Posts by author
Roxie Pell
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Back to the Present
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? By the time we’ve figured it out, we’ve already gotten there. Examining a trend toward futuristic fiction, Bill Morris looks at the near future as a literary setting…
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Skewed Standards
The YA battle rages on at Flavorwire, where Sarah Seltzer responds to Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker essay pondering the effects of supposedly lowbrow children’s lit: We have to interrogate our basic assumption that writing skills possessed by educated white people…
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Pride, Prejudice, Repeat
Jane Austen has been blowing up these days, with hundreds of fan-fictional responses to Pride and Prejudice gracing the dusty corners of bookstores and the Internet. Over at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer wonders why we’re still so eager to return to…
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Strand and The Rumpus Special Event!
If you’re in NYC, swing by the Strand tomorrow at 7 p.m. to hear Rumpus columnist Thomas Page McBee present his new memoir Man Alive. The author explores manhood, identity, and personal histories through his encounters with an abusive father…
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Been Here Before
After years of anxious separation, people are finally relaxing about the literary/genre fiction divide. Over at Electric Literature, Tobias Carroll asks: now what? We’re now well into a period where literary writers are able to balance their love for horror…
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The Market Decides
In the midst of debate over Amazon’s place in the publishing industry, Margo Howard raises questions about the authority of its consumer-based literary criticism. When it comes to art, the retail giant’s capitalist-populist approach may do more harm than good:…
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One and The Same
Nosy readers often delight in sleuthing out the parallels between an author’s work and their life, as if an identifiable autobiographical source might change the meaning behind the words. So what happens when authors eliminate the boundary altogether? By calling…
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Sperm Puppets All
Writing and sex have a lot in common, least enjoyable their knack for making participants feel vulnerable and insecure. But when anything goes, writers produce work that is beautiful for this very vulnerability: Believe it or not, the resulting scenes…
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Of Low Extraction and Irregular Education
Salon has published another delightful excerpt from Jonathon Green’s The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s History of Slang. Where the first focused on sex euphemism, this piece explores slang’s impact on the literary legacy of the English language. Wagtails, grizzles, and shotten…
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Batter Dip the Cranny Axe in the Gut Locker
Salon has published an excerpt from The Vulgar Tongue: Green’s History of Slang by lexicographer Jonathon Green. While ancient sex slang is sure to elicit a few giggles, Green also explores the deeper implications of our ability to dance around the…
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Let’s Keep Empowering Women Writers
Girls Write Now, a community of writers that mentor underserved teenage girls in New York, is hosting an event this Friday to celebrate International Day of the Girl. Guests will join panelists in a discussion about women’s narratives moderated by…
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Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
Science of Us explains why it felt so great to write that angry letter to your boss (even if you never sent it): When we talk with someone with whom we don’t feel completely safe, our social editor jumps in on…