Big Sole Blog (BSB)

The UK Telegraph reports, "Publishers have been left red-faced after discovering that they rejected the latest novel by J. K. Rowling, one of the world’s best-selling writers." Apparently, the Harry Potter author has written a crime novel under the penname Robert Galbraith, but despite her book, The Cuckoo's Calling, receiving good reviews while Rowling remained in anonymous, the novel hasn't

Slowly at this blog, I am working toward writing more about books, fiction, poetry, and writing in general. In other words, I am attempting to focus Whose Shoes Are These Anyway on a particular pair of shoes, that of creative writer and devoted reader. For reasons only a psychoanalyst would understand, I have avoided doing this in the past. Lorrie Moore A feature at the New Yorker today

Zora Neale Hurston, renowned African-American author, folklorist, and anthropologist, really knew how to put a spin on her life. I suspect her philosophy was never reveal vulnerability. It's public knowledge that Zora died in poverty and was buried in an unmarked grave. (The beautiful Alice Walker went in search of her grave in the 70s and put a symbolic marker in the general area of Zora's

Richard Blanco, inaugural poet, delivered a beautiful poem for President Barack Obama's inauguration on January 21, 2013. The poem is entitled "One Day. " On Twitter I described the poem as "beautiful, lyrical, expansive, inclusive." I saw others tweet about its strong imagery. The poet discussed earlier with the BBC capturing the U.S.A. in verse. He told the interviewer that writing a poem

BAD WRITING from Morris Hill Pictures on Vimeo. This movie, directed by Vernon Lott, is streaming for free on Vimeo the entire month of January, and it has a Facebook page, www.facebook.com/badwritingmovie. H/T to Paul Constant. The documentary features interviews with well-known nonfiction and fiction writers and poets, including David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, Nick Flynn, Steve Almond, and

If you’re in the mood for a well-crafted, gritty page-turner focused on crime and punishment in a New Jersey township, then Steven Hart’s We All Fall Down is the novel for you. Hart has written not only a compelling story but also shaped his heroine, Karen McCarthy, into a believable woman. Karen McCarthy is the only female cop on a police force determined to make misogyny its battle cry, but

Here is a video of Maira Kalman that I found through Poets & Writers Magazine. Kalman is a children's book author and illustrator, and in this video she talks about the importance of walking and physical movement to get her writer's brain read for new ideas.

I love Scandal, Shonda Rhime's hot, new drama on ABC, but I had no idea that it is based on a real black woman, Washington DC fixer (crisis manager) Judy Smith. In the video below, Smith says, "To be a crisis manager you have to be very calm." When clients come to her, they are already in the middle of a crisis and nervous. It would not help for her to be nervous and jumpy as well. She also says

Here are 10 Reasons from Roland Emmerich that explain why he would make a movie that questions whether the man history claims to have been William Shakespeare was actually the bard we know and love. The movie, Anonymous, opens this Friday.

I am saddened to report that author Leslie Esdaile Banks has passed away. You may recognize her under the name L. A. Banks. I learned of this news through Tananarive Due's Facebook page, but I have confirmed it through other sources. Ms. Banks wrote the The Vampire Huntress Legend series, and I first discussed her fiction in a piece called "The Indisputably Black Vampires of Jewelle Gomez, L.A.

I stumbled across this Booknotes TV interview with novelist Walter Mosley. It's fascinating. He's fascinating far beyond his novels. He talks about everything from the birth of Easy Rollins, to his growing up in Watts with an African-American father and Jewish mother, to his vision for making America better. The man is a deep thinker who considers how we can improve the world, which is how he

I just finished listening a Writer's Digest on-demand workshop with Cheryl Klein of the Arthur A. Levine imprint at Scholastic Books. She shared a great deal of wisdom, and I was happy to hear her say that while writers are told "show don't tell," the truth is you need both. The workshop was on plot structure, and she's also a believer in the book map. Klein was also the continuity editor for the

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Let me say at the outset that the verses that follow are by Paulo Freire, but in their original form they are presented as prose not poetry in his last book Pedagogy of Freedom, Chapter 3, "Teaching is Not Just Transferring Knoweldge." (The video at the end of this post is one of his last interviews before his death in 1997)As I read this book, I am struck increasingly by how his philosphy had

What I miss about driving less is getting lost in a radio show, specifically narratives on NPR via WWNO here in New Orleans. I can't seem to listen to talk or narratives on radio sitting still in my bedroom or living room because my mind starts to travel to all the things I need to do in my house, and if I try to do chores and listen, I don't enjoy the story the way I can in the car.This Saturday

This MLK day, I want to share a public radio broadcast I heard on WWNO Saturday, "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination." Its producers at On the Media describe the show as follows:On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. did what he’d done countless times before, he began building a sermon. And in his sermons King relied on improvisation - drawing on sources and references that

On Twitter, someone asked me had I seen CNN's Parker/Spitzer show tonight. I had not, but since I was told about it I kept my eye out, and wowsers! What a great conversation. From leaving the 18th amendment out of the reading of the Constitution to sanitizing Huckleberry Finn, the panelists were deep.Thank you to Nubia Qua on Twitter. If she hadn't told me, I might have missed it. Yesterday I

Related: Linguist John McWhorter: Sanitizing Huckleberry Finn Insults Black PeopleI just read about the exceptional foolishness of a misguided southern publisher. At CNN, a Mark Twain biographer, Ron Powers, calls NewSouth Books' decision to strip the word "nigger" from Mark Twain's classic Huckleberry Finn, "vapid, smiley-faced effrontery ... (that) corrodes the foundations of respect for

I'm currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, a book that I've been saying I will settle down and read for at least five years now. He entertains with provocative turns of phrase and vivid description as well as compelling character development. His sense of humor is worth a study all by itself. I know I'll do a lot of thinking as I read it and after I finish it.It's 2011, which will be the

Over the weekend I watched Martin Scorsese's documentary Public Speaking on HBO. It's about author and magazine writer Fran Lebowitz, and I highly recommend it. She's smart (no duh!) and funny. Oh, wait. Maybe I mean "witty." I especially appreciated her commentary on race, gender, America's current disdain for intellectuals, and how much she procrastinates. Of interest to people down here,