make_a_speedy_donation.html

Everything seems to stop at a time like this. It feels like when the tsunami hit, in 2004, or earlier, when the planes hit. Reading suspended. I was able to donate online through Save the Children (pl. follow the PC World link) -- if anyone knows of other organizations taking donations through Paypal online, please let me know, I'll post the link. My heart is with the people of Haiti tonight.

Links for Writers

While I am reading—and reading and reading—and still working on my web site which I hope to have up soon--maybe sometime this month, if I'm lucky--and working a little on publicity for the book, I’ve missed writing on the blog! (I can tell this blog is rapidly evolving into something other than a reviews-only space.) I wanted to share what I’ve been uncovering lately though, and to point to great books on my reading horizon, that you might like to explore too.

Surrounding the (very very recent) release of Temporary Lives (Dec 2009)—which I hope to highlight on the blog for a bit, by the way, until the web site is up--I’ve been researching blogs, fiction sites, bookstores, and stumbling upon some great sites.

Here are some of the great web sites I’ve discovered recently, all resources for writers and readers.

The Short Review is tailored for short story readers and writers. From the UK, edited by short story writer Tania Hershman and Diane Beck, with a whole staff of reviewers, this site offers reviews of current short story collections, interviews, news, contests, and more—if you are a short story writer, this is a site to check out. They send out a monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to on their web site, and run book giveaways each month.

PEN Grants and Awards Online Database is a great resource, available at a small price ($12, payable online) to writers looking to find fellowships, funding, awards for their work. The site link is sort of hidden away on the main Pen page—the PEN American Center site (which highlights PEN award writers and writings, and international writers in need of support). Supplements the resources you can find at Poets and Writers, whose calendars of course are invaluable.

For listings of literary magazines, there’s of course Poets and Writers and Duotrope’s Digest—an electronic database of magazines accepting fiction and poetry that you can search to pinpoint your preferences re. electronic/print submissions, etc. , and also Lit Mags and New Pages. I’d thought Lit Mags offered just a listing of magazines, mainly because Google tends to point to this list rather than their home page—a great listing, by the way, because it’s organized by type and category of submission and color-coded for ease of use—but I just noticed they also run a list with notes from the magazines added newly to their database on their home page. The best links to lit mags though, I’ve always thought, are the ones you find in the Links sections of the magazines and presses you like, they tend to list/link other magazines you’d like. New Pages also reviews short story collections, along with novels and poetry.

New Pages needs a shout-out on its own though—like Poets and Writers, it is a compendious resource site for writers with listings of numerous kinds—calls for submissions from magazines, guides to indie bookstores, writer conferences, retreats, blogs, interviews, reviews, contests, writing programs, and more.

The Chapters Bookstore in DC, a wonderful literary bookstore and one of DC’s special book places, like Politics and Prose and The Writer’s Center, lists award-winning books on its web site. If you’d like to explore recent Pulitzers, Bookers, National Book Awards, et al, visit the Award Winners page at Chapters.

And for fabulous interviews with “extra-literary” writers, see the Author Interviews page at Dalkey Archive Press. If you took a class with me or have read my interviews, you may know I have a special interest in interviews, have been addicted to reading them for a long time. I am planning to return to my bicultural interview project soon, as soon as that darn web site is done, so I'll be doing some research soon on mags that publish interviews with writers, and hope to write more on the subject--will list what I find.

At some point I’ll organize these links on the blog so they seem less scattered.

More soon!