In this amazing short by UK filmmaker Tom Jenkins, a lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View. This is stunning.

Watch:

Google Lit Trips, my new favorite timesink, maps out the plots and character travels from classic and popular books, like The Grapes of Wrath (above), The Odyssey, and The Kite Runner.

On the origin and evolution of comics.

McSweeney’s debuts an exciting EXCITING new technology to turn literature into 3D (if you’re confused, which I imagine you are, just click here).

Some good tips and resources for getting started in publishing.

This year’s literary buzzword: whales. Vol. 1 Brooklyn has proof.

Lapham’s Quarterly takes a look at the day jobs of some literary greats, including William Faulkner, TS Eliot, and Franz Kafka.

What literature can tell us about the tragedies in Haiti and Chile.

Aaaand to give you reason for solemn thought and introspection this Saint Patrick’s day, here’s a nifty graph you can use to determine if your life either a) sucks or b) blows: Read more »

Oi vey, getting published.  That’s the elephant in the room here in my graduate writing program.  We’re all working on becoming better writers, critiquing one another, reading a ton — it’s incredibly valuable time spent on self-improvement.  But let’s be honest, to what end?  Why are we all doing this?  Because we want to be published.  We want the validation that our work is worth something.  We want to be able to add some italicized names of magazines to our biographies.  We want to write…drum roll please…a book.

Whether or not connections are actually necessary to get published is a separate question.  But if you want to do something other than self-publish, you might have a tough time if you assume that the all-knowing, all-powerful internet can help you find a publisher. Read more »