Philadelphia
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Swinging Modern Sounds #72: Urban Pastoral
It’s like a landscape that you can’t know until you’ve seen it through four seasons, until you’ve seen it on days gray and bright.
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Song of the Day: “Happy Days”
While McCoy Tyner is known far and wide for his indelible influence on jazz piano, his contribution to the genre would still be staggering if he had decided to throw in the towel in 1965, after leaving John Coltrane’s quartet. However,…
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The Rumpus Interview with Asali Solomon
Asali Solomon discusses her debut novel, Disgruntled, narrative structure, the mythology of memory and place, and returning to Philadelphia after years away.
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The Rumpus Interview with Brendan Jones
Brendan Jones talks about his debut novel, The Alaskan Laundry, living in Alaska, his time as a Wallace Stegner Fellow, and living and loving what you write.
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Digging Deep into a Jawn
The word “jawn” is unlike any other English word. In fact, according to the experts that I spoke to, it’s unlike any other word in any other language. It is an all-purpose noun, a stand-in for inanimate objects, abstract concepts,…
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The Changing Face of Philadelphia Media
For The Awl, Andrew Thompson writes on the changing face of local media in Philadelphia, after the close of several local print papers and the rise of Philadelphia magazine.
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Goodbye, Starman
It’s not an exaggeration to say that Bowie saved my life on more than one occasion. And now that he’s gone, I’m at a loss again.
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
James Patterson is giving away $2,000,000 in holiday bonuses to bookstore workers and libraries. An adults-only sex shop in Anchorage, Alaska is getting remade into an indie bookstore. Philadelphia’s Hakim’s Bookstore, a landmark African-American shop, is a small business on…
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Odysseus at Telepylos
Jason had his dragon at Colchis, Theseus had his Minotaur on Crete, Odysseus had his cannibals in their city of Telepylos, and you will have found your own monsters in Philadelphia.
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The Last Book I Loved: Station Eleven
In the distance between me and the story, I can see all the ways I would have to change without technology, because of all the ways technology has already changed me.
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The Rumpus Interview with Robert Repino
Robert Repino talks about his debut novel, Mort(e), the publishing industry, science fiction and literary fiction, writing about religion, and how to write about complex chemical ant languages.
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The 215 Festival Kicks Off!
The 215 Festival, Philadelphia’s premier literary festival kicks off tomorrow, October 18 through Sunday, October 20th. Each day is in a different area of the city. Musician/novelist Wesley Stace, the subject of one of Rick Moody’s recent Swinging Modern Sounds columns, reads…