Guidelines

Just as the silkworm spins its soft yet unyielding cocoon, before piercing through the threads of its labor, newly capable of flight, we believe that writing can be a self-sacrificial act of regeneration, and that one's personal experiences can be easily woven into historical literary conversations, create an active community in the here and now, and lead to boundless societal change in the future.

Silkworm Reading is a new independent online community founded and administered by Michelle Chen, a devoted Stony Brook University undergraduate studying English and Creative Writing to usher in 2022. Upon realizing that young students lacked information and guidance about the benefits of intensive study of literature and the humanities, as expressed through jarring comments while engaging with members of her family and community, she wanted to share her interests with the entire campus and beyond.

In the process, we hope to form an exclusive network of literary scholarship and appreciation, young leaders in communication, empathy, creativity, self-expression, and interdisciplinary uses of texts. Silkworm Reading is focused on providing a community to share best practices, peer to peer learning, and support each other in all professional and personal growth. 

With a focus on casually reviewing literature and other forms of media, we aim to provide a fun compendium of fascinating new reads and encouraging commentary and debates. However, each post has a welcoming origin -- daily 1-2 pg. responses in English, Writing, and related classes in the humanities. Students of Asian ethnicity are especially encouraged to submit.

In order to prevent discouragement, intimidation, or loss of interest in English and literary studies, publicizing each community member's favorite 1-2 page short responses means expanding one's writing audience from solely professors and TAs to a wider community of fellow readers and writers. This process also encourages more effort and dedication into making short class responses interesting and snappy in lieu of major projects.

Guidelines: 

1. We heavily lean toward reviewing English, Asian, Asian American, and BIPOC LGBTQIA+ classic literature and media for the sake of this blog's original mission, as an educational tool for a specific population underrepresented in the humanities. As part of the founder's goals, they should be styled loosely in the form of literary criticism, with a preference for autotheory (a blend of critical and personal writing). However, send your best responses over! 

2. Follow the existing post structure and formatting: we are looking for approximately 100-1000 words. Each post title must be the title of one or a few works, there must be one photo and quote at the beginning of the post, and block quotes should be indented. Add as many interactive features as desired, such as links to articles, contextual information, videos, and music, but keep the blog's style and tone in mind. 

3. Send your first post to michelle.chen.5@stonybrook.edu for initial permission to post. It may be rejected or approved with commentary. Once it is approved she will give you permission as an author to post independently at any time. Any comments or posts not following the above guidelines may be removed immediately without notice. 

4. With each blog post published, the author must make one interesting comment on an existing post. This process mimics the call-and-response feedback structure of many English and writing courses that establishes community support and personal satisfaction, yet can be infrequent and inconsistent in classes. Please aim to respond to posts with fewer comments, and to be civil and avoid discriminatory language at risk of being reported for abuse or banned. 

Join the conversation and share why we should experience your favorite book or piece of media!