Friday Fridge Clean-Out: Links for Writers, February 8, 2013 Edition

> Can the new retail book site Bookish compete with Amazon?  With backing by founding partners Penguin Group USA, Hachette Book Group, and Simon & Schuster, its odds are perhaps better than most.  Publishers Weekly breaks it down.

> New Conde Nast freelance writer contracts include what the ASJA Word newsletter calls a "nasty surprise" concerning film, TV and other rights.

> Redroom, the popular site where authors interact with other writers and with readers, now has a Classifieds section.

> Why start a new literary journal?  One publisher explains, and asks a few of his journal publisher colleagues to chime in too.

> At Dames of Dialogue, Karen Pullen talks about the challenges (and rewards) of writing a transgendered character.

> Here's a lengthy list of non-contest poetry book publishers.

> Twenty-three outstanding contemporary writers and editors list their 10 favorite essays of all time.  I haven't even gotten to some of the lists yet because I was caught up reading the incisive notes each wrote about how they made their essay choices, like this one from Brenda Miller.

> Finally, if you simply can't get enough of actor Dan Stevens (who plays Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey), check out his essay in the British literary journal Junket, where he's a contributing editor.

Have a great weekend!