Posts by author
Ian MacAllen
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Adjunct Faculty Plan Walk Out
Adjunct college faculty are at last taking a stand against abominable work conditions and low pay by planning a national walk out on February 25, 2015. Unlike their tenured counterparts, adjuncts lack protection from retributive firing should they follow through.…
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How to Dress for A Book Launch
Never judge an author by her shoes. Of course, readers do judge authors on how they look, giving authors one more thing to worry about. Over at Beyond the Margins, E.B. Moore ponders what to wear to her book launch:…
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Notable NYC: 10/11–10/17
Saturday 10/11: The New Yorker Festival, around town, $35 and up. Cristina Moracho launches Althea and Oliver, a novel about two friends. BookCourt, 7 p.m., free. Sunday 10/12: The New Yorker Festival, around town, $35 and up. The Singapore Literature…
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Mountains, Lowlands, and Archipelagos
Horace Engdahl thinks that creative writing programs and the walled-off communities academic programs create are hurting western literature. Since writing courses help monetize writing—and fund writers as professionals—Engdahl worries that the courses are removing writers from the real world. Engdahl…
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Grammar As You Like It
Everybody has that one friend who insists they know good grammar. They’re probably wrong—Harvard cognitive scientist Steven Pinker insists strict rules just don’t matter because language is fluid. Mother Jones explains the grammatically anti-authoritarian position: …language is never set in…
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From Applebee’s to Published Author
Scott Cheshire explains that he started flirting with the woman who became his wife by telling her he had a novel coming out. Twelve years later, it did. Today, he is a published novelist with a graduate degree, but back…
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The End of Literature
The digital age threatens works of serious literary merit, warns British novelist Will Self: Back when I began publishing novels, not only did the reviews in the quality press mean something – in terms of sales, yes, but also as…
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Author’s Notes
Writers and editors don’t always get along, but usually their squabbles remain private. Reviewer copies of Moriarty, a new Sherlock Holmes novel, were published and sent to places like the New York Times with notes from author Anthony Horowitz still…
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Notable NYC: 10/4–10/10
Saturday 10/4: Sasha Fletcher, Tracy Dimond, Morgan Parker, Sarah Bridgins, Jeffery Berg, Christina Drill, Anna Fitzgerald, Debora Kuan, and Mark Cigini celebrate the sixth month anniversary of GlitterMOB. Mello Pages, 7 p.m., free. Mark Bibbins, Emily Skillings, Nick Harbutas, and…
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Like Writer, Like Character
Sometimes writers end up diagnosed with the very same disease they’ve inflicted on their characters. Natalie Serber knows firsthand—she received a breast cancer diagnosis halfway through creating Mona Brown, a character in her latest novel. Over at Beyond the Margins,…
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Choosing Sides
Andrew Wylie, arguably the most powerful literary agent in the world, has chosen sides in the Amazon-Hachette battle for global domination, and he’s allied with Authors United. Wylie represents a slew of high-profile writers like Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, and…
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Roxane Gay Will Butter The Toast
Rumpus Essays Editor Emeritus Roxane Gay will helm a new Internet vertical being launched by The Toast. The Butter will primarily include content drawn from submissions, although Gay herself plans on posting two to three times a week. Contributors will be…