How Idioms Might Save the World
“…I was astonished (original meaning = struck by lightning) by something Bob Mankoff … said in a Charlie Rose Show interview. He said he thought of “humor as a necessary…
Features & Reviews
9282 posts
Smart People Talk Short Stories
In a post last week titled More Crappy News for Short Story Writers, I lamented what I considered to be a lost opportunity for the big publishing houses. They could,…
Africa and Science Fiction
Nnedi Okorafor has an essay over at The Nebula Awards site about Africa’s relationship with science fiction, as well as a discussion on Penguin’s decision to make science fiction ineligible…
The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
This week, Rumpus books reviews a novel, a collection of prose poems, and a debut collection of short stories set in Louisiana.
Rumpus Sunday Book Blog Roundup
I’m hoping to God that it’s just temporary, but for whatever reason, the book blogs are suddenly all worried about ethics, whether it’s what to do about reading writers with…
Help Make a Story
“Any bird departing the yard in a north-north-westerly direction could by chance alight on the window-ledge of room 62A of the Florencio Motel, where a recently arrived woman is living…
On the Couch
The protagonist of this novel about addiction, therapy, and recovery, confronts many of the same issues as its author.
Magic Gardens
“I’m a stripper, rocker, bartender, and writer. I had a lot of plans last year, but none of them involved breast cancer. The disease sidetracked my livelihood, threatened my life,…
Exactly Like Liz Phair, Except Older. And With Hypochondria.
I told myself she reminded me of Liz Phair, but without the marijuana-steeped tomboy, devil-may-care, laid-back attitude of Liz Phair. This is the type of thing you tell yourself when…
An Open Letter Concerning The Authors Guild vs. Google, Inc.
The lawyers will get $30 million—does that mean the authors are getting screwed?
Meet Mario Bellatin
“A few years ago the Mexican novelist Mario Bellatin attended one of those literary conferences here where writers are asked to talk about their own favorites. Unwilling to make a…
We’ve Always Been Postmodern?
“And while postmodern books would, you’d think, have to be published after the modern period — in the 20th or 21st centuries — could postmodernism exist without “Tristram Shandy”? We…