A fascinating documentary film, Sole Survivor, exploring the fates of sole survivors of commercial airline crashes has been successfully funded on Kickstarter. Congrats!
Philip Roth to cooperate on a biography of his life written by Richard Yates’ biographer.
Speaking of biographies: an excerpt from DFW’s, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story, runs in the New Yorker.
And then speaking of DFW, this weird, cool new project, Infinite Maps, charts all the locations, real and fictional, mentioned in Infinite Jest. It’s part of this whole interactive website. I admit this kind of thing makes my head feel like it might explode, but I bet some fans are going to really dig it.
Rumpus Book Club author, Yuvi Zalkow, interviewed by Meredith Resnick on The Writer’s [Inner] Journey.
A few days ago on FB, I suggested a viral internet campaign called “Women Who Will Volunteer to Blow Clinton If He’ll Run for President Again.” Peg Mokrass, agent to Meg Pokrass, has taken it to video. Not exactly a viral epidemic yet, but some serious hilarity ensues.
While we’re on politics: Steve Almond on the speech Obama didn’t give.
The brilliant Emily Rapp’s memoir, The Still Turning Point of the World, is available for pre-order on Amazon. Cheryl Strayed has this to say: “The Still Point of the Turning World is about the smallest things and the biggest things, the ugliest things and the most beautiful things, the darkest things and the brightest things, but most of all it’s about one very important thing: the way a woman loves a boy who will soon die. Emily Rapp didn’t want to tell us this story. She had to. That necessity is evident in every word of this intelligent, ferocious, grace-filled, gritty, astonishing starlight of a book.”
One of my students, Mike Walzman, just released his debut novel.
Robert Vaughan’s new piece on Fictionaut. I love Robert. He’s an awesome guy who works his ass off.
And Patrick Somerville’s “Trouble and the Shadowy Deathblow,” recommended by One Story‘s Hannah Tinti.
Sunday Rumpus veteran, Natalie Serber, gets a beautiful review of Shout Her Lovely Name from the NYTimes.
I’m reading Zoe Zolbrod’s memoir in progress right now. I have no link for it, just 200+ riveting, kick-ass, psycho-sexually-complex pages that have been making me think nonstop since I picked them up. I’ve been after Zoe for a Rumpus serialization, and am now more determined than ever, so you’ll be able to see parts of it soon.
The Chicago Public Schools start striking tomorrow. After my first writing week all summer, my 3 kids will all be home from school again. The last CPS strike, back when I was a student, lasted almost a month. If I’m not here next week, it’s because I’ve jumped off my roof. Just saying…(uh, go teachers! I’ll be marching with them tomorrow…they’re so in the right in this situation that it doesn’t even bear elaboration, though if you want some, see here. Still, No Writing Time is making me nuts, so that doesn’t mean I’m not a little bitter anyway…wish me luck.)