When asked to describe the app “Make it Rain: The Love of Money” to a friend, I think I said it was something like Karl Marx’s Kafkaesque nightmare. I say that I think that’s what I said, because I had to have a few drinks before I could truly open up and discuss what has become my number one way of wasting time and not thinking about anything. The app is truly the most pointless and wonderful thing I can […]
Joan Didion on the Basement Floor
Ten minutes before lying down on the concrete floor of the WORD basement, I have a conversation about how it seems like some reviewers can’t help but compare essayists to either Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, or both, and that’s it. I think about how that isn’t such a bad comparison, but I wish they used other points of reference. I take one sip of wine because I’m driving, I nibble on a donut, then another nibble, then I realize I’ve […]
“The Genesis Stuff”: A Conversation with Kyle Minor, Part Two
On March 11th, Kyle Minor and Jason Diamond spoke about a host of topics at Community Bookstore. You can read the first part, in which they discussed religion, the structure of Minor’s collection Praying Drunk, and literary communities here. This half of the conversation focuses more on Praying Drunk, along with looks at Minor’s novel-in-progress and first collection, In the Devil’s Territory. Plus: Barry Hannah.
“Everything Good in Life is Attached to Trouble”: A Conversation With Kyle Minor, Part One
On March 11th, Jason Diamond and Kyle Minor spoke at Community Bookstore. Topics ranged from Minor’s new book Praying Drunk to religion to the internet’s effect on the writing community. What follows is the first part of their conversation; the second part will follow tomorrow.
Revisiting Ernest Hemingway’s Hamburger
In case you missed it last year, Esquire has gone ahead and reprinted Ernest Hemingway’s hamburger recipe, complete with a link to The Paris Review post from last year that also teaches you how to make the ever important seasoning. The only reason I’m telling you this is because I tried to make the burgers a few months back, and they were actually pretty delicious. So in the event that you missed out last time around, here is your chance […]
“And How Political is Their Notorious ‘Girl Power’?”: Kathy Acker’s 1997 Spice Girls Profile
Fifty-second street. West Side, New York City. Hell’s Kitchen – one of those areas into which no one would once have walked unless loaded. Guns or drugs or both. But now it has been gentrified: the beautiful people have won. A man in middle-aged-rocker uniform, tight black jeans and nondescript T-shirt, lets Nigel, the photographer, and me through the studio doorway; then a chipmunk-sort-of-guy in shorts, with a Buddha tattooed on one of his arms, greets us warmly. This is […]
Shirley Jackson’s “Broomstick for a Pen” and Her Witchy Ways
“Because Miss Jackson wrote so frequently about ghosts and witches and magic, it was said that she used a broomstick for a pen. But the fact was that she used a typewriter–and then only after she had completed her household chores.” – Shirley Jackson’s New York Times obituary.
‘The New Republic’ is Back in the Short Story Publishing Business
So I guess The New Republic hasn’t been publishing short fiction since the days of John Cheever, according to magazine editor Franklin Foer. Thankfully they’ve remedied that with this great story by Nicole Krauss (who happens to be Foer’s sister-in-law…), “I Am Asleep but My Heart Is Awake,” which is in the December issue that might be off stands, but now online for all of us to enjoy. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, our Tumblr, and sign up for our mailing […]