Good news! Your humble Rumpus Sunday editor, who was locked inside the Public Storage in North Berkeley for the better part of last night while helping his nine-months-pregnant friend move, has been rescued by the cops! And today, I’m excited about life and the book blogs because I’m free, so free, and because this week, the book blogs are a little bit brilliant.
Sure, lots has happened in the literary world, and the book blogs have dutifully covered the headlines. But they are also bringing us wisdom — so much so I think that Maud Newton should start handing out MFA’s. Below the fold, headlines, insights from John Updike, Borges and others, plus a hip hop artist who is Poet Laureate of Edmonton and Time‘s made-to-order magazine.
Jacket Copy covers all things Book Expo America, from “the literary version of speed dating” to this thing called a Tweetup.
Tin House has allowed Susan Bell’s essay on the editing of The Great Gatsby — which will be featured in Tin House‘s new book on craft —to be reprinted over at Elegant Variation.
Alice Munro wins the Man Booker Prize.
Ruth Padel resigns as Oxford Professor of Poetry after a series of events that might best be described as a clusterfuck (via Bookslut).
Maud Newton wraps up what many of literature’s greats have said about how and why we write.
Over at Jacket Copy, John Updike tells us posthumously why we write: “All children are alive to the spell of pencil and crayons, of making something, as it were, from nothing; a few children never move out from under this spell, and try to become artists.”
Over at The Guardian, British Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy talks about love poetry and children’s poetry, “Poetry can offer consolation, it can be angry and potent, but all these poems, these moments in language, come from love” (via Bookninja).
In other news, a hip hop artist has been named poet laureate of Edmonton (via Bookslut) and some folks seem to really like Time‘s new made-to-order magazine.
4 responses
As an old fart, I don’t listen to much rap, but I will fight tooth and nail for it’s right to exist. So, it’s good to see what Edmonton is doing.
As for a new Time magazine, made to order…the market is such that this might succeed. Many of us old farts use computers, but wish for comfortable, familiar places to go for news.
Many of us don’t want to see print sources disappear, so if this helps to keep an old “friend” alive, great. Keep your fingers crossed.
Great roundup, thanks – so glad you were rescued (and didn’t have to deliver the baby!)
Sometime, it’s not all in the headlines, but in the subtext. As per the Ruth Padel resignation…
“A remark by Clive James in the Guardian article linked above spoke for a common attitude: ‘Derek Walcott is unlikely to be a menace to young women at the age of 75, but he would have delivered an extremely good series of lectures.’â€
Oh, what total crap. I don’t know Derek Walcott and I have not followed this story, but 75-year old molesters are still dangerous. It’s not about sexual prowess, it’s about power. (Sorry, hit a sore spot.)
so glad you are breathing the air of sweet freedom once again. the walcott-padel shit makes me want to cut my thigh.
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