Yeah.

You knew it was coming.

I memorized this when I was nine. Last year, I taught it to a 9-year-old girl who was a student in a tutoring program with which I was involved, and she taught it to her friends. I like the idea of little girls learning this poem.

• I respect Colson Whitehead’s talent. Truly I do. But am I the only person who reflexively recoils at ‘look, black people are rich, too’ books?
• Amazon has purchased Lexcycle, which makes my fave iPhone e-reader app, Stanza. Please don’t screw it up, Amazon.
• Barnes & Noble is selling audiobook MP3s now.
• A report from the Princeton Romance Conference (Gwyneth Bolton and Beverly Jenkins were among the speakers).

Rapper/author/actor Common (known to his mama as Lonnie Rashid Lynn, and known to me as very, very pretty) has joined the online book world.

His Web site now features the Corner Book Club, a place where teens and other fans of literature for and about young adults can talk about books.

[h/t Literanista]

• RT @SmartBitches Many got women’s social history of Regency from hist rom, AA hist romances show ignored areas of black US history #romcon #
• @lafreya1 Blackmon book looks good. Thanks! Read Wounded, looking forward to Everett’s I Am Not Sidney Poitier. More suggestions, folks? #
• @rawsistaz Chronic insomnia. #
• I’ve nearly made my way through my TBR list. Am taking suggestions on what to read next. What are you reading that’s good? #
• @carleenbrice Have you started the @smartbitches book yet? I thought it was great. Planning to review it. #
• For romance lovers: A funny “rewrite” of one of those money transfer scam e-mails http://is.gd/tyXC #

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Last year, Atlanta’s Emory University scored a coup when it landed the literary archives of author Alice Walker.

Today, those archives, which include the first handwritten draft of The Color Purple, will finally be unveiled.

Walker herself is giving a lecture at 8 p.m. tonight, if you’re in Atlanta and available for such.

What she said.

Hey, in literary news, did you notice that Annette Gordon-Reed won a Pulitzer yesterday for her book The Hemingses of Monticello?

Likewise, Lynn Nottage won one for her play, Ruined, which is about women in The Congo.

Congratulations, ladies!

SOMETIMES I tremble like a storm-swept flower,
And seek to hide my tortured soul from thee.
Bowing my head in deep humility
Before the silent thunder of thy power.
Sometimes I flee before thy blazing light,
As from the specter of pursuing death;
Intimidated lest thy mighty breath,
Windways, will sweep me into utter night.
For oh, I fear they will be swallowed up–
The loves which are to me of vital worth,
My passion and my pleasure in the earth–
And lost forever in thy magic cup!
I fear, I fear my truly human heart
Will perish on the altar-stone of art!

• @claudia_m Hee! My mom’s already on Twitter, and I suspect it wouldn’t take much to get my father-in-law on here, too. #
• @basseyworld Congrats on your good news! #
• @blackhippychick Thanks! #
• RT @paperhaus Layoffs make PW less web-savvy http://tinyurl.com/cv23od #
• @claudia_m I hadn’t seen that. Will take a look. Thanks! #
• RT @PurpleZoe Verb Noire is accepting manuscripts from Spec authors of color: http://tinyurl.com/cvfagu #BlackScifi #
• RT, because I can: New blog post: Reflections on Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Little Brown Baby” http://writeblack.com/?p=641 #
• RT @palmeri: Someone did their homework, analyzed metadata possibly used to filter rankings on Amazon. http://is.gd/s9ae #amazonfail #
• RT @PublishersWkly Amazon spokesperson says glitch caused #amazonfail, not new policy http://bit.ly/q5d5E [Interesting what was affected … #
• More details on how long this #amazonfail thing has been happening from @craigspoplife http://tinyurl.com/ctlco3 #
• @carmennc That just made me LOL. I may or may not have said something similar after that polar bear incident, too. #
• Amazon, *must* be kidding. Petition to protest Amazon’s ridiculous and homophobic new “adult” listing system. http://is.gd/s3gv #amazonfail #

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