Features & Reviews
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Chabon on the Bay
“WSJ: Which local writers are overrated?” “Mr. Chabon: Just me.” Michael Chabon shares his thoughts on the Bay Area literary scene with the The Wall Street Journal.
Stein Goes to Paris
Lorin Stein, formerly of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, has been named editor of the Paris Review.
Twenty and Bored and Alive
This voice is neither howl, yowl, nor whisper, but something more like a quiet monotone, slightly ironic and yet also depressed, lonely and, at times, compellingly vulnerable.
Poetry as a Soon-to-Be Bestselling Cure-All
Poetry doesn’t seem to sell, although there are hundreds upon hundreds of poets creating it. I would venture to guess that there are at least twice as many poetry contests…
Barely Discernible Notes On Barry Hannah
We did right by your death and went out, Right away, to a public place to drink, To be with each other, to face it.
Elizabeth Bastos: The Last Book I Loved, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Editor’s alert: Key plot points of this book are discussed below. Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. The plot trajectory of the…
Heart Radical: The Strange, True Flight of Airships
Barry Hannah passed away Monday, March 1, 2010. He was 67 and died of natural causes. The precarious state of his health — he’d battled cancer for some years —…
The Game of Marseille
Tarot playing cards by Andre Breton, Rene Char, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, Max Ernst, Jacques Herold, Wilfredo Lam, Andre Masson, Benjamin Peret. 1940-41. “In 1939 Breton was mobilized as a…
Underground No More: The Rumpus Interview with Sam Lipsyte
The Ask tells the story of Milo Burke, the latest in Lipsyte’s long line of anti-heroes. By the end, Lipsyte has strengthened his claim as our greatest comic novelist.
The Cost of Living
A new volume of stories by Mavis Gallant traces the writer’s development from early stories of bewilderment and disappointment to the sharp, incisive later work of a master.