We’re about to kick off a new annual tradition here at LitKicks: a review of the year’s big stories in literature.

These types of summaries are popular for other creative forms, and in fact I can effortlessly rattle off several other yearly summaries, just off the top of my head. The year’s big stories in music? Well, there’s the emergence of crafty, instrumentally skilled singles bands like Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and there’s the continuing overflow of …

It is often said you should “write what you know”, but just how far you’re willing to go is sometimes a story in itself. LitKicks member Andeh posed the following question about writers and their subject matter.

Imagine you wrote a novel that had to do with people or places you knew; if you put it out, it could bring you fame or fortune — but also could potentially hurt or bring scandal to people or places you knew. In such a …

Near the beginning of Gary Snyder’s new book, the poet asks, “Who wouldn’t take the chance to climb a snowpeak and get the long view?” While the question is part of a piece about climbing Mt. St. Helens, it can be read as an invitation as well — who wouldn’t take the chance to follow him into Danger on Peaks and see the view? The long view — mountains and loved ones (past and present) and the land — offers glimpses of “beings living …

Recently, Mark Coburn (WIREMAN) offered the following observation about writers and their personal approach to writing:

“An interesting discussion might center around everyone’s comments about being yourself in your poetry. Being honest in your writing and letting the essence of your being be revealed, as opposed to writing as a different personality all together.

I’m not mentioning any names but I keep noticing that some of my fellow writers feel a need to become a different persona. I tried once several years back and …

Google recently announced a plan to begin working with the New York Public Library and some major university libraries from Harvard, Oxford, Michigan and Stanford to make the most important printed texts of the world available for online searching.

This is the second major literary initiative by Google this year, following a program called Google Print that allows the web-based search engine to search inside books.

Opinions are divided about Google, an American corporation based in the Bay Area. The company seems socially progressive — …

Please write us a poem for December, or for Christmakwanzukkah, or for any other reason you can think of …

A few weeks ago I mentioned a new poetry/music compilation CD titled reVerse. After reading the descriptions and track list on the reVerse website, I was very curious to check out this collaboration of writers, performers and musicians, especially since I saw one of my favorites, Li-Young Lee, included on the roster. I’ve been listening to the CD for a few weeks now and I’m pleased to say it exceeded my expectations and has given me a new perspective on how poetry, performance and …

A new movie, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, is coming out this Friday. This is actually a very big deal if you’re a kid or a teenager who’s been reading the book serial, which is up to number 11, The Grim Grotto, by now.

When I first saw this book in bookstores, I thought it was a blatant Harry Potter rip off. A kid with glasses on the front cover, evil forces, and a teasing pseudo-Gothic style … I’d seen this before. …

Because everybody’s been working for the weekend, it’s time to relax and have some good, old-fashioned storytelling fun. To get your creative juices flowing, I’ll give you a title and a few elements for you to work into a (short) short story. You’re free to use these elements as major plot points, or not, but you should try to get all of them into your work. Ready?

Title:
All She Told Me

Story Elements:
– A rocking horse
– A Palm Pilot
– A suitcase full …

Shamatha asks:

What is it about poetry that makes it in the minds of people the highest form of literate expression?

What I mean is, why is poetry often used as a metaphor or adjective, while say, novel writing, or even songwriting, never or rarely is?

(A sunset is poetic. Muhammed Ali was ‘poetry in motion.’ Why not a novelistic sunset? Why was Ali not ‘prose in motion?’

Poets are often described as seers or prophets, while prose writers rarely are, which would imply that the poet …