In our afternoon reading: news of new music from members of Fugazi and The Evens, a review of Garth Greenwell’s latest book, and more.
The Equipment is Spare & Draconian: An Interview With Andrew Weatherhead
Judge a book by its title. It’s a good idea. I bought $50,000 because it’s called $50,000 (and because Publishing Genius never lets me down). Since I first opened the book and read it in one sitting, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I read it again. And then a third time. And then I found myself walking to work thinking, Writing poems like invoicing a prior self, and then I stopped walking and whispered to myself, “That’s the best line I ever wrote.” But I didn’t write it. Andrew Weatherhead did.
Morning Bites: Brandon Taylor, Silvina Ocampo Revisited, Amina Cain, David Lynch’s “Dune” Adaptation, and More
In our morning reading: interviews with Brandon Taylor and Amina Cain, thoughts on a book by Silvina Ocampo, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Danez Smith Interviewed, Tola Rotimi Abraham, U.S. Girls’ Latest, Emily Nemens, and More
In our afternoon reading: an interview with Danez Smith, new music from U.S. Girls, and more.
One Writer Ponders Race in America: A Review of “Self-Portrait in Black and White”
Thomas Chatterton Williams always knew there was something off about the simplistic race classifications he was forced to deal with since childhood. The son of a light-skinned black man and a white woman, Williams understood he was different, that he inhabited an interstitial space between the rigid racial categorizations society imposed on him. For years he performed intellectual work to break away from those impositions. However, holding his newborn daughter, a pale baby with blazing blue eyes, triggered a need to finally come up with a solution. Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race is the result of Williams’s quest for answers.
Morning Bites: Ben Okri’s Latest, Miranda Popkey, Carmen Maria Machado Interviewed, David Nutt, and More
In our morning reading: thoughts on Ben Okri’s new novel, an interview with Carmen Maria Machado, and more.
Sunday Stories: “The Collington Archive”
The Collington Archive
by Christopher Wood
“Guys,” she said.
Molly was an accelerated undergrad, the lone freshman in our two-semester editing class, which helped produce Concourses, the university’s recently-launched national lit mag. In sizing up our English department’s rising status, during her college search, this go-getter, or her high school advisor, had been prescient.
She cornered us in the library’s computer room, while Sam printed his EN: 397 Comparative Renaissances paper on Milton and Hughes.
“Hey, Molly,” we said.
Sam’s professor was locking up her office for the weekend in less than an hour. My buddy had to drop off his assignment pronto.
“The Collington archive just went up,” Molly announced.
Weekend Bites: Claude McKay Revisited, Kristen Radtke, Lance Olsen Interviewed, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, and More
In our weekend reading: exploring a newly-published novel by Claude McKay, an interview with Lance Olsen, and more.