In Praise of Khaled Mattawa
I returned from Ann Arbor full of awe and admiration for my friend Khaled Mattawa. Over the three days of the Rawi conference, he managed to take part in two panels, one on translating Arabic poetry and one on style, welcome each participant, handle numerous logistical details, and contribute to several discussions of literature, culture, and politics.
- Laila Lalami
http://lailalalami.com/2010/in-praise-of-khaled-mattawa/

I chose this blog because it is not a about a famous writer or someone really well known. It is about a friend of Laila Lalami who has done something very impressive. She is proud and wanted to tell people about it.

The Risks of Fiction: On The New Yorker Writers Under 40 List
Part of my motivation had to do with my own ambitions as a fiction writer; another part had to do with my high school teaching job, which included a course in Reading and Writing Fiction. I thought maybe, by studying closely what the magazine was publishing, I’d get a better sense of just why my own stories were getting unceremoniously rejected everywhere I sent them (with the minor exception of a brief but kind note scribbled at the bottom of a form rejection from McSweeney’s.) If not, at least I’d maybe come away with some good stories to teach in class.

In the first few months of the project, I encountered some great pieces of fiction: Tobias Wolff’s “Class Picture” (an excerpt from his novel Old School), Maile Meloy’s “Red From Green,” and Lara Vapnyar’s “Love Lessons, Mondays, 8 a.m.” And I found that, having preemptively committed myself to reading each story, I sat down with a helpful patience, an openness to the experience and to the writer’s art.
- Frank Koverick
http://www.themillions.com/2010/06/the-risks-of-fiction-on-the-new-yorker-writers-under-40-list.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themillionsblog%2Ffedw+%28The+Millions%29

I chose blog because I found it interesting. It talked about a teacher that wanted to improve his writing. He wanted to improve his fiction idea.This is because no one wanted to read his writing, so he went to the New York Times magazine to get inspired. This is an impressive blog because it may also inspire others to pursue what they want to improve.