Future Perceptions
Science fiction author William Gibson has long been predicting the future, and he’s been writing long enough to know that many of the things he has predicted have eventually come…
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Ian MacAllen
1314 posts
Ian MacAllen is the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American (Rowman & Littlefield, April 2022). His writing has appeared in Chicago Review of Books, Southern Review of Books, The Offing, 45th Parallel Magazine, Little Fiction, Vol 1. Brooklyn, and elsewhere. He tweets @IanMacAllen and is online at IanMacAllen.com.
You Are What You Read
Not every book is a great work of literature, but that doesn’t mean literary authors don’t have fun reading some pulpy genre books. Over at Electric Literature, Amber Sparks confesses to…
Notable NYC: 10/25–10/31
Saturday 10/25: Natalie Harnett, Anthony Breznican, Helen Wan, and Nicole Kear are the latest Sackett Street Writers. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Erica Lewis, Betsy Andrews, Claire Caldwell, and A. H.…
The Vatican Goes Digital
The Vatican Library has been digitizing its 1.6 million books and the first 500 volumes are now available, reports Business Insider. The library was founded in 1451 and the digitization…
Art Doesn’t Pay
The arts don’t pay very well, and working as a professional in a creative field like writing, music, or film has grown more precarious. High student debt doesn’t help, but…
High-Speed World
The world is moving faster than ever. Digital technologies have allowed, encouraged, and even required quicker processing of information. The net effect isn’t necessarily a good thing—all that speed has…
A Modern-Day Typewriter
The personal computer may have revolutionized the way writers write, but distractions from the Internet and social media may not make it the ideal tool for writing. Designer Adam Leeb has…
Using Language to Combat Violence
Feminism needs stronger language to combat violence against women, argues Jacqueline Rose in the Guardian. Fourth-wave feminism must confront the issue of male-on-female violence globally, crafting new language “that allows…
Building Hagrid’s Hut
Killiechassie House, the £1.9 million Scottish estate author J.K. Rowling calls home, will gain a new addition: a circular stone hut similar to the hut that Hagrid resides in at…
Notable NYC: 10/18–10/24
Saturday 10/18: Poetry Forum 2014. The New School, 10 a.m., $45 daily / $135 full pass. Melissa Buckheit reads poetry along with Corollary Press founder Sueyeun Juliette Lee. Berl’s Poetry…
Bringing Literacy to Queens
Only 20% of children in the neighborhood of South Jamaica, Queens, New York, can read at grade level. That number is astoundingly low, but three enterprising young individuals hope to…
The Thomas Pynchon Myth
Thomas Pynchon is a reclusive author—or so we are told. Vice unearths the origins of Pynchon’s famous isolation, attributing the legend to the Paris Review‘s George Plimpton: It all started…