The Graduation Speech
Would you give a high school commencement address if you were invited to do so?
I declined. Two years ago, when I was invited to speak at Tolland High School where I’d been a teacher for seven years, I was happy enough with the honor of being asked without shouldering the responsibility of trying to do a decent job with the speech itself. I was daunted by the prospect of how much time it would take to… Continue reading
Open Letter to John Read, Department of Justice
John R. Read, Chief
Litigation III Section
Antitrust Division
U.S. Department of Justice
450 5th Street, NW, Suite 4000
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Mr. Read:
I urge the Department of Justice to drop the April 11th suit against Apple and five publishers who are accused of colluding to limit price competition for ebooks. I’m particularly troubled by the suit’s claim that “Together, Apple and the Publisher Defendants reached an agreement whereby retail price competition would cease (which all conspirators desired), retail e-book prices would increase significantly (which… Continue reading
Tour Stops: Oblong Books and Books of Wonder
I joined the end of the Fierce Reads Tour with Leigh Bardugo, Anna Banks, Jenn Bosworth and Emmy Laybourne last week. Many thanks to Jennifer Laughran and Suzanna Hermans of Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck, NY for having us by. Your readers were absolutely wonderful with their questions and it was great to see so many writers in the gathering.
The next… Continue reading
99 Favorite Reads, Picked by Teens
The teens who named their favorite books for this list include athletes, honors students, non-readers, incarcerated girls, a prom queen, loners, computer game players, gay and straight teens, teens from the coasts and in between, teens of many races, artists, and writers. Their choices made the list (alphabetically) regardless if the books were award-winners, banned, popular, controversial, new, or classic. The sole criteria: these books are favorites. 1. Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak 2. M.T. Anderson, Feed 3. Anonymous, Go Ask Alice 4. Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, The… Continue reading
Art Experiments on Us: High Line Park
Clever minds are at work in public art spaces. I was walking High Line Park in NYC with my family this weekend when we came upon a theater-type, open air seating area which descended downward, with windows at the bottom overlooking the traffic of 10th street that ran directly below. We gladly sat for a while, looking out the “screens” at the flowing taxis, thinking about how life is art if you look at it differently. Is “streetscape” a word? Probably.… Continue reading
BookExpo America 2012. Nice.
My first delight of BEA yesterday was being in the same room with Stephen Colbert. I felt this inner gasp of Wow! There he is! He was small, silly and far away at the podium, but fortunately, there were two big projection screens on either side of the platform, so I could see him in his normal TV-esque headshot, too. He took the success of 50 Shades of Grey as an excuse to make random references to his throbbing member throughout his… Continue reading