Posted by Jason Diamond I won’t spoil the riches and wonders that is the Tumblr “Not Foster Wallace.” I’ll just let you click and find out.
Morning Bites: Didion changing lives, Zachary Schomburg’s sells mad poetry, Emily Books, and more
“If there’s ever a time in your life to read early Joan Didion, it’s when you’re young and thoroughly disenchanted with a place.” – S.J. Culver at The Millions. At The Hairpin, Edith Zimmerman talks with Emily Gould and Ruth Curry about Emily Books. Zachary Schomburg’s two books of poetry on Black Ocean sells 10,000 copies. That’s a lot of poetry. Books “about secrets and other scary stuff” review over at Rookie.
To L.L. Bean, on his 139th birthday…
Posted by Jason Diamond Leon Leonwood Bean was born on this day in 1872 (his Wikipedia says November 13th, but it’s wrong). Maybe today is the perfect time to read his 1942 book Hunting, Fishing, Camping, or just take some time to appreciate the company he founded. I checked out the 1984 biography pictured above when I was in the 5th grade for a book report on the topic of “The Outdoors.” I could have picked from any number of […]
Morning Bites: When Updike went homophobic, Jami Attenberg, Gessen at #OccupyWallStreet, and more
At Slate, David Haglund takes a look back at a homophobic 1999 book review written by John Updike. He wasn’t keen on gay people, and he’d already been labeled a misogynist. Now we’re convinced the only people John Updike liked were Ted Williams and Jewish writers. One of our favorite writers, Jami Attenberg, spends some time seeing if people pick up free copies of her book at a coffee shop. Keith Gessen went to Occupy Wall Street. We heard a […]
If Britpop ran the publishing industry…
Posted by Jason Diamond Jarvis Cocker becoming an editor at Faber & Faber is a step in the right direction, but these are my dream scenarios if Britpoppers from the 1990s ran the publishing industry. 1. Penguin would hire Morrissey to be in charge of design of the Classics imprint. They’re already going to be giving him bags of cash to write his memoirs, why not put Moz in charge of getting things back to the level that Germano Facetti […]
Morning Bites: Jarvis Cocker editing, DFW’s possible fabrications, flash fiction, and more
Faber & Faber hires Jarvis Cocker as its editor-at-large. We’re pretty sure Jarvis is the secret sauce the publishing industry needs to get rolling again. So maybe David Foster Wallace fabricated some things… Justin Taylor reviews Denis Johnson’s Train Dreams. Guernica has a new flash fiction series. J. M. Coetzee moves his papers to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. Tavis Smiley to tackle poverty in a new series on PBS.
Vol. 1 Presents: Civic Pride: New Jersey
“Jersey’s where America’s at!” – Some guy in Todd Solondz’s Storytelling. What’s the deal with New Jersey? On one hand it’s the great state that has given us talents from Philip Roth to Patti Smith, and on the other it’s the ongoing punchline for a thousand snobbish jokes told by New Yorkers who seem obvious as to the true greatness of the Garden State. It’s the state that hosted the first recorded baseball game, the home of Thomas Edison, the […]
Morning Bites: Junot Díaz’s next steps, Mailer’s apartment, the “violent left,” Emily Gould on having a side business, and more
Animating Albert Camus. “Even if you’re a big fan of capitalism, you’ll at least concede that its greatest strength is probably not its capacity to reward artistic virtue fairly.” – Emily Gould on writers and other artists branching out, and trying to find other avenues to make money. More Jonathan Franzen essays on the way. Junot Díaz gives some insight as to what his next novel will be about. They’re having quite the hard time selling Norman Mailer’s Brooklyn Heights […]