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Join NOW!Essayist Marie Myung-Ok Lee’s obsession with author photos leads to authorial reflections on gender, representation, and what writers owe the public in “Occupy Author Photo: On Elena Ferrante, Privacy, and Women Writers” at The Millions. Starting with her own experiences and branching out to Mary Oliver, Sarah Howe, and eventually Elena Ferrante, she calls for […]
...moreFirst, we close out National Poetry Month with Sophie Klahr breaking down literary conventions in “Slant,” and Sandra Simonds offering two powerful poems about sexuality and shame. Meanwhile, Brandon Hicks illustrates what he has learned from famous author’s photos. Then, in the Saturday Interview with Carol Edelman Warrior, poet and playwright Storme Webber says that “we’re all traveling on this Earth. […]
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There’s a moment not often talked about in the reading process: turning to the cover flap and seeing the face of the story’s creator. It’s a reminder that the story didn’t appear out of thin air, that a real flesh-and-bones person toiled over the product in our hands. Over at Lit Hub, Dustin Illingworth investigates […]
...moreIn my thought, a book reviewer was sitting in front of a pile of books, trying to decide which ones to review. Coming upon mine, the reviewer looked at the cover skeptically, about to fling it aside, then flipped to the author photo and became confused. How could a book with a cover that beautiful […]
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In Episode 7 of The Rumpus Late Nite Poetry Show, Dave Roderick talks with poet Erin Belieu about her new collection, Slant Six, her work with VIDA, and how we’re all just onions.
...moreIn a recently tweeted series of amateur photos, artist and writer Szilvia Molnar satirizes the figure of the cool male writer so often conveyed in author portraits by the presence of a cigarette. Having noticed a discrepancy between the portrayal of Karl Ove Knausgaard and Zadie Smith in promotional photos for a publishing event, Molnar took […]
...moreJennifer Weiner’s recent claim that a serious author photos indicate serious literature is submited to scientifically unsound empirical testing over at Slate. Comparing the head shots of “Women’s Lit” writers to those of “Literary Fiction” best-sellers, Eliza Berman discovers an unexpected trend in the process: the mysterious middle ground of the indecipherable author smirk.
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