The Great Beast’s Landlady
Rodney Davis has a very entertaining essay up about talking to Aleister Crowley‘s landlady Kathleen “Johnny” Simonds. Apparently, Crowley lived with Simonds shortly before his death, and despite his reputation…
Features & Reviews
9262 posts
The Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
This week, the book blogs have been talking about the future of reading and literature, which leads me to believe that they don’t think it’s dead. I don’t believe them.…
The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
It’s the end of August. While most of the world is on vacation, Rumpus Books is publishing book reviews.
Zak Smith Gravity’s Rainbow Giveaway
The Conversational Reading blog is giving away a brand-new hardcover copy of Zak Smith’s illustrated Gravity’s Rainbow in a contest held on their Facebook page. To enter, you need to…
The Write Links
Author/publisher Christopher Herz is giving new meaning to handselling. “Every day he takes 10 copies out to the streets and does not come home until he sells all of them.”…
Crown of Sonnets
An anthology of stories from the new Russia shows the continuity between contemporary writers and their canonical predecessors
Why Were Artists Poor?
Reading Jeremy’s post on Andrew Keen and starving artists, I couldn’t help but think of Joel Barlow (1754-1812). Barlow was a poet, one of the Connecticut Wits, to be precise,…
Writing Is Hard
First, watch this: Hamlet 2 preview (pay special attention around the 49-second mark). Steve Coogan, playing Dana Marschz, beautifully captures the life of a writer in the overshadowed and under-acclaimed…
The Last Book I Loved: The Moviegoer
I just had another read of Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer, because I admire it and because I sought two specific paragraphs from the novel. I wanted to read them again.…
Pittsburgh, Writer’s Haven
“According to the Post-Gazette article, writers are realizing how great Pittsburgh is, and moving there en-masse. “Of course, the article makes clear, it’s not about the money (there is not…
The Apocalyptic Mythologies Of Steve Erickson
There is no place on earth like Los Angeles. But everyone knows this. Yet perhaps there is not a single place on earth where the end of the world will…
A History of Violence
In After the Fire a Small Still Voice, love is a difficult, vulnerable salvation—its troubled characters aren’t sure it’s worth the risk.