Lit-Link Round-up

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Emily Rapp on living a happy life, in the “wrong” order.

Laura Bogart on humanity amidst the apocalypse.

Michele Filgate on literary self-loathing and gender.

Robin Black on her daughter’s search for words.

Austin carries the torch of indie publishing.

The animated Updike.

Writer Alex Shakar’s mother made this strangely moving video–there’s nothing I can say but watch it.

Before the web, hearts grew silent.” Wow. Yes. I do remember what it was to live in an emotionally uncertain world, before we all had access to the answers to our heart’s questions at our fingertips.

I really don’t know a single thing about R Kelly and his music, but this in-depth exploration of the sexual allegations against him is pretty chilling, and unearths a great deal about society and celebrity.

Robert Boswell win’s Press 53’s 53-word story contest.

Quivering Pen’s Best First Lines of 2013.

And here’s Abrams’ book trailer, too.

David Ulin’s Best of 2013 list.

Pope invites the homeless to his birthday party.

What Charles Blackstone read this year, on The Millions.

TV show, Tower Prep, cancelled for having too many smart, interesting girl characters? Christ.

Don’t worry, I wouldn’t leave you depressed: Jennifer Lawrence hides her butt plugs from the maid.


Gina Frangello is the author of four books of fiction and a forthcoming memoir, Blow Your House Down. Her novel A Life in Men (Algonquin 2014) is currently under development by Netflix as a series produced by Charlize Theron’s production company, Denver & Delilah. Her most recent novel, Every Kind of Wanting (Counterpoint 2016) was included on several “best of” lists for 2016, including Chicago Magazine’s and The Chicago Review of Books’. She has nearly 20 years of experience as an editor, having founded both the independent press Other Voices Books, and the fiction section of the popular online literary community The Nervous Breakdown. She has also served as the Sunday editor for The Rumpus, and as the faculty editor for both TriQuarterly Online and The Coachella Review. Her short fiction, essays, book reviews, and journalism have been published in such venues as Salon, the LA Times, Ploughshares, the Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and in many other magazines and anthologies. After two decades of teaching at many universities, including UIC, Northwestern’s School of Continuing Studies, UCLA Extension, the University of California Riverside Palm Desert, Roosevelt University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago, Gina is excited to be a student again at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Program for Writers, where she has returned to complete the PhD she left unfinished twenty years ago. More from this author →