Stylish Russians and Iowa Short Fiction Award Winners: Vica Miller’s Soho Literary Salons

Stylish Russians are staples at Vica Miller’s Soho Literary Salons. Along with authors like Simon Van Booy, Miller invites other authors, editors, agents and fabulous foreign friends to attend her elegant private readings. The St. Petersburg native also has plenty of wine and throws her salons exclusively in art galleries both on Spring Street and the Upper West Side.

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The Zinophile: Texts on Texts, Sometimes Literally — Kate Zambreno, Illuminati Girl Gang, and the Making of Books

Words about words; books about books. If a place where you’ve traveled can inspire a zine, why not the words you’ve just read? Last week, I talked with the editors of It’s Complicated for a piece that should run here in the next few days. The concept behind their zine? Creating feminist responses to misogynist art; their first issue covers everything from the Afghan Whigs to Ayn Rand. The writing is terrific, challenging assumptions as much as it illuminates particular literary […]

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GChats From Crappalachia: An Interview With Scott McClanahan

A no-bullshit gentleman, Scott McClanahan isn’t afraid to reveal the underbellies of the world, no matter how embarrassing or dirty or stinky or clammy. McClanahan reminds us that it’s essential to take risks. He helps us keep in mind that the human heart can benefit from being scuffled with. He assures us that fear is part of what makes the world go round. His stories grab ahold of us and linger gauzy and ghostlike. But there is no slight of […]

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Morning Bites: Etgar Keret Stories, Fitzgerald’s Poetry, Talking Rothschilds, Tyrant Talks, Sheryl Sandberg’s Army, and More

Maxim Gorky was born on this day in 1868. Do you have $75000-$100,000 to spend on some original F. Scott Fitzgerald poems? Sometimes you need to set aside some time to read a John Jeremiah Sullivan essay. Sometimes is now, since J.J.S. has something up at Laphams Quarterly. The Other People podcast has Giancarlo DiTrapano of Tyrant Books on the show. Etgar Keret has contributed a story to Electric Literature’s always stellar Recommended Reading series. But wait, there’s more: There’s an animated short based off […]

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Afternoon Bites: Sheila Heti’s Zine, Benjamin Lytal & Geography, Marissa Nadler’s “Game of Thrones” Cover, and More

“To understand what makes António “Mia” Emílio Leite Couto special — even extraordinary — we have to loosen our grip on the binary that distinguishes between “the West” and “Africa.”” Aaron Bady on the novels of Mia Coutu. Want to read Sheila Heti’s 90s-era feminist zine? Benjamin Lytal talks about geography and fiction. Marissa Nadler covered the Game of Thrones theme song. Michael Robbins on his unread books. Roxane Gay interviewed Ben Schrank for Tin House. Michael H. Miller on Julian Schnabel. […]

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New Age Now

I’m sitting on a cushion on the floor of the Body Actualized Center, a yoga studio and event space in Bushwick, with my eyes closed and my hands on my knees, surrounded by a bunch of other kids around my age. On a chair in front of us is an older woman, draped in beads and a gauzy blue outfit, leading us in song: “I am opening up, I am ooo-ooo-opening up, to the luminous love-light of the One.” Her […]

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The Old Oxford: Remembrance of Scents Past and Writing About What You Smell

“Life begins somewhere with the scent of lavender,” André Aciman starts off the first essay in his collection, Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere.  “Lavender” is Aciman’s Proustian meditation on how a particular scent that his father used made him feel “sheltered, happy, beloved,” and it ushered in “good thoughts–about life.”

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Morning Bites: Douglas Rushkoff, Paris Review Prizes, Historical Whisey, Visiting Proust, and More

The Paris Review has announced the winners of the Plimpton prize and the Terry Southern Prize for Humor. And the winners are… Jason Diamond reviewed Michael Hainey’s After Visiting Friends at Bookforum. Ezra Glinter visits Marcel Proust at The Morgan. Abraham Riesman hangs out with Douglas Rushkoff in a clock shop, while Jacob Silverman has a few things to say about Rushkoff’s latest, Present Shock. You get sued when you drink $102,000 worth of historical whiskey. Barbour for the people! Follow Vol. […]

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