Awe-inspiring literary legacy aside, one thing is for certain: Jane Austen could definitely hang. A new collection of some of her shorter works shows the writer in peak form, sharply mocking her social milieu with expert comedic timing: The young Austen is hardly proper. She writes of drunkenness (in fact, she’s rather fond of the phrase […]
...moreShe was the Khloé Kardashian of nineteenth century literature, the Michelle Williams of her girl group, her family’s invisible Zeppo Marx. Over at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer makes a case for the Brontë sisters’ own personal Ringo: Nothing sums up her relationship to her sister’s work better than the Hark, a Vagrant comic called “Dude Watching […]
...moreFor Flavorwire, Jonathon Sturgeon declares 2014 the year that the postmodern novel died and the year that autofiction—a “new class of memoiristic, autobiographical and metafictional novels”—rose to take its place.
...moreThe Alt Lit community brought together a disparate group of writers and poets from the sorts of backgrounds often ignored by mainstream literary fiction, leveraging the Internet and building a loyal and dedicated following. Then this fall, allegations of a history of rape, sexual abuse, and misogyny within the community exploded across the Internet. Flavorwire […]
...moreThis past week has seen an outpouring of poetry responding to the disappointment, violence, and trauma spurred by the Ferguson decision. Over at Flavorwire, Jonathon Sturgeon challenges the notion that poetry written in response to political events is somehow less legitimate than art of any other kind: Over the years, I’ve heard countless complaints about […]
...moreIn the wake of So This Is Permanence, a recently released archive of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis’s notebooks, Jillian Mapes reflects on why artists’ scribblings mean so much to fans: “It’s a human reaction to see handwritten things, as opposed to typewritten things, as being quite intimate,” Savage tells me. “Rock music is burdened […]
...moreIn accordance with the 163rd anniversary of Moby-Dick, Elisabeth Donnelly explores why Melville’s “American Bible” is still relevant today: Perhaps what Moby-Dick has to offer for generations of readers is “a shaft of light in the darkness,” as Philbrick puts it. “Not that it provides any real consolation, it just resonates with what it means to be alive in the face […]
...moreAt Flavorwire, Jonathan Sturgeon continues the “literary” and “genre” war, offering a new perspective grounded in the marketplace: So what’s really going on here? Well, it isn’t the genre of prose that has literary novelists anxious. It’s the market status of genre novels. Now that literary criticism has evaporated as a genre of writing, the […]
...moreLaurie Penny, journalist and author of Unspeakable Things: Sex, Lies and Revolution, talks to Flavorwire about feminism, Ferguson, and the harassment of female journalists online: The fact that there’s an enormous backlash against women’s liberation online doesn’t mean that the Internet is a bad place for women — quite the opposite, in fact. It’s precisely […]
...moreFeminists and transphobic conservatives have found common ground in attacking Lena Dunham after the publication of her memoir revealed that her seven-year-old self had been curious about her sister’s vagina. Dunham creates trigger art, explains Sarah Seltzer at Flavorwire, intentionally igniting sensitive subjects. The problem isn’t the art, but the reaction: So why would we […]
...moreIf our current understanding of Beckett’s “fail better” command implies eventual success, what of failure whose endgame is really just failure? Over at Flavorwire, Jonathon Sturgeon makes a case for the value of failure itself (future success optional): When a friend shows you her rejection letter, especially one that details precisely why her manuscript was […]
...moreThe YA battle rages on at Flavorwire, where Sarah Seltzer responds to Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker essay pondering the effects of supposedly lowbrow children’s lit: We have to interrogate our basic assumption that writing skills possessed by educated white people are the best skills around…Humor, action, relatable language, and plotting are not lesser tools in […]
...moreJane Austen has been blowing up these days, with hundreds of fan-fictional responses to Pride and Prejudice gracing the dusty corners of bookstores and the Internet. Over at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer wonders why we’re still so eager to return to Pemberley: Because Austen doesn’t overload us with sensory details about her characters, but merely depicts […]
...moreWith the American Association of University Professors announcing its opposition to providing trigger warnings, Emily Semple shares some of her thoughts on the subject at Flavorwire.
...moreLiterary criticism suffers from elitism, claims Elisabeth Donnelly over at Flavorwire, and the solution is introducing a poptimism revolution. The term poptimism originated in the music world as a reaction to stodgy music reviewers’ love of Bob Dylan and “argues for a more inclusive view of what matters and what’s pleasurable in music.” Donnelly insists […]
...moreAdam Sternbergh, author of Dystopian novel Shovel Ready, asked whether readers are burning out on the Dystopian novel. He goes as far as suggesting that perhaps the next great novel will be a Utopian one. Emily Temple, writing at Flavorwire, explains why Utopias don’t make good novel settings: The reason that utopian novels are far […]
...moreHaving realized the rights to three unpublished Salinger stories were unclaimed, small publisher Devault-Graves set about purchasing them. The stories were published earlier this week. But despite the fun of having a little more Salinger to read, some are unhappy with how the stories were released: They’re more innocent, more trusting, but ultimately, and unfortunately, they’re […]
...moreThe Colbert Bump helped propel Edan Lepucki‘s California to the third spot on the New York Times bestseller list. Lena Dunham’s endorsement helped sell Adelle Waldman‘s The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. Celebrity and celebrity endorsements have long played a role in moving products. Jason Diamond, writing over at Flavorwire, explains that today’s endorsements go beyond […]
...moreThe continuing battle between Amazon and Hachette was the focus of a panel discussion hosted by the New York Public Library last week featuring novelist James Patterson, publisher Morgan Entrekin, literary agent Tina Bennett, and several political theorists. Jason Diamond has a writeup at Flavorwire: The takeaway from the event was this: the trouble Amazon causes […]
...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 […]
...moreCritics don’t seem to like Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, but that hasn’t stopped readers from buying more than a million copies of the novel. Vanity Fair poses the question: but is it art? The New Republic suggests this kind of criticism is infantile. Meanwhile, Flavorwire’s Jason Diamond thinks a bigger problem is the disconnect between critics and readers: […]
...moreA “total Nathaniel P.” describes a certain kind of male literary intellectual, the opposite of the finance crowd who coined the phrase an insult. But among people who have actually read Adelle Waldman’s novel, The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P., Nate Piven earns a lot of sympathy in spite of his disagreeable demeanor. Nate is […]
...moreThe literary community loves Rumpus Essays Editor Roxanne Gay. She’s prolific, supportive, and a great writer. Jason Diamond, writing over at Flavorwire, explains further: While I can’t really comment on whether she’s from Krypton or offer any definitive knowledge of her sleep habits, as somebody who has read Gay’s work for a few years now, […]
...moreAn article published in Flavorwire hails Cheryl Strayed (Rumpus’ very own Sugar) as a publishing hero. In Jason Diamond’s words, “Strayed is the rare type of writer who is both critically and commercially embraced, but also keeps her feet firmly planted in the literary world.” But how did this come to be? Diamond suggests that Strayed’s work ethic is the key. “Strayed has found […]
...moreWriting for Flavorwire, critic Jason Diamond has declared 2014 the year of Lynne Tillman: Her fiction is the work of an author who takes meticulous care of every single word, like a painter making sure every brush stroke has meaning.
...moreFlavorwire’s Jason Diamond insists that writers can eschew New York City in favor of greener pastures, offering a comprehensive defense of Franzen country: A closer look at the literary map of the 50 states reveals that even if the publishing industry writ large is situated in New York and Los Angeles, some of the most exciting things going […]
...moreAlthough plenty of critics and academics have done a wonderful job reinterpreting what it means to be “the canon,” there are still many readers in the US who, consciously or subconsciously, believe that men have contributed most of what we know to be literature. In 2013, Lilit Marcus only read books written by women (with a […]
...moreLet’s face it, writers love to write about writing. Whether it’s for the beginning writer or the seasoned vet looking for a renewed sense of inspiration, check out the ten greatest essays on writing over at Flavorwire.
...moreFlavorwire’s Jason Diamond has compiled a list of fifty books that defined the past five years of literature. From the universally acclaimed (Wolf Hall) to the controversial (what purpose did i serve in your life), from the literary heavyweights (Tenth of December) to the pop-culture juggernauts (The Hunger Games), these books “show what is great about […]
...moreThe silver lining of the publishing industry’s turmoil is that independent small presses are increasingly able to bring readers unique and fascinating books. Flavorwire’s Jason Diamond has collected twenty-five of the presses doing the risky but essential work bigger publishers are often too afraid to do. From indie mainstays like Akashic and Graywolf to our […]
...more