K. Makansi's Blog, page 9
May 26, 2015
Book Review: Vermilion by Molly Tanzer
A few weeks ago I read a rave review of a book called Vermilion on NPR’s website. I am the type of person who typically believes everything NPR tells me, so when they wrote that the book is “a unique, hearty, thought-provoking romp that rewrites history with a vivacious flourish,” and described its protagonist as “one of the most […]
May 15, 2015
Abstraction: Enlightenment
“‘We hear so much of the splendid stone bridge of Joshu, but I see nothing but a miserable old rustic log bridge.’ Joshu retorted, ‘You just see the rustic log bridge, and fail to see the stone bridge of Joshu.’ ‘What is the stone bridge then?’ ‘Horses go over it, asses go over it.'” – […]
May 11, 2015
Abstraction: Revolution
“Syria’s war has claimed more than 130,000 lives. At least two million of its citizens have fled into neighbouring states and more than two million others have been displaced within its borders. Industry and economy has long ground to a halt. Hope too has been on a relentless slide. Syria has six Unesco sites, representing at least […]
May 8, 2015
Abstraction: Identity
it does not matter where i go because you are not there Mantra:�� “The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. […]
May 6, 2015
Devotional: Multitudes
I contain so much of you�� “Who taught you to write in blood on my back? Who taught you to use your hands as branding irons?” ��� Jeanette Winterson (Written on the Body) –��Image: Salvador Dali,��Figure with Drawers for a Four-Part Screen
May 4, 2015
Devotional: Love Letters
We’re no good at sending love into the world, and even worse at receiving it. I want to shout it from the rooftops, but the streets are stony and deaf.��How can I crack my��heart to let a sliver of this color out? “All of you in a space full of sounds ��� in the shade […]
May 1, 2015
Devotional: Peasants
Friday. I count the hours in every weekend, wasting them as surely as I waste breath. My generation’s mantra, “live��life to the fullest”, a product of the post-WWI attitude of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” and the roaring growth of the Baby Boomers, has left me obsessed with material things, questing […]
April 29, 2015
Devotional: Loneliness
Wednesday. Loneliness is real, but this is not it. This is the kind of loneliness you have to get used to. This is the kind of loneliness that makes you who you are. How you fill your time now tells the person you are today who to become tomorrow. Will you clutch your loneliness to […]
April 20, 2015
How I Sold My First 10,000 Books
It’s been a crazy year and a half for one Amira K. Makansi. Since I began my journey as an author and a publisher in July of 2013, my co-authors and I have released two books and a novella, all set in the world of Okaria, a futuristic post-apocalyptic civilization. In early April we announced […]
April 13, 2015
In The Language Of Dreams: Why Genre Fiction Deserves To Be Considered Great Literature
Pretension exists everywhere, but sometimes I think nowhere more than in literature. How many of us read The Grapes of Wrath in high school? How about The Great Gatsby? Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter? But, let’s be real: who ever assigned The Lord Of The Rings��to a high school curriculum? Or what about��Dune, Frank […]
