Storytellersunplugged

If you're a big fan of books, there's a good chance you've attended an author event at some point. You got off work early, skipped dinner, rushed through traffic and pocketed a speeding ticket, all for the chance to see your favorite author at the local bookstore. If you're a writer, you've surely been on the other end. You coordinated schedules, took time off from your day job, sent out emails and facebook invitations, drove halfway across the state with no reimbursement from ... Read More

Melanie: When I was in Haines, Alaska, a couple of summers ago, I was emphatically told by members of the native Tlingit tribe that I am not to use any of their legends or modern stories in my oral storytelling or writing, because I am not Tlingit and would have to have permission from the tribal council, which I would be highly unlikely to get.  In the Haines library (which--perhaps irrelevantly, perhaps not--had recently won the "best library in the US" award for ... Read More

...does not entitle you to behave like an asshole. It's a simple point, but one so many miss. Artists do not get special privileges. They do not get a free pass on behaving badly simply because they have the werewithal to pick up a pen or a keyboard or a paintbrush--or swing around an electric guitar or get before (or behind!) a movie camera (saints preserve us). Nor are they magically exempt from social standards because they are witty, charming, and dashingly attractive ... Read More