Flavorwire
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NYPL Hosts Panel on Amazon
The 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…
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Critics vs. Readers
Critics 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…
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The Love-Hate of Nathaniel P.
A “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.,…
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Marveling At Roxane Gay
The 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…
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Still Writing Like a Motherfucker
An 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…
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The Year of Lynne Tillman
Writing 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.
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The Midwest is the Future of American Literature
Flavorwire’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…
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A Year of Women Writers
Although 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…
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Rumpus Writers Help Define Modern Literature
Flavorwire’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…
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Small Presses, Big Impact
The 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…