Last week in part one of our three-part interview with David Crystal about his new book, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, we discussed the myths about text messaging that he is seeking to dispel. In part two, we explore how the rapid spread of texting has led to changes in attitudes about electronic communication. Crystal also explains how the use of abbreviations in texting is driven by a sense of playfulness with the new medium, both in English and in other languages around the world that have developed texting conventions.  Continue reading...

We asked David Crystal, author of Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, to suggest a reading list about new forms of electronic communication and how they're shaping our language. Here are his recommendations.  Continue reading...

David Crystal is one of the most well-respected writers on language and communication, having published an impressive array of books from The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language to The Fight for English. His latest, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, tackles the facts and fictions of text messaging. In the first of our three-part interview, he explains how persistent myths about the dangers of texting, particularly in his native Great Britain, compelled him to write a book laying out the empirical realities of this novel form of communication.  Continue reading...

The late David Foster Wallace will be remembered as a master of many literary forms: novel, short story, essay. Here's some of his best work.

Infinite Jest

Girl With Curious Hair

Consider the Lobster

One day while reading the newspaper I happened across a small, four-inch item about a woman who infiltrated a drug ring and helped bring down a major distributor in a small town in Michigan. She was a single mother with several children, had no background in law enforcement, and had just lost her oldest son in a car accident. The news story did not give many details about the woman or how she managed to get on the drug task force. It only said that she did so at great personal risk.  Continue reading...

Want to get your poetry published, but you don't know where to start? Take some advice from these books.

Ordering the Storm

How to Publish Your Poetry

Poet Power

2009 Poet's Market