From Our Staff | December 30, 2013

To close out 2013, we’ve decided to re-post our ten most popular blogs from this past year. We simply looked at the posts that received the most hits and put them together so you can catch up on whatever you might have missed from this past year. Also, really, did you want another list of Best Books or Best Movies or Best Albums or Best LOLCats of 2013? Of course not. You’ve read plenty of those lists/clickbait already, I’m sure.

I hope you enjoy revisiting (or maybe reading for the first time) these posts from the past year. We’ll return with new content next week, and more general tomfoolery because, that’s what we do best.

Onward!

Font and You: The Style Memoir

What does your font say about your writing? Everything! This was a fun post by our anthology editor Tanya McQueen, though, as with all good humor, there is a bit of truth sprinkled in here, too. Pro tip: don’t send us any work written in comic sans.

Short Story Month, Day 28: “The Lady with the Little Dog”

During the month of May, we asked writers to pen a short blog post for us about their favorite short story. We received several wonderful entries, all of which are worth your time. Here is our most popular piece, courtesy of Elliott Holt. Have you gotten a copy of Elliott’s debut novel yet? No? Correct that error now.

Short Story Month, Day 27: “The Sex Lives of African Girls”

What I tell you? Our May celebration of Short Story Month was a big winner! This post comes from writer Misha Rai. She’s particularly impressed with the tradition of oral storytelling in Selasi’s writing, and how repetition enhances this terrific story.

Nora Roberts vs. Vladimir Nabokov

This is not, in fact, about toy Rock Em Sock Em robots named “Nora Roberts” and “Vladimir Nabokov” though that would be a cool post. Instead, this one came from intern Kelly Bohan and, woo boy, did it get a lot of attention, including a rebuttal from another intern, Grace McNamee.

In Defense of the English Major

Intern Tess Malone wrote this summer shandy of a post about, you guessed it, getting a college degree in literature. Here’s a snack:

Studying English taught me how to think critically — to not take things at face value, to challenge, to analyze, to make connections — which are skills you need not just as a journalist but as a responsible citizen.

Writing Beyond Good

Fellow writer and editor Q Lindsey Barrett gave us this wonderful guest blog on getting your work published in literary magazines. She breaks down the numbers (or “odds”), the importance of that ever elusive quality of “voice,” and many other crucial dteails.

On Submissions and the Waiting Forever

No one likes waiting to hear back from literary magazines. It takes too long. So I discussed why that is often the case and how to interpret the silence from magazines, in a hope of reminding both writers and magazine editors that there are people on the other end of all those manuscripts.

10 Things Emerging Writers Need to Learn

A few things I should have known, or would have liked to have known, a few years earlier. This isn’t a perfect or a complete list, but hopefully, at least one or two of these really hit home and get you thinking about how to tackle 2014.

A Woman and Her Poems Walk Into a Bar

Anne Barngrover has had some odd experiences at poetry readings. The blog post alone is fascinating, but this is one of those rare times when reading the Comments section is pretty enlightening, too. In addition, Anne wrote a response that you should definitely check out.

Six Poems Every Woman Needs to Read

Okay, so we slipped in one list here. Hey, sue me. Anyway, Anne responds to Oprah Winfrey’s list of poems that every woman should read with a few suggestions of her own. We like Anne’s list better.

Hopefully this catches you up on a few things you might have missed this year, or given you a chance to revisit some of our most popular blog posts. Have a happy and wonderful new year, and we’ll see you on the other side of the calendar page!

Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye