Where the Writers Are
Red Room is live, well … beta testing.
If you haven’t heard about this project, it’s a social and creative network for writers. Based in San Francisco, they’ve rounded up some significant literary luminaries, such as Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, James Patterson, Clive Barker, Candace Bushnell, and Khaled Hosseini, Alice Walker, and Salman Rushdie, among others. The site features blogs, videos, podcasts, and the creators promise to roll out new community features in the upcoming weeks.
While I’ve read in articles that demand for Red Room is off the charts, I’m skeptical about how vital and robust the community with be. With 16 authors listed un the poetry genre, many of the initial blog posts are quotes pulled from old magazine articles. How active will these authors be to foster community?
If you’re a featured author, however, it’s a great place to promote your work.
Since this is a new venture, I hope Red Room finds a rhythm to succeed, because it would be interesting to hear from Maya Angelou about contract negotiations, or what Ishmael Reed thinks about the current state of poetry in the U.S.—that’s the down and dirty stuff I want to know as a writer. Anyone can join, so check it out.
If you haven’t heard about this project, it’s a social and creative network for writers. Based in San Francisco, they’ve rounded up some significant literary luminaries, such as Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, James Patterson, Clive Barker, Candace Bushnell, and Khaled Hosseini, Alice Walker, and Salman Rushdie, among others. The site features blogs, videos, podcasts, and the creators promise to roll out new community features in the upcoming weeks.
While I’ve read in articles that demand for Red Room is off the charts, I’m skeptical about how vital and robust the community with be. With 16 authors listed un the poetry genre, many of the initial blog posts are quotes pulled from old magazine articles. How active will these authors be to foster community?
If you’re a featured author, however, it’s a great place to promote your work.
Since this is a new venture, I hope Red Room finds a rhythm to succeed, because it would be interesting to hear from Maya Angelou about contract negotiations, or what Ishmael Reed thinks about the current state of poetry in the U.S.—that’s the down and dirty stuff I want to know as a writer. Anyone can join, so check it out.
Comments
Love,
Delia
it brought to mind a question for me about you: how do you stay so informed about the contemporary poetry world .... are you in a secret club? :) i'm curious. i seem to stumble upon things like this by accident and certainly could use more practical sources of news/information.
--carolee
(I hope your foot is OK.)
I agree. I was there for a bit but still couldn't figure out what they are trying to accomplish.
As for poetry news, no secret club. I go to the Poetry Hut blog run by Jilly Dybka. I also check the Poetry Foundation's news feed. And PWADJ has great info, too.
Wishing you the best for 2008!
The Red Room Writers Society and Redroom.com are separate entities. The Writer Society is an in-person writing program founded in 2002. It was and still is a place for writers to get together and finish writing those books they've been putting off. Redroom.com is a new online community where authors and readers can engage in intelligent conversation about the issues they care about. Right now much of that conversation is taking place in our blogs: http://www.redroom.com/blogs , the newest post being from award winning author Amy Tan.
January is quite right; it really isn’t clear what to do when you first arrive at Red Room, besides posting blog comments and writing book reviews. We will be launching many new features soon, including places for members to post their writing, ways to connect with peers and the authors on the site, get advice and support, and find great new works, including poetry. If anyone knows of any poets they would like to see become a part of Red Room, please email me at: thomasdotson@redroom.com we will be happy to contact them to see if they are interested in joining.
Have a Great New Year!!!