Short story in “Dear Robot” anthology
My short story “Duo-13-trip” was published in Dear Robot: An Anthology of Epistolary Science Fiction, edited by Kelly Jacobson. The writers in this […]
Author: Marlena Chertock
Marlena is a digital storyteller and poetry editor at District Lit. Her first poetry book, On that one-way trip to Mars, is available from Bottlecap Press.
Summer writing updates
I’m sharing some news about my summer submitting-rampage-turned-success. My chapbook “On that one-way trip to Mars” was selected as a finalist for the 2015 […]
My panel was chosen for Split This Rock’s 2016 poetry festival
If you’d asked 8-year-old, third-grader Marlena where her fable writing would take her, she never would have suggested that she would one […]
On the legitimacy of pen names
There’s been another storm brewing in the writing and publishing world over the Labor Day weekend. The Best of American Poetry 2015 […]
‘On that one-way trip to Mars’ in Crab Fat Magazine
I would go to Mars if I wasn’t too short for NASA’s height restrictions. I had two more space-themed poems published in Crab […]
Taking back tech
This is a really interesting piece by Melody Kramer about how journalists can create and control technology, instead of being controlled by […]
Come on a space journey with me
Today several of my sci-fi themed poems were published in the maiden issue of The Syzygy Poetry Journal, in Constellation: Prosodus. The first issue […]
Representation in journalism
The Columbia Journalism Review published an article yesterday asking why there aren’t more minority journalists in newsrooms. Alex Williams, a PhD student at the […]
Writing about periods — and finding a home for it
I’m so happy my poem “On it” found a home in Straight Forward Poetry last month. This poem is very close to my heart […]
Giving voice to survivors
As the rain poured in Washington, D.C. Wednesday night, a group of a couple dozen people gathered in Chinatown to share poems, […]
U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera says poetry offers solace in times of grief
The next U.S. Poet Laureate has been chosen, NPR reports. It is Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino in the position. Take a listen […]
I can’t wait for The Martian movie! I read the book a few months ago and was so gripped I had to […]
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Male White Poet
Electric Literature published an advice column in early June where a white male poet addressed his privilege head-on and asked if the time for […]
Read this awesome book mostly on the plane ride home and then during the most painful cold/ear infection of my life, hence […]
Science fiction as hope
Matt Gemmel, a Scottish writer and novelist, wrote a blog post about what science fiction is. It’s inherently hopeful, he said. Despite […]
Climbing
While I was in Greece, I pushed myself to hike up the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens. It was one of the most […]
A moving comic about privilege
This is a great moving comic about privilege. Maybe the moving comic will become a new genre? It’s different than gifs and video. The […]
Thanks for the memories, Marketplace!
I finished my internship with Marketplace in December. For four months I did a lot of running around the city to tape […]
‘I dreamed a dream’
I had a dream last night about a CMS version of large, full-size headers. Yes, I’m that nerdy and into code/UI. Anyways, […]
My favorite space books
I, for one, know I’m a space nerd. I admit it. I reblog photos of galaxies and Carl Sagan quotes on Tubmlr. […]