Claire Hanan - The Official Website for Claire - Journalist, Publisher & Mizzou Grad

Yesterday I received my pre-SPI course assignments for the magazine section and it seems as if I've seen these all before. Probably due to my superior capstone course under ex-Milwaukee Magazine editor John Fennell, these assignments will basically lead to another and quite accelerated Better Brunch launch. First assignment? Brainstorm five magazine concepts and prepare mission statements for each. Checkity check. Second, read the MPA's handbook. Thanks to Jen Rowe, that deserves a check as well. I'm awaiting more assignments, many of which will be manuscript editing, and I'm pretty excited to dive into them.

Enclosed with this round of assignments was the itinerary for the magazine section (first three weeks) of the course. Four words: David Granger, Adam Moss. If you love me, dear readers, these names should need no explanation. And as you might assume, I almost cried with excitement when I learned of this.

For the devoted, I plan to blog my way through the course and what might be the best summer yet. You're very welcome. 

I suppose this is publishing related so I'll continue. Lettersofnote.com is overwhelmingly one of my favorite sites. Edited by Shaun Usher, it's a site composed of images of original correspondence (usually to or from someone of note) accompanied by a transcript (legibility issues abound). Anyway, it's probably one of the most relaxing reads of the day. Some letters are absolutely adorable; like this from R. Reagan to Nancy, and this from Jane Austen to her niece. Alternately, others serve as painful reminders of the way things were: today's note from a former slave, or a letter from a mother who lost all five of her sons to World War II.

Usher provides wonderful context for each letter, and I believe the popularity of the site has increased so much that libraries and museums have begun to donate pdfs of their correspondence to the cause.

As I know all of my faithful readers share in my tastes, I know you'll love Letters of Note.

Congrats, Newsy!

New York Times
Huffington Post

Yesterday there was a dearth of updates on NYMag, and so I clicked aimlessly until I found a slideshow of Lagerfeld's latest collection. What began as innocent boredom ended in nausea. 

He opened with looks like this: light, airy, clean. Sure, I'd wear that on my yacht. 

And this: 

Adorable. Fresh. Pastel prep and bohemian all rolled into one.


Then, this happened:  

What?! Do your eyes hurt as much as mine do? I applaud Karl's use of plus-size model Crystal Renn, but did he have to put her in an ill-fitting sweater, a Wet Seal-esque jean skirt from 2001, and suede boots? Absolutely not. 

Then, Karl, lord of all things fashionable, hit us with this: 

And this: 

First, corduroy as resortwear? Since when? And if a 110-lb model can't make high-waisted ankle cords look good, we've got larger issues. 

What's most perplexing though, is that in this collection Karl showed 87 looks. 87? Were all of those necessary, especially when half of them end up looking like this? Methinks no. 

All photos courtesy of NYMag. 

Salvete, omnes! It's been too long, dear readers. With the capstone project coming to a close and the rest of my coursework, I've regretfully neglected you. Anyway, what follows is an abbreviated update: 

David Simon's "Treme": Amazing. Watch it if only for the music alone. I wasn't sure if some of the holdover actors from "The Wire" would be able to make the transition, but they've become their new characters seamlessly. Check out one of my favorite scenes in which Creighton Bernette (John Goodman) gives the youtube world his thoughts on post-Katrina New Orleans. 

New York: I'm officially landing there June 5th, and will start the publishing program the next day. I can't even begin to express my excitement. 

The capstone: The trip to Meredith Corp. in Des Moines, IA, went fabulously. Details to come in the "Better Brunch" tab. Above is a grab of page in our "Brunch Bazaar" feature. I'm having issues uploading such a large pdf, but the entire mag should be available soon. 

What I'm reading now: 
Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna" 
"Best New American Voices," edited by Dani Shapiro
"Gravity's Rainbow," Thomas Pynchon 

My website: 
What do you think of the new layout of the portfolio page? Let me know!