November 2015
-
The Day Jobs That Influence Our Writing
At the New York Times, writers Francine Prose and Leslie Jamison explain how their past jobs—at a morgue and in kitchens—have taught them about writing: But it was another truth — the humility of that kitchen, confronting what I didn’t…
-
This Week in Short Fiction
This week, Bryan Hurt gives us a fabulist story in which CEOs practice blood sacrifice to ensure quarterly profits. (Believable.) The story, “Contract,” went up on Lit Hub on Wednesday and is part of Hurt’s debut collection Everyone Wants to…
-
1 + 1 = 3
In the wild, a natural hierarchy reigns: the weaker, the smaller submit to the big and strong. Alpha gorilla stands to beat his chest, and all the king’s men zip their lips.
-
A Misreading of Misery
NPR traces the history of Stephen King’s Misery from the novel, to the film, and, most recently, to the stage, and argues that this journey may have caused the story t0 lose a few key components: It is almost literally drained of…
-
Next Letter for Kids: Lou Anders
We’re sending our next Letter for Kids from Lou Anders! Lou writes to us about his love of maps of imaginary places and how they make those places real. He’s included lots of color photos of maps! Don’t miss out on…
-
Notable Chicago: 11/20–11/26
Friday 11/20: Micah Ling, Douglas Light, and Martínez Pompa share selections from their respective collections at Uncharted Books, 7 p.m. Benjamin Kelner and Anne Kasdorf chat about their Not For Tourists Illustrated Guide to Chicago. The Book Cellar, 7 p.m.…
-
Lorin Stein, Defender of Ambiguity
With a very few exceptions, everything in the book was written by someone in his or her 30s. Nowadays that seems to be the age at which many writers come into their own. The moment when they have something to…
-
Balancing Motherhood and ‘Writerhood’
Over at Lit Hub, Katy Simpson Smith discusses finding the time to write as a mother, and the difference between claiming the term “writer,” and claiming it as a job: Here on this Farm, this midwifery utopia, I am surrounded…
-
Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems by Robin Coste Lewis
Diana Arterian reviews Robin Coste Lewis’s Voyage of the Sable Venus today in Rumpus Poetry.
-
The Empathy of Latin America
I can’t say I was surprised by the level of empathy my barber expressed for the victims of the Paris attacks, though I was intrigued by the empathy of a man whose daily life is so intertwined with the drug…
-
HORN! REVIEWS: Jamaica Inn
It took Hitchcock and a team of writers to manage it, but this novel is unkillable.
-
Dan Weiss’s Morning Coffee
Evidently we learned nothing from the Japanese internment camps. (Not to be political and alienate people here, but if you think letting in refugees is a problem you’re wrong and a probably a bad person.) Today in alarmism: maybe a…