Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 109
August 14, 2010
lemons
I'm not sweet. When people are asked to describe me, "sweet" is not a word that comes to mind. I know that—I own it. I'm a Scorpio; sugar just isn't part of our chemical makeup, which might explain why I crave sweets so often…
When life hands you lemons, you're supposed to make lemonade—but what if you have no sugar? The Brooklyn Book Festival is coming up in September, and while the schedule of events hasn't been posted yet, there's a list of invited authors on their website. It'll be...
August 12, 2010
fool proof
Ok, there are endless color combinations I could use for this cover, but I think this is it:
six degrees
So I'm reading Efrain's Secret right now, and realized I need to follow up with Sofia Quintero about doing an interview…then I go to Facebook and Sofia's posted two awesome links:
1. My Brown Baby ~ author/mom Denene Millner asks why she can't find books that feature black children on the shelves of her local Borders store…
…which, of course, made me think of Ari and her letter-writing campaign to get Borders to "act right." Link #2 also had Ari's name written all over it:
August 8, 2010
second chance
If you missed my interview with poet/performer/publisher DuEwa Frazier, you can listen to the entire segment here. It was a great conversation!
big dig
Later on today at 5pm I'll be a guest on DuEwa Frazier's web radio show, Rhymes, Views & News—feel free to call in!
I didn't sleep well last night; was up late poring over my mother's family tree and corresponding with her first cousin, Carolin, up in Ontario. If you watched Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. you know that family histories aren't always factually accurate. We're trying to compare notes and come up with an exact date—I have 1820 in my head as the year my African...
August 7, 2010
the best
These young women were just the best—I felt so honored to have the chance to speak to them, and then they graciously agreed to be filmed. And FINALLY I found some readers who are on Team Judah! Mary and Kafela are part of the Sister Sol Rites of Passage program—it's an amazing group run by Cidra Sebastien, Associate Director of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol (you go, girl!). They're always hosting great parties and fundraisers, but accept donations as well—do check out all the great work they ...
round two
Which do you prefer? This is a small chapbook that will be given to middle grade students who have taken my poetry workshop…
August 6, 2010
blind ambition
Do you know what you want for your life? I think I'm gaining clarity on that point, though I still wonder sometimes if it's really possible to be all things in all moments. I want to stop changing hats every five minutes! As I wrote in my Book Smugglers post, I want everyone to know that first and foremost, I am a writer. But I don't want to have to subordinate the other aspects of my identity—I am simultaneously a writer/scholar/educator/intellectual. I want to learn how to paint like G...
August 4, 2010
bearing witness
I'm more than halfway through my adult novel, One Eye Open. It's fascinating to look at this manuscript and see the writer I was back then; this is the story I had to write in order to evolve into the writer I am today. I started this novel when I was 21, and I was clearly still a romantic at that point…by the time I went back to the novel in '98 I was five years older, and things were happening in the city that changed my point of view: in 1996, TWA Flight 800 went down, killing a member o...
August 3, 2010
delish
I meant to post these links yesterday, but got caught up in my own "stuff." So today, allow me to direct your attention to these excellent blogs:
