Fence is moving from New York City to the New York State Writers Institute in Albany, NY.
It seems that writers pay being on the level of fifth-grade lemonade-stand attendees isn't just a U.S. phenomenon. From Korea:
Last week, statistics released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism confirmed a time-tested adage in Korean that "art is a hungry thing.'' The data, based on a survey of 2,000 people in art and culture circles, showed how economically hard life is for most of artists.
Among the eight fields surveyed--literature, (painting) art, photography, architecture, traditional Korean music, music, theater, dance, film and popular entertainment--those earning a living from applied or commercial arts, such as architecture or entertainment, fared relatively well.
But for writers, things could not be more grim. Ninety-four percent of the 200 respondents said they earn 500,000 won [US$530] or less per month on average from activities related to their original job--writing--with 37 percent earning nothing.
The International Herald Tribune profiles Irma Boom, a book designer who is set to be awarded a gold medal at the Lepzig Book Festival:
Winning prizes is nothing new for Boom. Working with a single assistant in her Amsterdam studio, she is also accustomed to struggling — in one way or another — to make each of her books as inspiring and surprising as possible. Over the years, she has experimented with everything from elaborate color-codes and hidden motifs to scented bindings, printing on filter coffee paper, producing a 2,136-page book with no page numbers or index, and hacking page edges with a circular saw.
Unexpected though Boom's books look, feel and smell, there is always an underlying logic to their design. The rough-hewn edges of Hicks's book evoke the selvages of her textiles, and the white cover was chosen as a contrast to their rich colors.
{via and more links at metafilter}
Slushpile Scott spreads the Larry Brown love over at Beatrice.
"The Stan Laurel Correspondence Archive Project hopes to collect and catalog as many of Stan's letters as is possible, and make their content available to fans and researchers all around the world allowing everyone to better understand his life and celebrate his comedic genius."
I'll be interested to see how the student readers affect what makes it out of the Fence slush pile and on to the editors.
Posted by: georgekaplan | March 21, 2007 at 08:44 AM