Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

News Source Amazon the New Library? Lauren Hazard Owen with paidContent covers the early stage of Amazon’s venture into e-book lending . Similar to Netflix and a library, the service would be made available to their Prime members. The venture leaves more questions than answers at this point. Do you think e-book lending through Amazon will create problems? Source Interview with Haruki Murakami Enjoy Haruki Murakami’s interview as The New Yorker’s fiction editor discusses his novel 1Q84 (hitting U.S. shelves in late October) and the excerpt, “Town of Cats,” available online and in print. The setting of 1Q84 is 1984, and Murakami struggled with the lack of technology. Have you faced similar challenges when dealing with settings in your stories ?     Source Vintage Dust Jackets Check out these vintage dust jackets for novelists Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, J.D. Salinger, etc. Which one is your favorite? So...

News Innovations in Reading Prize, 2011, Goes To… My Own Book : Burt Freeman worked to create opportunity to increase literacy among New York City students. “The concept behind My Own Book is amazing in its simplicity: Third-grade children from inner-city schools go on a class trip to a bookstore where My Own Book volunteers help the children purchase $50 worth of books to help start and build their own personal libraries.”  Kore Press : Currently, these literary activists are creating social change through three different projects that stray away from book form. They will use “t-shirts, video PSAs, readings, podcasts, poems wrapped around tampons and loaded into a repurposed tampon machine that travels to public restrooms, a 40-foot banner, a blog, a newspaper ad, posters in elevators, coffee cup sleeves and repurposed political yard signs.” Electric Literature: The quarterly journal reaches their audience through Twitter, YouTube videos, iPhone and iPad apps. They even crea...