Blog

Note from the Editor

Over the next few months you will read work from our latest reading period (October 1, 2011-December 1, 2011). It is thanks to your enthusiasm as readers and the quality of work you continue to send as submitters, that we keep doing this. Thanks to you, our current collection is without doubt more impressive, more raw, more bright, and more us than any. »

Daily Moments: Getting Started

In the age of the Twilight Saga and Harry Potter, it can be a bit daunting to sit down at a blank page. After all, who doesn’t want to write a series that becomes a world-wide phenomenon? Dreams should be big, but sometimes all we have–to begin with, especially–are small moments. As writers, it’s our responsibility to show the world what these moments can do. In any genre, these little glimpses of reality can be used as tales of their own, or they can be used to springboard into something. »

Love and the political epiphany

Aren’t you tired of reading article after article that does nothing but lay the blame of our faltering country at the feet of the opposing political party? Valid or not, it is redundant and counterproductive. Aren’t we all tired of the name calling, the bomb throwing, the gotcha moments and the general attitude of us versus them? Exactly where has this gotten us? As if any of us truly believe that all Democrats want to spend the country into Armageddon and that all Republicans want your ailing grandma to die in the street. Maybe you disagree, but I find this type of rhetoric lazy. Sure, people are going to disagree on politics. In fact, we should disagree! Passionate, open-minded disagreement is essential and it has the potential to “produce higher levels of political engagement, tolerance, and compromise among competing viewpoints.” Don’t believe me, read. »

The Trials and Triumphs of Editing

Greetings from the Poetry department!

We’re coming to the end of what quickly became our largest submission cycle ever. To those of you still waiting for a response, I promise we are working as hard as we can…

It would be a lot easier if most of the submissions sucked. Unfortunately, you folks are pretty damn good poets.
. »

Writing from the Outdoors

It’s true that most writing is done by a person whose bottom is sitting in a chair, whose fingers are striking the keys, and not outside ambling through nature enjoying summer’s bounty. We find sources of inspiration in different areas: love, anger, hate or beauty. I tend to get my creative hat on in the woods, or on the sea, or in a busy Italian cafe before a perfect pizza. Places connect me to stories and places are often the part of the story that stays with me, after I have reluctantly closed the book or watched the credits scroll. Setting is a part of the writing craft that gets at best second or third billing, but is crucial in creating a world that we enter, and then hate to. »

Crossing-Over: On Writing Poetry for the First Time

by Magda Makonnen
So you decide to start writing poetry. You’ve been writing fiction or non-fiction for some time, but this will be your first time committing to writing verse. Where do you begin?

I know crossing-over is no easy task, except for those special few who seem to do it all. How many times have I heard a. »

Poetry as Past Time

As I write, the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, hoping to maybe get their second win of the season. It’s a beautiful day in April (minus the, um, maybe second win part) and I’m not playing. Not watching. Likely, I won’t know who won until much later tonight. If the Red Sox lose, I will surely have cursed them by writing this, for which I will feel eternally guilty. There, I’ve said it. (If this makes not an ounce of sense, stop reading. Go watch Fever Pitch. Do come back after. »

Ground Control to The Splinter Generation

by Scott Miller
Like the famed Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, this little project we call The Splinter Generation is rapidly approaching the fourthyear of its six-month projected lifetime. Once an experiment in literary community service, we have burgeoned into a full-scale journal.
Some people might be happy to sit back and admire the achievement, but. »

Id Entity

by Scott Miller
I was having dinner recently with a trusted collaborator who said to me (I am paraphrasing here): “The difference between journalism and blogging is that you can be more raw, less polished, even a caricature of some aspect of yourself”. Like Ginsberg, right? First thought, best thought?
I had decided to give. »

Our Best of the Web Nominations

The Splinter Generation is pleased to announce our Best of the Web Nominations for the last year. A big thanks to all our contributors, and a special congratulations to Amber Sparks, LaToya Jordan, and Timothy Marsh!

We’re going to take a well deserved break until the New Year, though we may be posting a bit here and there.. »

This Post Brought to You by: Kellogg’s Corn Flakes ®

This past week, a tiny internet furor erupted over advertisements in books, stemming, it seems, from an article in the Wall Street Journal. (It’s behind a paywall, but I managed to read a cached version, thanks to Google. Thanks, Google!) Frankly, I just don’t see what the big deal is. We accept that ads are. »

I’m Entitled…

So the other day, I came across this link while reading an essay online.  It’s a Wall Street Journal article from 2008 about our generation… and frankly, it doesn’t seem to like us very much.  According to the writer, we “Millennials” (which the article defines as people born between 1980 and 2001) are a force. »