April 2014
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The Rumpus Interview with Ashley Farmer
Voices call back to one another throughout Ashley Farmer’s Beside Myself—the breaks between stories sometimes function like key changes, encouraging readers to receive the book’s motifs in different ways…
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The Tale of Two Community Bookstores
Brooklyn has two independent Community bookstores—Park Slope’s Community Bookstore and Cobble Hill’s The Community Bookstore. John Scioli, owner of the latter, tells MobyLives that he founded the original with his ex-wife before they split. Scioli goes on to talk about…
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Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Yes, I’ll link to the earth-like planet discovery too. Carl Sagan sounds like he was a pretty cool dad. The science of funk. How about a bit of 1920s satirical Spanish illustration. Why didn’t neanderthals get autism? (In related news:…
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Not All Genres are Created Equal
Science fiction has a hefty brilliance to contribute to the literary world, but people often scoff at it as light, genre fiction. The Atlantic explores why science fiction is just as, if not more, relevant than non-genre fiction. Science fiction, I’ve always felt,…
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A (Bookstore) Affair to Remember
Springtime makes us think about past relationships, and maybe there are none more romantic than the ones we’ve shared with the bookstores we’ve worked at. Janet Potter writes in The Millions about her own history with bookstores: My life became inseparable from the bookstore.…
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Amazon Guilt
We’ve all felt a little bit guilty saving a few pennies buying from Amazon rather than our neighborhood independent bookseller. But what about Amazon employees—do they experience guilt when shopping at independent retailers rather than with their megastore employer? MobyLives…
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The Post-Pregnancy Body
Belly: There was extra room there for a while, in case he wanted to come back, I suppose.
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The Evils of Irony
At one time, irony served to reveal hypocrisies, but now it simply acknowledges one’s cultural compliance and familiarity with pop trends. The art of irony has lost its vision and its edge. The rebellious posture of the past has been…
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It Ends With Eating a Strawberry
It might be snowing outside, but April is still National Poetry Month, and Tin House has a wonderful interview up with poet Ellen Bass. Read about her writing routine, the Miss America Pageant, expectations, and what it was like to study with Anne…
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Notable Portland: 4/17–4/23
Thursday 4/17: Portland State University presents My Walk Has Never Been Average: A Staged Reading, based on a collection of interviews with Black tradeswomen. Lincoln Studio Theatre, doors open at 5:30 p.m., reading 6 – 7:30 p.m. Free to PSU students;…
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National Poetry Month Day 17: “The Mother In This Poem Is Me or You or Your Mother” by Wendy Chin-Tanner
The Mother In This Poem Is Me or You or Your Mother mother is a falling star a bead of sweat of blood of bread our daily bread on which we fed the thread of life the trouble and strife…
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Missing Borges
Bibliographers are willing to commit crimes to follow their mad desire to own things. Book thefts, forgeries, Borges, and even more intrigue on the Paris Review.