Neat on thet Net: Word Nerd II

1) The Millions has compared US book covers to UK book covers, different editions of the same book. See which sensibility more closely matches yours. For example (US on the left, UK on the right):



2) Lapham's Quarterly has collected some marginalia penned by scribes and copyists in medieval manuscripts and colophons, including this gem: "New parchment, bad ink; I say nothing more."

3) For quite awhile, I was following the story of the unknown book sculptor leaving works of art anonymously in Scottish libraries, but I lost sight of the story. Today an update: the sculptor is now known by a selected few (not by the public, not by me) and has even been commissioned to do work. She's (gender has been revealed) interviewed by the BBC here.



4) Finally, an interesting call for submissions from The Account for their "spe­cial Spring ’15 issue: 'Graphic Works/Graphic Nar­ra­tives.' We’re seek­ing graphic nar­ra­tives, illu­mi­nated man­u­scripts, rebuses, illus­tra­tions evoca­tive of sto­ries, and poems that inter­act with the page as a visual land­scape (such as con­crete poems, era­sures, and prose poems)."

They also "require work to be paired with an “account” (of 150–500 words) that describes the thought, influ­ences, and choices that make up your aes­thetic as it per­tains to the spe­cific work you send us."

Neat on the Net: Word Nerd Edition

I haven't done a Neat on the Net in over a year, but recently I've found a few interesting things for word-lovers.

1) The Found Poetry Review will be celebrating National Poetry Month 2015 with a challenge called Poetry Month Scouts, in which you can earn poetry merit badges by completing tasks in five poetic categories: remix, erasure, conceptual chance operations, and out and about. If you complete all the badges within the month of April, you'll even win a prize.

This looks like so much fun! Get more information and sign up here.  And, if you are like me and hesitate to sign up to submit all your work in early drafts so that it might be published as part of the project, the prompts and assignments will all be available at the site as of April 1, and you can play along unofficially. You can't win if you don't play, though.

2) English T-shirts in Japan are regularly hilarious, though I have to say, this was truer in the past. Apparently the same phenomenon is still pretty amusing in China. Eric Doise reports on the t-shirts he saw during his two years in China in the Peace Corps on his website. This video of a slideshow presentation (entitled "What English Language T-shirt from China Can Teach Us About Translation") not only provides funny examples, but also considers the nature of translation, semiotics, and the role of the design elements of the alphabet when the language is not used conventionally. For those of us who've puzzled over strange English, it's thought-provoking.

3) Haruki Murakami is going to do a personal advice column. Yes, it's true. It's like a dream come true.....

Every Day Kimono

Thanks to Monica Sharman at Every Day Poems for featuring my poem 'Kimono,' originally published in Harpur Palate.



Photo by Aditya Rakhman, via Flickr.

Miriam's Well

Miriam Sagan at Miriam's Well covers a diverse range of interesting topics, such as how to make things out of mud (with Suzanne Vilmain), land art (with Nils Udo), and ruminations on the American diner (with John Leavitt).

Now she's graciously posted an interview with me. Thanks, Miriam!

Epic Mis-hearing

Someone referred to the book Dave, The Locust.

I guess I'm not as well-read as I thought, I thought.


And then, it came to me.........




Day of the Locust.