Digital Digest: The “Single-Sitting” Revolution
July/August 2012 Adrian Versteegh Despite worries that digital media sounded the death knell for serious, immersive reading, publishing platforms such as the iPad, Kindle, and Nook have given rise to...
View ArticleThe Written Image: Antigonick
July/August 2012 Staff In this issue we offer a look at a new, illustrated translation of the Antigone of Sophocles. Antigonick, a collaboration between poet Anne Carson and poet and artist Bianca...
View ArticleDark Room Redux
July/August 2012 Rochelle Spencer Twenty-five years after poets Thomas Sayers Ellis and Sharan Strange founded the Dark Room Collective as a community for established and emerging African American...
View ArticleLibrotraficante Takes Back the Book
July/August 2012 Belinda Acosta In a fight against the controversial Arizona House Bill 2281, which effectively bans ethnic-studies classes and curricula, novelist Tony Diaz and other members of the...
View ArticleQ&A: The NEA’s New Literature Director
July/August 2012 Noah Charney As he steps into his new role as the NEA’s literature director, Ira Silverberg speaks about the books that first drew him to literature and how he’s currently serving the...
View ArticleA Never-Before-Published F. Scott Fitzgerald Story, Colson Whitehead's Rules...
Evan Smith Rakoff This week's New Yorker includes a never-published story by F. Scott Fitzgerald; novelist Colson Whitehead shares his eleven rules of writing; Alexander Chee examines America's...
View ArticleCloud Atlas
See what all the buzz is about with this extended trailer of Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski's adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas (Sceptre, 2004). Starring Tom Hanks, Halle...
View ArticleJonah Lehrer Resigns, Literary Feuds, and More
Evan Smith Rakoff Jonah Lehrer resigned yesterday from the New Yorker after admitting he fabricated quotations; the Baffler looks at the case of Adam Wheeler, who is serving a year in prison after...
View ArticleGore Vidal
The outspoken author and critic is seen here in conversation with Jay Parini at the 2009 Key West Literary Seminar. Vidal had been sick for some time and died Tuesday of complications from pneumonia at...
View ArticleHe Said, She Said
Write a story in which you present no detailed descriptions of the characters, major or minor. The information the reader gleans about the characters in the story—their motivations, their gender, their...
View ArticleGore Vidal Dies at Eighty-Six, the Beinecke Library’s Recent Ezra Pound...
Jenny Xie Gore Vidal dies at eighty-six; Yale's Beinecke Library announces recent acquisitions of Ezra Pound letters and manuscripts; J. K. Rowling's literary agency withholds advance copies from...
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Natalie Serber
"There are two visual artists, diametrically opposed in their intent, who I look to for inspiration. First is the photographer Gregory Crewdson. His extravagantly staged photos are mysterious and dark...
View ArticleMaira Kalman
"Wonderful things happen when your brain is empty," says artist and author Maira Kalman as she shares her thoughts on the difference between thinking and feeling, the inspiring power of walking in the...
View ArticleInvincible Summer
The summers of youth--and the unparalleled magic carried with them--have inspired many great works of literature. In "Once More to the Lake," E. B. White's classic coming-of-age essay about the August...
View ArticleIntentionally Incoherent Erotica is Best-Seller, Stephen Burt on Women's...
Evan Smith Rakoff Penguin's Berkely Books snapped up Sylvain Reynard's Gabriel's Inferno and Gabriel's Rapture for seven figures; an intentionally incoherent book of erotica created by an online...
View ArticleThe Blurbs of Gary Shteyngart, How to Fight Pirates, and More
Evan Smith Rakoff Salon rounded up its favorite book blurbs from prolific blurber Gary Shteyngart; App Newser explains how to fight off book pirates; Maura Kelly details what happened when poetry...
View ArticleRejection
For anyone who's received a rejection letter recently, Open Road Media presents this short viedo, featuring Nile Southern and Kaylie Jones, reminding us how even the best novelists experience the...
View ArticlePreface to a...
Write a poem whose title is “Preface to________.” Fill in the blank. Is the poem a preface to a love note? A preface to a confession? Write the poem as if it were an introduction to another written...
View ArticleStephen King Announces Sequel to The Shining, Paulo Coelho Trashes Joyce's...
Evan Smith Rakoff Amazon is now selling e-books in the United Kingdom in greater numbers than print; a new start-up, Togather.com, intends to to help authors revive the book tour; Stephen King...
View ArticleRemembering David Rakoff, and More
Evan Smith Rakoff Author David Rakoff has passed away at forty-seven; Forbes lists the top-earning authors; Charles Simic laments the lost art of writing postcards; and other news. Page 1This is all...
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