Posts by author
Lisa Dusenbery
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Life Cycle of a Book
An interactive map of the life cycle of a book lets us visualize the publishing process. Hear about each step, from writing to author publicity and everything in between. (Via The Book Bench)
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On Criticism
At The Awl, Maria Bustillos breaks down the back-and-forth between Jonathan Lethem and James Wood over Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude, interpreting both Wood’s original review and Lethem’s recent response. Ruminating on the possibility of improved communication between authors, readers,…
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Novel Names
Looking forward to giving your manuscript a name at the end of NaNoWriMo? This fill-in-the-blank guide to naming your first novel may help. Create the perfect title for “If Your First Novel Will Be A Busted Romance;” “If Your First…
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Women’s Prisons
The authors of Inside This Place, Not of It: Narratives From Women’s Prisons compare stories gathered for the book with last month’s report by Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. The bottom line: women in…
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Homegrown Textbooks
“The problem with mass-produced textbooks…was that they can cost $65 each and aren’t aligned with Minnesota’s math tests so the district would be paying for whole chapters that are never used.” A few Minnesota high school districts look to save…
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Laurie Weeks Interview
This week Bomblog interviewed Laurie Weeks about Zipper Mouth (our October Monthly Rumpus selection). Topics included gardening, writing, and portals. “If I do cut-ups or mix things together with, say, journal writings or other stuff that’s just hideous on its…
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“Russian Doll” Cinema
“But every so often a filmmaker sneaks a piece of mini-perfection into their movie that’s so self-contained, such an unnecessary tangent, it can stand alone as its own perfect short.” Nerve archives “five great short films” that can be found…
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Literary Almost Deaths
What if J.K. Rowling had killed off Ron Weasley, or Melville had killed of Starbuck, or Fitzgerald had killed off Daisy Buchanan? The Awl explores characters who nearly died in their author’s rough draft, giving us an illustrated glimpse of…
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Tattooed Science
Carl Zimmer’s Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed reveals the crossroads between the sciences and tattoo culture. The result is “a weird and wonderful almanac of the lovable geek who immortalized passion for science on their living flesh,” according…
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Patti Smith’s Photographs
“Herman Hesse’s typewriter, Bolaño’s chair, Smith’s father’s favourite cup, Virginia Woolf’s cane and bed. It is as if she were furnishing a home with these photographs for the ghosts of her favorite lives.” The recently opened Patti Smith: Camera Solo…
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There’s Still Time to Get Love and Shame and Love!
November’s Book Club selection is Love and Shame and Love (Little, Brown), a novel by Peter Orner (whose column you can follow here on the Rumpus). Orner traverses three generations of the Popper family, through which he considers the intricate…
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Poverty Mapped
While a 2003 report announced progress in the reduction of poverty, a new Brookings report has found that “between 2000 and 2005-09, the population in extremely poor neighborhoods climbed by more than one-third, from 6.6 million to 8.7 million.” The…