Will or Ill-will?

Looking at my archives, I now realize that I’ve been posting comics for just over a year. (Though somehow I’m still only on image #50. Shouldn’t it be 52?) To anyone who’s been reading that long as well, thanks.

This week I found out I’ve been selected as an intern for the 2012 VIDA Count (which means I will be counting, counting, counting), and I’m proud to be involved with such a talented and fearlessly intelligent group of people.

Which reminds me, the VIDA blog HERKIND posted a fantastic and thought-provoking interview with Lidia Yuknavitch and Vanessa Veselka yesterday. In it, they talk about the elements of human experience (and, specifically, female experience) that can only be explored by female writers – and about whether such things can properly be said to exist. (So, you should read this interview even if you take issue with essentialism.) Personally, I really liked what Veselka had to say here: “While there are books that could only have been written by a woman, we can also say that there are books that could have only been written by Marguerite Duras with her particular set of experiences, aesthetic sensibilities, sentence rhythms, etc. I think it’s an issue of scale.” But both women bring up points worth exploring, and as Yuknavitch said, “I’m glad we don’t all AGREE on these topics. how dull and static that would be.”

In other news, I’d never read Melissa Ginsburg’s poetry before, but now I have, and so should you.

And finally, Sharon Olds has new poetry up at TriQuarterly Online. Worth it, worth it, worth it.