Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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One Chance to Make a First Impression
An editor’s first look at a writer’s work is in the query letter. Steph Auteri, writing in Ploughshares, explains how writers can improve their introductions, and why it matters when they try to publish. The best way to make an…
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Exploring San Francisco with Gary Kamiya
This week, San Francisco’s Hattery will host Gary Kamiya, cofounder of Salon.com and author of Cool, Gray City of Love (2013), an exploration of San Francisco from 49 different perspectives. Kamiya divided San Francisco into a grid during his journey uncovering…
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Remembering Gabriel García Márquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude author Gabriel García Márquez passed away last week at the age of 87. Writing in the New Yorker, Edwidge Danticat reflects on his life and work. I am often surprised when people talk about the…
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Notable NYC: 4/19–4/25
Saturday 4/19: Chris Sylvester, Holly Melgard, Joey Yearous-Algozin, Jordan Dunn, and Eddie Hopely read at part three of the Brooklyn Poetry Summit. BookThugNation, 7:30 p.m., free. David Abel, Anna Vitale, Dana Ward, and Suzanne Stein close out the Brooklyn Poetry…
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First Novels and the Art of Revision
Most first novels are really second novels, since most first novels go unpublished. Writing for ZYZZYVA, Rumpus contributor Aaron Gilbreath talks through his experience having his debut memoir rejected, eventually leading an agent to suggest he write a novel instead:…
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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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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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All the Shades of Black and White
Writing for The New Inquiry, Hannah Black explores race in Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird and the relationship of white, black, and mixed racial identities in modern western culture. Similarly, race-authenticity does not spring up from the mere fact of…
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How to Love a Writer
Writers are not the easiest people to fall in love with. Many of the characteristics of a great writer also make for a horrific companion. Over at Ploughshares, Amber Kelly-Anderson explores some of the things to expect when the heart wants a…
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The High Cost of Literary Journals
Michael Nye, managing editor of The Missouri Review, explains some of the costs required to start and operate a literary journal. Financial issues are the fastest way to kill a journal, but money also creates a divide between writer and…
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Fiction is Fiction
What does “realism” mean, anyway? Over at Ploughshares, Rumpus contributor and Gigantic magazine editor Lincoln Michel discusses the problems of the term “realism” when it comes to literature: I tend to think it is an ill-defined term, not a useful…
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Is There Too Much Translation?
Writing over at Brooklyn Quarterly, Will Evans discusses why he founded a publishing house dedicated to translation: In addition to being a philosophical problem, literary translation is also a contentious business matter. There are thousands of good to all-time-great books published in…