Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Decatur Book Festival: Our Shortcomings and Our Triumphs
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Shameless Promotion, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 1:27 pm
As you all hopefully know, the Decatur Book Festival is this weekend. First and foremost, yippee!
Just as in the past two years, the Wren’s Nest will have a booth at the Festival, so you should totally drop by. I believe we’ll be by Church St. on Ponce de Leon. Our booth will be the white one.
Last year Lain drank beer while making Outdoorsman Matt do all the talking.
Things should be similar this year.
Also similar to last year: we will be selling the product of The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.’s hard work. This year it’s called Vernacular.
(Note: This outstanding cover was done by a whippersnapper named Zach who totally needs work. Interested? Email him here: zach@craftymice.com)
To review, Vernacular:
- is comprised totally of artwork and written pieces by Atlanta-area teenagers
- was edited fully by six teenagers who worked on the journal throughout the summer
- is the only publication created by and for the Decatur Book Festival
- sells for $5, and 100% of proceeds go to ensuring we can do the program in 2009
- is totally awesome, and buying it counts as your good deed for the day
So far so good, right? We’ve got a booth on a street everyone can find, our literary magazine came together beautifully, and you’re coming by to say hello and buy things. What could be better?
Well, it would be nice if we had books to sell at the book festival.
Due to our immense and overwhelming popularity (and some guy named Joel Chandler Harris), we’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping some of our most popular books in stock. It seems like we’re ordering them every few days, yet we’re constantly running out.
The worst culprit is this guy:
(This may literally be the last copy we have.)
We’ve currently got about a million copies back-ordered, but we’re not sure if they’ll make it in time for the festival. Cross your fingers for us!
Comments: 2Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. Visits the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Atlanta, Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Storytelling, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:14 am
Welp, the title pretty much says it all.
Let’s do it this way:
- Who: five of our six student editors from the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co., hangers-on.
- What: a tour of the AJC, followed by a brief tutorial in inDesign.
(Nancy, our lovely tour guide.)
- Where: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dummy.
- When: why, just yesterday.
- Why: um, because field trips are awesome, obviously.
- How: We’ve got connections you wouldn’t believe. Actually, you probably would. Tom did it.
So all in all, a great day for our little program.
Though we have set a new goal for the Editors as result of our adventures: when asked things like “Where are you all from?”, ideal answers include things like “The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.” or “A publishing program that’s a partnership between the Decatur Book Festival and The Wren’s Nest House Museum”.
Yesterday’s choice, looking at feet, was only okay.
Reminder: know any writers or artists between the ages of 12 and 18?
Get them to submit their work to submissions@wrensnestonline.com before July 20th! Man alive, they could be published by summer’s end!
Comments: 3The Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. Visits Paste
Posted by: Amelia // Category: High School Hijinx, Shirking Responsibility, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:46 am
Did we mention that the 2008 Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. has officially begun? Probably not, because it did so the day before Wren’s Nest Fest, which erased 40% of my brain.
But! We’re now in the swing of things, with 6 great student editors and three meetings under our collective belt, the most recent of which was a trip to Paste Magazine.
(Three of our Editors.)
Josh Jackson, the Editor-in-Chief, was kind enough to show us around and answer everyone’s questions and generally be way more gracious than he needed to be.
We accidentally interrupted steadfast work in the Metaleap Design studio.
Somehow they were able to regain their composure in order to attend to our highly impatient group. Harumph!
Jose Reyes, Design Director, spent a good chunk of time generally being awesome and giving a side-by-side comparison of the magazine’s relatively new layout versus the old.
It was super neat to go from being like, “I swear, Paste looks different this month!” to learning the specific objectives achieved by the change and why they were chosen.
In short, it was a great trip to a great magazine with a great and kind staff. As usual, we felt lucky to be people who know people.
So thanks to everyone at Paste for guaranteeing the Editors have at least one good thing to say about the program.
(More posts about the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. (both 2008 and 2007) here, here, here, and here. And here.)
Comments: 1Chris Brown is Accidentally Making The Wren’s Nest Popular
Posted by: Amelia // Category: High School Hijinx, Hip Hop Musings, Marketing Tricks, Really?, Technological Advances // 8:06 am
Because Lain is a nerd / Executive Director of a non-profit, he tracks how many people visit our website, read the blog, etc. It’s a good way for us to see if our primary (only?) marketing effort is working, plus he’s a major fan of things like charts. Again, nerd.
The other day he noticed that we had a HUGE traffic increase. The same thing happened the next day. What gives, we asked?
The answer is: Chris Brown, heartthrob and enormous R&B star.
You see, a while back we wrote about how much preteen girls love Chris Brown (OMG a lot!!!!) and included the above picture to illustrate how totally hot he is.
Then, sometime last week Google Images changed their algorithms or logrollings or something and, somehow, we became the first result when you search for “Chris Brown”. Seriously, try it.
Hilarious, right?
Even better is the fact that all of the people (read: teenage girls) searching for “Chris Brown” see the following picture when they’re seeking out their man:
Now, I know that some people prefer the awkward scene above to Chris Brown, but I can’t imagine there’s a ton of overlap between our fans.
… or is there?
Hi new Wren’s Nest blog/Chris Brown fans! Have you heard our theme song? I think it’s right up your alley.
Maybe Mr. Brown will take our present collaboration to heart and record an R&B version of our theme song. I smell Top 40!
Comments: 5May Day at the Wren’s Nest and Photo Gallery
Posted by: lain // Category: Atlanta, High School Hijinx, Historical Quagmires, West End, What Would JCH Do? // 12:13 pm
Well, it looks like the Wren’s Nest is bringing back the May Day Festival. I know this because I read it in this morning’s paper.
Also, because we’re helping organize it. Durr.
If you read the article, you’ll note that there was a May Day celebration here at the Wren’s Nest for over 70 years.
Our amphitheater was built in the 1920s for the celebration, and the walkway that leads up to it commemorates each May Queen from 1909 - 1983.
It was a very formal affair, and quite a big deal to the organizations in charge of the Wren’s Nest before our current non-profit board took over in 1984.
In fact, the May Day festival ended up eclipsing Joel Chandler Harris and the Brer Rabbit stories in terms of organizational priorities. From what I can gather, it was done under the guise of “what Joel Chandler Harris would have wanted.” I think it was more “what they wanted,” but oh well.
The same sort of excuse was used to justify segregation of the Wren’s Nest, and as we now know, that claim was absolutely false.
That said, the May Day festival was a pretty neat tradition. There would be a parade down Gordon Street (now R.D.A.), and it would culminate in our back yard.
We’ve got a scrapbook of pictures from each year, and I’ve included one from each decade below. Have fun!
Mary Colcord was the first May Queen of the Flower Festival. Here she is in 1909.
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Before Ludacris, I suppose this is how you dropped dem bows in Atlanta. Look at the size of those things!
Christine McEachern was the May Queen in 1915. She’s surrounded by: (standing, left to right) Mary Gresham, Julia Greene, Louise Nichols, Evelyn Jordan, Maude Foster, Dorothy Brogdon, and (seated) Kathryn Stoy and Margaret White.
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Elizabeth Camp in 1927.
She’s surrounded by (standing, left to right) Sara Harrison, Madeline Wrigley, Beatrice Robinson, and Sara McCormack. Then, seated: Jane Spink, Charlotte Richards, Virginia Dillon, and Celeste Houston.
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Betty O’Kelly was the May Queen in 1932.
Apparently you had to be escorted to the stage by a boy your same age who handed you the “Queen’s Scepter.” I met the guy who did the escorting in 1944, and he said that his lines were, “O Queen! Here is thy scepter!” because the year before the kid said, “Hey lady, here’s ya’ stick.”
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Probably 1948. These girls look like Rockettes in training or something. As you can see here–this was a pretty big deal, apparently.
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Jane Brooke was Queen in 1949. I like the color of the flowers.
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Some of the ones taken in the 50s and beyond were clearly not taken at the Wren’s Nest. This one is Judy Carlsen from 1958.
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Here’s Judy’s stone. All of them look like this with a couple changes in size and font, and each is in a different state of repair.
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Here’s Kathryn LaRose Wright from 1963.
She’s with John Hunsinger, Paul Jenson, Missy Wright, Kitty Gundt, John Chapman, and Julie Hinton.
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Eugenia Marie Conway from 1975. Flower children meet the Flower Festival.
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Not the best picture quality, but Margaret Lynd Rhodes was the final May Queen, in 1983.
Comments: 8Ding! Publishing Round Two
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, High School Hijinx, Wren's Nest Publishing Co. // 11:56 am
You may recall the awesomeness that was last year’s Wren’s Nest Publishing Co., our summer publishing workshop/camp for high school students. If you’re someone we like, you also probably own a copy of the fruits of our labors, Soy Nut Butter: Nutritious, Delicious, Fictitious. Good work on that.
However, we realize that some (many) of you probably missed out, judging from the copious copies of Soy Nut Butter we’ve retained. (Note: it’s easy to remedy that!)
Maybe you just didn’t get your hands on a copy or missed our literary salon at the Decatur Book Festival. But maybe, just maybe, you are a driven high school student who wants nothing more than to devote your summer to creating, editing, and contributing to a literary magazine.
Buddy, have we got an offer for you. We’re going for Round Two!
(Three of last year’s editors, hawking their wares at the book festival.)
While this year’s ball has just begun rolling, it’s rolling big time. Packets with info and a copy of SNB have been sent to EVERY high school English department head in the Atlanta area. Some of them were even lucky enough to receive a note from Lain and me, asking them to pester their SNB-alum students for details.
But they’re not the only ones who should be pestering! There’s plenty of opportunity for everyone, whether you’re a parent who wants to dump your teenager on us during the summer, a student who thinks your teacher should have definitely mentioned this opportunity by now, or a professional in the area who wants to teach these punks a thing or two about how it’s really done.
(With an eye on the clock, apparently.)
For students, all the info you need is right here. There you can find applications to be an all-powerful editor or a contributor. Adults, if you have something to offer (and boy, I hope you do), just let us know through email, comments, etc. We’re pretty easy to reach.
Game on!
Comments: 2Taking our show on the road
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Amazing Britches, Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, High School Hijinx, Hip Hop Musings // 2:12 pm
People call Lain and I a lot of things: charming, good looking, dashing, hilarious, a “young punk” (Lain only), genius, humble, even “qualified”. But today we were called something so unprecedented, so exciting, so confusing– we were beside ourselves.
Folks, we were called PROFESSIONAL BLOGGERS. Egads!
(Yep, these two totally non-awkward people.)
As part of a Writer’s Conference at Inman Middle School, today we spoke to an energetic eighth grade class about the merits of blogging. Once we got past Lain’s “cool” last name (they were finishing up MacBeth), we dove right into the exciting and money-filled world of professional blogging. Or, you know, what we do.
We mainly focused on what makes a blog different than other written sources, types of blogs, what makes a good blog, and why it’s totally hip to be a blogger. We’ll be repeating our shtick two more times this week.
The students all chose topics they were passionate about and wrote mini-blog posts, which they then edited with a partner and presented to the class. Topics included Colts v. Patriots, Homework v. No Homework, T.I. v. Lil Wayne, Randy Moss v. Va Tech, the attractiveness of Chris Brown, the musical stylings of Chris Brown, the dancing ability of Chris Brown, and Classic Rock v. Alternative Rock.
(Professional eye-catcher and middle school girl favorite, Chris Brown.)
Lain and I somewhat arbitrarily chose our favorite blog, included below. Guest blogger Kiera Hicks wrote a treatise on the merits of recently incarcerated rapper T.I.
“I think T.I. is better than Lil Wayne because his lyrics talk about his life and what he has been through.
He doesn’t talk about a lot of sex, he is honest, he doesn’t smoke a lot, and he helps out his community and tries to make his life better.
Lil Wayne doesn’t have music for adolescents. Lil Wayne’s appearance to me is very unprofessional. I have never seen Lil Wayne wear anything other than a Bape Nape, pocket, white shirt, jeans, and shoes.
T.I. has a professional style of dressing. T.I. has his own style.”
(Indeed.)
Kiera, the moment you trade your love for T.I. for a love of turn of the century folk writers, give us a call.
Comments: 7Bye Bye Butters
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Fame and Fortune, High School Hijinx // 1:27 pm
This Sunday we had our very last Soy Nut Butter meeting. It was bittersweet, to be sure.
As you may recall, Soy Nut Butter is the name of the Wren’s Nest Publishing Co.’s literary magazine created, edited, and awesomed by Atlanta-area teenagers. They created a pretty fantastic product, if I do say so myself, and my pride swelled to a peak as we engaged in the most awkward group hug of all time. Seriously. There was a countdown.
Because we here at the Wren’s Nest are devoted to science above all else, we knew we had to use a flawlessly scientific method to evaluate the Editors’ Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. experience.
Thus I give you our Editors and their Thumbs-Up or Thumbs-Down evaluation.
One thumbs-up! (Nice display, Megan. Very subtle.)
Egan, straight from the ballpark, brings us the second thumbs-up!
And Michael pulls the double! Watch out folks!
Cat, sticking with what we know, brings another Up to the table.
Editor Sallie* with a super thumbs up!
Austin’s thumbs-up is in your face, because that’s just how Austin rolls.
Our shyest Editor, Dina, with the Up.
Uber-Butter Terra is not giving the thumbs-up because a tree fell on her house, but because she loves Teen Literary Magazines, like all cool people.
Awkward group shot!
It’s been a great literary-fueled ride, this Soy Nut Butter, and I couldn’t have asked for better company along the way. I’m gonna miss these Butters, I am.
Oh! But before I forget, if you’re interested in purchasing a copy of Soy Nut Butter, shoot either Lain (lain@wrensnestonline.com) or me (amelia@wrensnestonline.com) an email and we’ll go from there, or send a check to the Wren’s Nest** specifying how many copies you would like ($5 a pop!) with your address. What service!
Thanks everyone, it’s been great.
* Sallie was felled by illness and could not make our final meeting, but this picture captures her finesse nicely.
** 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd., Atlanta GA, 30310
Comments: 5
Decatur Book Festival in Pictures, Part Two
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, Fame and Fortune, High School Hijinx, Shameless Promotion // 1:16 pm
Since Lain has given you a brief run-down of the first day of the festival, I’ll pick up with the early evening of Saturday, which was focused on our brand spanking new teen literary magazine, Soy Nut Butter.
Here are the brave Butters nobly hawking their wares. See how they’re brilliantly using homemade soy nut butter cookies to sell the magazine? You just wish your editors were as creative and clever as our editors.
After taking some of the best showers of our entire lives, the Butters, Terra, and I did things like roll coolers full of questionable lemonade down the street in preparation for the Salon. It was great.
Several Dancers Core was being used by Dekalb Medical Center during the day, so we had some awfully chipper backdrops for the selling of the magazine at the salon. Those are three of our editors at the table, and a young man whose purpose was, as far as I can tell, to get Editor Sallie hummus.
Here’s one of the authors reading at the literary salon, which also had live bluegrass, delicious food, and Lain and I yelling things like–
“Oh man! Nothing would be better than owning a copy of this incredible literary magazine! Thank goodness we still have copies available for purchase!”
Subtlety is not our strength.
For the record, if you’re interested in purchasing your own copy of Soy Nut Butter, do let us know. We still have copies available, and we realize that not all of you were able to come to the festival. While there are very few good excuses for that, color us enablers.
Comments: 1Decatur Book Festival + Wren’s Nest Publishing Co. = Huzzah!
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Decatur Book Festival, Events, High School Hijinx, Shameless Promotion, Victorious! // 8:03 am
Big news!
We just received a call from the AJC print shop — our literary magazine is ready! And the Decatur Book Festival is this weekend! It’s all happening!
Now, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s time for you to catch up. I mean, really. And you call yourself a devoted reader.
If you do know what I’m talking about, gack! How exciting is this?!
In fact, I’ll tell you exactly how exciting this is, and why. With a compelling list!
1. The magazine has come together, seemingly successfully. Which means that the hard work of our 7 student editors is finally coming to fruition. Lain and I are as proud as can be, seriously. For once, there is no irony or sarcasm in what I’m saying. Gross, I know.
The official poster for our magazine, created by one of our editors. Did I not mention the name of the magazine is “Soy Nut Butter”? I like to keep you guessing.
2. We’re having a literary salon for the magazine! How fancy are we, right? The good folks at Several Dancers Core in Decatur have generously donated the space, and Feast, Roly Poly, The Chocolate Bar, and Mediterranean Grill are donating the chow. Heads full of teen literature, bellies full of deliciousness.
3. Soy Nut Butter - the magazine, not food product- will available throughout the festival but, most notably, at all of the official Decatur Book Festival booths. So many locations! So much awesomeness!
4. The Decatur Book Festival is, in only its second year, an absolute go-to for big name authors, little name authors, and generally anyone else who considers themselves a word nerd. Can you think of a better venue for an wee start-up like ours? (If you can, keep it to yourself, jerk.)
5. We have done very few things these last few months that have not somehow been related to the Decatur Book Festival. So, if for no other reason, this is exciting because on Monday, September 3rd, you will hear the city of Decatur heave a collective sigh of relief and accomplishment (can you sigh accomplishment? I can). Which is nice.
Downtown Decatur in its natural state.
Really, there’s too much excitement for just one post. Be sure to check back in the next couple of days as Lain and I continue to emote in blog form.
Comments: 4