First, Brandon Hicks contemplates the strange game of pricing art in “The Forgetful Painter.”
And in the Saturday Interview, Arielle Bernstein talks to illustrator Ijeoma Oluo about her new publication, Badass Feminist Coloring Book, and the surprises she encountered while creating it. Oluo’s initial Kickstarter project outgrew its modest goals by a significant margin. “It was so important to me to show everyday feminists,” she says, “and the small, yet really important things they do to make the world a better place.”
Then, Emily O’Neill’s “feral” poetry collection, Pelican, deals with the illness of the author’s father and the themes of youth and loneliness. Gina Vaynshteyn reviews this “gut-wrenching” and fearless collection, declaring it “a delicate gathering of memories that reads with raw musicality and is crafted fiercely, genuinely.”
Finally, in the Sunday Essay, Stephen Jay Schwartz recounts the story of a story—his short story, “Yahrzeit’s Candle,” and its long journey to publication. The tragic suicide of his father when Schwartz was 20 years old galvanizes his creative spirit and ignites a drive to share his work with others. But the short story takes a backseat to his career in film. More than 30 years later, serendipity presents an opportunity for publication.
