Feminism is dead! Long live feminism!
What do Lauren Cerand, Emma Straub, and Tayari Jones have in common with Gay Talese and Joan Didion? Bow-down style, that’s what.
Mellisa Chadburn’s round-up of the best 8 literary spots on the internet. Both The Rumpus and TNB make the list (thanks, Melissa!) I once spent about 20 minutes listening to a semi-famous, married man at a bar rhapsodize about how devastatingly hot Melissa is. The rest of us kept saying, “You know she’s not straight, right?” but nobody said, “Honey, that isn’t even why she’s never gonna sleep with you,” because really it was kinda cute, and nobody wanted to burst his bubble.
I didn’t use to like Sarah Silverman, but she’s won me over (I’m sure she’s sleeping better nights, knowing this!) due to bits like this, on the Black NRA.
I’m maybe the last person in America to see George Saunders and Stephen Colbert discuss the nature of the short story, but in case you’re like me, you’re welcome.
By the way, George Saunders’ daughter works at this Chicago book store, apparently. I go there a lot but I’m not sure which one she is because I’m not the girl who would ask that. I am, however, the girl who pees a lot, so she has probably at some point given me or one of my kids a bathroom key.
Apply to Millay Colony.
Kevin Sampsell’s forthcoming novel, This Is Between Us, is coming fast.
Washington State book awards.
I’m not quite sure why (I think Anna March was the impetus, as is true of many things), but this nearly-two-year-old essay of mine was making the rounds this week showing up on people’s FB pages, which was really touching to me, especially with my dad fresh out of the nursing home and back home with us…and gearing up for his 92nd birthday at the end of the fall.
Art Edwards counts down the 20 top rock novels.
A interview with of Tim Parrish’s Fear and What Follows, on Bookslut. I think Tim once wrote me a really sweet note about an early short story of mine, “Scar,” and left it on my book fair table at AWP. This would be about 14 years ago. I think it was him–otherwise it was some other Tim–but that’s not the kind of thing you ask someone later when you read about his book and think, Hey wasn’t he the guy? He may not have been the guy, and we don’t really know each other. But whoever that guy was, it was my first fan letter, and it blew my socks off.
And Matt Bell interviews Rumpus alumn, Susan Steinberg.
An estrogen surge among the 5 Under 35. I admit it’s kinda nice, with how few women writers have been on these kinds of lists the last x number of years.
I’m suspicious of anything called “What Editors Want,” but there is some good stuff here that submitting writers should read.
