April 2014
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Dispatch from the Carnival #3: Bloodlust
What does not occur to me at the moment of this bloodlust, will not until much later, is that I am actively seeking the violence. I want to witness the worst.
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Figuring Out What Essays Are
What’s the difference between an essay and a novel? Teju Cole considered that question in his 2012 essay, “The White Savior Industrial Complex,” writing that essays have points, while novels do not. While Cole continues to stand by this essay, he…
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The New York Comics and Picture-Story Symposium: William Anthony and Jonathan Bass
The New York Comics & Picture-Story Symposium is a weekly forum for discussing the tradition and future of text/image work. Open to the public, it meets Tuesday nights at 7-9 p.m. EST in New York City.
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The Beats and Their Women
While their politics and art were radical and dangerous for their time, the Beat Generation’s views toward women were not that much different than those of the man in the grey flannel suit they rebelled against. Women played an important…
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The Last Poem I Loved: Richard Siken’s “Scheherazade”
Tell me, Richard, that I, too, will never get used to this.
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Hair-Combing with Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Gabriel García Márquez accolades continue to roll in—over at The Paris Review, the complete text of Silvana Paternostro’s oral biography of Márquez is available. It’s full of enlightening tidbits from the author’s friends and family, like: GUILLERMO ANGULO: His greatest inspiration was his grandmother. One of his…
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Just Another Sap in the Night
The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky and Death, Colson Whitehead’s new memoir about his participation in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, will be out on May 6th. NPR just published an excerpt: After a few phone calls, the administration released…
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National Poetry Month Day 29: “City of Eternal Spring” by Afaa M. Weaver
City of Eternal Spring My mind rises up as the silos of interchanges, streams, passages of myself in floating layers so nothing can connect, and I dream emptiness on ships sailing to new places for new names, this ship my…
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The Emancipation of Digital Reading?
Is it possible to read War and Peace on an iPhone? In the Pacific Standard, Casey Cepp considers whether apps can actually help us become better, more thoughtful readers: This literary diet will not be for everyone. But the emancipation of digital reading habits, like those of…
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Ruby by Cynthia Bond
Catherine Carberry reviews RUBY by Cynthia Bond today in The Rumpus Book Reviews.
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No Reading Necessary
Literary history has two sides, I think. One is the normative side: deciding what is good and what is less good. The other is the explanatory side. It’s two very different modalities of thought, and I’ve always been inclined toward…
