I study, teach, and write about things that non-English professors also encounter every day: words and images. Yet when English profs teach these materials in the classroom, and especially when we write about them in academic journals or scholarly books, we sound different.
The Nobel may be Sweden's most famous prize, but the Retzius medal is also quite an honor. That the award this year goes to Paul Stoller is particularly noteworthy because his work is somewhat outside the mainstream of anthropology.
My experience simplifying a development message was last year during the "Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday" campaign. The rallying cry was easy to understand. No child should die from a preventable disease.
Reinvention is a lot like revising a piece of writing. To reinvent, you review what currently is and ask yourself what's not moving the process ahead.
Why the F*%K do we do it? Money? Fame? Love of the process? What is it? Why do we continue to write screenplays when aside from the outrageously arduous task of getting it even remotely right, the odds of then getting it sold and then made and then becoming a hit are...well doubtful.
Alex Winter stops by the Samsung Blogger Lounge at SXSW 2013 to talk about the premiere of his Napster Documentary, Downloaded, an upcoming pilot for AMC, and the status of Bill and Ted 3.
The history of inter-connectedness between culture, media and US interests in the Middle East offers a great contextual window into the ways in which the entertainment industry at once mimics and solidifies foreign policy.
If we approach and accept art on its terms, it will offer us much more than familiarity and comfort; if we think we already know the moral to the story, we stand to miss what is there. There may be no story.
WASHINGTON -– Let us count the ways that Sen. Marco Rubio is already better positioned to be a competitive presidential candidate in 2016 than Mitt ...
When well employed, time travel and prophecy can both increase a story's effectiveness, even as they seem to be short-circuiting it.
Unlike the typical politician, Austen always signals the artificiality of her narratives. If only political narratives -- or all the pundits insisting we need them -- could be as honest. But what politician says, "enjoy the artificiality of my American success story?"
Narrative can draw us in, prompt us to action, change our mindset and entertain us, all at the same time. To harness the power of storytelling you need to find unique moments that can move your audience and combine them with the tools that can truly bring your message to life.
The pundits have declared Mitt Romney the victor. The only remaining question is: was his victory overwhelming, or did Romney only win because Obama didn't?
I remember being mocked by my Hebrew school classmates when they busted me transfixed by my own reflection in the long windows of the temple gift shop like a Jewish mini-Narcissus.
Barack Obama needs a good elevator speech. So does every political activist. It's the quick little speech you give a stranger you meet on an elevator about your group's goal, why it matters, and why that stranger should support you.
At base, creators are not entitled to an audience -- not even famous ones. What happens when an author we love starts to lose our goodwill?
Next time you're feeling yourself pulled out of a novel for whatever reason, give another medium a shot. You may find a new way to read in the process.
The Republicans seem to think that Mitt Romney's personal history better prepares him for the office. Because he made hundreds of millions of dollars in business. But what did Romney do, really?
However, take a more careful look at the past few seasons of LeBron. On paper, at least, he has actually done a lot of the things we claim we want our sports heroes to do.
No matter how long you've been writing, you've probably experienced that panic-induced paralysis known as writer's block. If you want to tame the symptoms of this debilitating condition, here are some home remedies to try.
That's me, at left, listening to campfire stories long ago. "Was your grandmother a lesbian?" I asked. I was responding to a student's question ab...
Everything Romney communicates about his campaign is allowing an impossible-to-shake narrative take hold, an election ender, that he has no core and will say or do anything to get elected.
The next five to ten years represent an unprecedented break in the human journey. We are between stories, or the guiding narratives, that serve as bea...
Drew Westen's leaving race out of his critique of how Barack Obama is playing the game is like leaving computers out of Bill Gates' story, or leaving love out of Paris.
