Irony Genius Vs. Realism Hero
If Franzen is our genius realist, and DFW our genius postmodernist — how might they meld irony and sincerity? In an excerpt over at Salon from his new book, Keep It Fake:…
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Word of the Day: Miasma
(n.); noxious exhalations from putrid organic matter; poisonous effluvia or germs polluting the atmosphere; a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike influence or atmosphere “If the Internet is a bridge to the…
Lost in Translation, Lost in Context
PEN America generated quite a controversy when it decided to honor French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo. Six authors called for a boycott of the gala and circulated a petition slamming…
When It Rains, It Pours
Whether you’re singing, dancing, or making out with Spiderman, there’s something different about doing things in the rain. In an excerpt from her book Rain: A Cultural and National History…
The Reluctant Environmentalists
In an adapted excerpt from his book, All the Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner and the American West, over at Salon, David Gessner explains how Wallace Stegner and Edward Abbey “can serve as…
Refinancing the Writing Life
The system for determining worth and value strikes me as terribly strange, and it occurs to me that it just might require a suspension of disbelief. Luckily for me, I…
Show Me the Money
It’s no secret that writing doesn’t pay. Ann Bauer wants to talk about where the money comes from: In my opinion, we do an enormous “let them eat cake” disservice to…
In the Name of Fear
It’s very hard to imagine a president getting up and talking about how damaging the fear of terrorism has been to us, culturally and politically, and how much it’s horribly…
Getting Difference Wrong
In an interview with Salon, the always-wise Roxane Gay offers her opinions on Bill Cosby, Lena Dunham, and the challenges of writing characters whose experiences differ from one’s own: We…
Writing the Invisible
The work of the writer has always been about making the invisible visible. Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams, talks to Salon about Ferguson and fear, selfies and tattoos,…
Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, the Early Years
‘Marriage is my medium,’ he wrote. ‘You have no idea what a happy life Sylvia and I lead.’ Salon has an exclusive look into the early (and happy) days of…
Between the Lines
While some bibliophiles hold books as sacred artworks to be carefully preserved, others can’t read without a little back-and-forth. Laura Miller makes a case for defacing pages: Marginalia is a…