Posts by author
Sam Riley
-
Publicists vs. Reporters
“The dangers are clear. As PR becomes ascendant, private and government interests become more able to generate, filter, distort, and dominate the public debate, and to do so without the public knowing it.” Newsrooms are experiencing a PR takeover—as the…
-
Undervalued Teachers
“People talk about accountability, measurements, tenure, test scores and pay for performance. These questions are worthy of debate, but are secondary to recruiting and training teachers and treating them fairly. There is no silver bullet that will fix every last…
-
New Believer Things
This month’s Believer comes with a whole bunch of laudatory excitement. The sixth annual Believer Book Award for 2010 has been officially announced, along with the first ever Believer Poetry Award! If your interests more often align with the public…
-
Pseudonymously Famous
What happens when a book is shortlisted for the Orwell prize and its author chooses to remain pseudonymous? Possibly, the beginning of a new canon. “Strictly speaking this isn’t anonymity but pseudonymity – and while whole books have been written…
-
Artistic Oppression
Where mythologizing dictators and threatening artists intersect, totalitarian art was born. Find out about this cultural phenomenon and its many historical/contemporary examples. “The crucial element in the creation of totalitarian culture was the involvement of the state, not indirectly, through…
-
Things You Never Got to Hear Faulkner Say
When Faulkner addressed English classes at the University of Mississippi in 1947, he offered some interesting advice (there is always time for writing, it’s not good to wait when feeling inspired, the peak age for fiction writing is 35-45, etc.).…
-
Believing in Science
There’s an awesome Mother Jones article on how we intake our science like lawyers and how our reasoning is inextricably linked to our emotional centers. We’re used to scientific evidence and opinion-based beliefs competing or being on opposite sides of…
-
Goodwillie and Kyle on Tour
Two of last month’s Rumpus readers, David Goodwillie and Aryn Kyle, are documenting their book tour and are sharing the comedic moments via tweets and tumblr, respectively. And as the Book Bench points out, not only can we revel in…
-
In Support of the Memoir
Dinty W. Moore’s rebuttal to Lorrie Moore’s essay in the New York Review of Books, in support of memoir-writing defends the genre and points out the absurdities in Moore’s adamant dismissal. Memoirs and their questionable reliability have been the source…
-
Self-Publishing Dos and Don’ts
More fuel to add to the self-publishing discussion: HTMLGIANT has posted a thorough guide on self-publishing books—how to print, distribute, get your very own ISBN, and a list of what has been proven not to work binding-wise. Because learning from…
-
Digital Folk Art
“Like quilting, archiving employs the obsessive stitching together of many small pieces into a larger vision, a personal attempt at ordering a chaotic world.” This essay provides some edgy perspective on archiving, folk art and collectors as artists. Also, how…
-
Subtitle Takeover
Bill Morris wrote an essay on the overwhelmingly long subtitles that seem to be part of the current book-perusing experience. This lengthy subtitle trend has extended to the reaches of the book cover and there isn’t much room for it…