The most provocative piece I read this week: Anna March’s “Paternity Leave” over at The Weeklings.
Which professions have the most psychopaths?
Jessica Keener interviewed about her new collection, Women in Bed, on The Quivering Pen.
Have you seen this? Three million people apparently have, but I wasn’t one of them: Russell Brand interviews the Westboro Baptist Church.
I kinda love this. Don’t say goodbye at parties–it’s so American!
Cris Mazza’s new memoir is getting great buzz and an outpouring of response from women who have suffered from sexual dysfunction. Here’s Cris on xoJane and here, interviewed by Rae Bryant.
Tim Parrish does the TNB Self-Interview.
I got to have lunch with Rebecca Rubenstein, the Rumpus’ interviews editor, yesterday. Rebecca is closer to my daughters’ age than she is to mine, but when people talk about what’s “wrong” with today’s twentysomethings, it’s clear they have never met people like Rebecca. Or like Leah Tallon, my longtime assistant editor at both OVB and TNB, who has now taken over the Other Voices Books mantle, just like I did at approximately her age. Leah sometimes has to struggle to make rent because the economy is such bullshit that she had to move to Milwaukee just to work at a Starbucks, but despite all that she still has the dedication and selflessness and passion to have spent the past three years giving time for free at OVB and TNB, helping hundreds of writers. It’s clear naysayers of the younger generation haven’t had the privilege of spending time with any of the young women who were so incredibly supportive of one another and putting their hearts on the line in their writing at Other Voices Queretaro last July. Or, seriously, they don’t know Isaac Fitzgerald, who I hope is 30 by now because he’s so freaking successful, but I’m not sure. What I mean is, people bitching about young people today don’t get out much. My daughters are 13, but the generation ahead of theirs seems to me to be setting the bar high and leaving some very formidable shoes to fill, exactly as it should be. I feel pretty okay about who’s next in line to take over the world, albeit sometimes less than okay about the world we’ve left for them to take over.
