Fan Art Contest (Open to all)! OWLS Virtual Convention

Welcome to the month-long virtual convention (official name pending) hosted by the OWLS! As part of the convention, I'm hosting a fan art contest with a prize for the first place winner. You can view the fan art gallery here! The global pandemic lead to the cancelation of beloved conventions around the world for the …

Genre: How We Know What We’re About to Read, Watch, Play, or Hear

Everyone has types of stories that they tend to like, and types that they do not. I myself will read or watch most things with even a hint of magic in them. These story types each have their own name like fantasy or romance, and they help us talk about and categorize the works that we like. This is genre, the literary device we're covering today! We won't be delving deep into any one genre to understand its features today, but if you have a genre you want to know more about, feel free to ask about it in the comments or connect with me on Twitter or Instagram...

No One Struggles Alone, Exploring Dual-Vulnerabilities in The Prince and the Dressmaker [OWLS June Blog Tour: Vulnerability]

Individuals celebrate LGBTQ+ visibility everyday using the seemingly endless mediums available to us, including the narratives found in pop culture. Using creative mediums, we tell the stories of LGBTQ+ characters, and sometimes ourselves, in order to keep that visibility alive all year long and often tell the stories of our own vulnerabilities. One such pop culture work worth celebrating this month is Jen Wang’s The Prince and the Dressmaker.

Symbolism Saturday: Mother’s Broom in Kiki’s Delivery Service

Welcome to Symbolism Saturday! For anyone new to Symbolism Saturday, this is a bi-monthly Saturday special that I originally started sharing on Instagram and Twitter. In these posts, I highlight an example of symbolism in pop culture in a bite-sized exploration. Today, we're taking a look at a symbol from the anime movie Kiki's Delivery Service. 

Symbolism Saturday: The Half-Life Crowbar

Welcome to Symbolism Saturday! For anyone new to Symbolism Saturday, this is a bi-monthly Saturday special that I originally started sharing on Instagram and Twitter. In these posts, I highlight an example of symbolism in pop culture in a bite-sized exploration. Today, we're taking a look at a symbol from the game Half-Life.

Exploring Grief Through Playing Rime [OWLS August Blog Tour: Journey]

People say that life is a journey. Though this saying is true, it's not entirely accurate. Actually, life is made of many different types of journeys starting and ending at different points in our lives. Some of these journeys are fun and uplifting, such as creating a new blog, starting a family, climbing a mountain, or getting a degree. Others are more difficult, and often turbulent experiences. Today, I wanted to take a look at one of these difficult types of journeys as explored in the game Rime: grief...

Dramatic Irony: What They Don’t Know, But You Do

Recently, we took a look at verbal and situational irony in Futurama. Today, Futurama returns for another foray into a third type of irony: dramatic irony. Now that you're used to thinking of irony as the opposite of reality (kind of), stick a pin in that. Dramatic irony throws this rule out the window. Dramatic irony  creates the kinds of moments that cause you to start yelling at the characters on the screen to stop what they're doing right away...

Verbal and Situational Irony: Putting the Funny in Futurama

Comedy shows offer many great examples of irony because the comedy genre often takes advantage of irony in order to produce hilarious or unexpected outcomes. Futurama is especially good at using irony, and even talks about irony in the episode "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings"...

Keyboard Thoughts 1: Characters Beyond Worlds (Community Question)

Every month, I'll be asking two prompt question that are open for others to answer (you don't have to be a blogger, and you don't have to be a regular Pop Culture Literary visitor to participate). One question will be a fiction question to spark the imagination of those who enjoy writing creative pieces. The other will be a non-fiction piece designed to ignite conversation. You only need to answer one, but feel free to respond to both if they resonate with you...

Pop Culture Grammar Bytes: Its Vs. It’s

What does pop culture (cartoons, manga, comics, anime, videogames, books, TV shows, movies, etc.) have in common with grammar? A lot more than you might think! This month, we're using pop culture to examine the difference between it's and its...