Word count: 241 words
Reading time: About 1 minute
This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help writers.
Have you ever spent any time in a red room? If you haven’t, and assuming you’re seriously interested in reading and writing, race over to the Red Room right now! An online platform created for readers and writers, the Red Room offers fascinating news and opinions on books of every possible genre, as well as a place to buy them.
It earns its name from a real place and a literary tradition. The Red Room is a parlor in the White House created by Eleanor Roosevelt. She established it to provide a place for female reporters who were not allowed to attend regular White House briefings. Eventually, her husband, the President, had no choice but to allow the female reporters to his press conferences.
Initially called the “Writers Studio,” the group began in San Francisco in 2002. By 2008, hundreds of authors, including Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winners, had joined forces to launch The Red Room as an online presence. The material on the site is almost uniformly excellent and you are guaranteed to discover something interesting and unexpected every time you visit.
My surprise for today was the hilariously funny book trailer for Maria Semple’s new book, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I liked the trailer so much, I think I’m going to buy the book!
