Posts by author
Guia Cortassa
-
The Great Nonfiction Escape
But in the grand scheme of things, immersion journalism and other forms of narrative nonfiction, such as memoir, have done more for me as a reader than as a writer, allowing me to vicariously experience things I’d be too much…
-
House of Library Catalog Cards
The New York Public Library owns an absolutely peculiar collection: a 6000+ cards catalog of hand-typed children books reviews, written by librarians over the years. Lynn Lobash, NYPL reader services overseer, explained to Quartz that, “There’s about a billion card…
-
Crowdsourced Poetry
Since May, poet David Lehman has been working on a crowdsourced sonnet over at The American Scholar. Lehman wrote the poem’s first line, and then chose the next 13 from reader suggestions, selecting one a week. And now that the…
-
Amy Bloom, Clearly and Persuasively
In the latest “By the Book” over at the New York Times, Amy Bloom talks about the books on her nightstand, which writers she’d invite to a summer picnic (even if they wouldn’t get along), and the book she wishes someone…
-
Literary Namesakes
Sometimes, an eponym has a literary origin from a famous character. Over at the Guardian, Paul Anthony Jones takes us on a tour of literary eponyms and introduces us to the original brainiac, gargantuan, and svengali.
-
Dear Diary, A History
The diary novel is an understudied genre dating back to the Victorian era, often associated with young women, that includes (and sometimes combines) fiction and non-fiction. At The Hairpin, Johannah King-Slutzky traces the history of this literary niche.
-
Poetry and a Son’s Death
Finding a way to grieve for the passing of a child is a complicated matter. Poet Edward Hirsch lost his son in 2011, and has just completed a 76-page elegy that will be published in September titled Gabriel. Alec Wilkinson goes…
-
A Really Strange Story
“I have a kind of weird story related to death. Something my father told me. He said it was an actual experience he had when he was in his early twenties. Just the age I am now. I’ve heard the…
-
A Fictionalized Betrayal
This was my first experience of being fictionalized. I still recall the yellow-white flash of queasiness, the mortification: a sense of powerlessness and an utter lack of recourse. What if a writer friend—or, worse, relative—of yours turned you into one…
-
Third Man’s Language Lessons
Jack White’s Third Man Records is expanding to include books. August 5th will see the release of Third Man Books‘s first hardcover title, Language Lessons, Volume 1, a 321-page collection of poetry, prose, and art together with 2 vinyl LPs,…
-
Building Our Own Communities
As Ramadan approaches and we look for a family to break fast with come sundown, the realities of being a transgender Muslim set in. Flashing all of the proper signals I pass through gendered space unscathed, always left fearing how…
-
Loving Poems But Not Poetry Books
Although Americans’ love for poetry has yet to reach the wild heights of Abu Dhabi’s hit reality show Million’s Poet where 70 million global viewers watched dueling versifiers vie for a $1.3 million cash prize, Americans are actively involved in…