The Guardian
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Women Are More Interesting
Nick Hornby often ends up fielding questions from fans eager to understand why he frequently writes about women, especially since he’s a man. Many of his novels feature female protagonists, and his second career as a screenwriter includes what he…
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A Democratic Way of Living
Viv Groskop interviews author Azar Nafisi about her book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which chronicles her experience teaching controversial works in Tehran. Nafisi also discusses her motivation to write her most recent book, The Republic of Imagination, which argues that literature promotes a “democratic way of…
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Smiley Sheds Light on Some Luck
For the Guardian, Robert McCrum sits down with Jane Smiley to discuss the award-winning author’s new book, Some Luck, and the creative process. “I grew up in a family of storytellers,” she explains, describing Some Luck. “I cannot remember a thing that anyone talked about—not…
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A 21st Century Literary Movement
In the Guardian, Damien Walter discusses what he thinks might be the first major literary movement of the 21st century: transrealism, the genre of literature that rejects “consensus reality.”
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Antique Doodles
The owner of another fabulous volume, the Book of St Albans – a gentleman’s guide to heraldry, hawking and hunting that, in the 1480s, was the first colour printed book in English – did worse and with much less shame:…
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Online Ranting, Real-Life Raving
YA author Kathleen Hale became obsessed over a negative Goodreads review of her first novel, to the point of finding the reviewer’s address and deciding to stalk her in real life. She wrote about the experience on the Guardian last…
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Mountains, Lowlands, and Archipelagos
Horace Engdahl thinks that creative writing programs and the walled-off communities academic programs create are hurting western literature. Since writing courses help monetize writing—and fund writers as professionals—Engdahl worries that the courses are removing writers from the real world. Engdahl…
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The End of Literature
The digital age threatens works of serious literary merit, warns British novelist Will Self: Back when I began publishing novels, not only did the reviews in the quality press mean something – in terms of sales, yes, but also as…
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Crime and Punishment: the Musical!
Coming soon to the Moscow stage: Dostoevsky’s masterwork of darkness, desperation, and brutal murder in the style of musical theatre, reports the Guardian.
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Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Manuscript
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle left an original manuscript of a Sherlock Holmes story to his daughter, who in turn left it to the Nation of Scotland. Then the manuscript sat in a bank vault. Conan Doyle studied medicine in Edinburgh…
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Speed Reading the Man-Booker Shortlist
To test reading software Spritz, an app that helps readers achieve high words-per-minute rates, Rob Boffard decided to start with the Man-Booker shortlist. He used the program to read Joshua Ferris’s 110,000 word novel To Rise Again at a Decent…
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YA Lit Tackles Modern Concerns
Plenty of critics have lamented the rise of Young Adult literature, but its popularity isn’t accidental. The genre is focusing on contemporary problems and, more importantly, manifesting them in easily digestible ways that appeal not just to teens, but to…