In our morning reading: revisiting Angela Carter, an interview with José Olivarez, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Cynthia Connolly, Angela Carter Revisited, Kanishk Tharoor Interviewed, Serge Brussolo, and More
In our afternoon reading: interviews with Cynthia Connolly and Kanishk Tharoor, a new essay by Catherine LaSota, and more.
Folk Stories as Gateways: A Review of Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber”
The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories by Angela Carter Penguin Classics; 176 p. It’s nothing new. For centuries there have been folk tales to moralize and instruct, to frighten and warn. In early Celtic poetry for instance, there are odes spotted with sententious rhetoric, some of it dull (“the worst blemish is bad manners”), some of it true (“usual with the wanton is excessive laughter”), but all of it about the ways of people and things (“boys are nimble and […]
Afternoon Bites: Kelly Link on Angela Carter, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Mat Johnson Interviewed, and More
In our afternoon reading: Kelly Link on Angela Carter, Sarah McCarry on Stacy Wakefield, interviews with Neil Gaiman and Mat Johnson, and more.
#tobyreads: When the Narrative Circles Itself
I’d heard Richard Hugo’s name mentioned for a while as a writer whose work I should check out. Most recently, I was reading Charles D’Ambrosio’s Loitering, due out in the fall on Tin House, and found a lengthy essay using Hugo’s poem “Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg” as the jumping-off point for a long meditation on America, economic collapse, and national anxiety. This was the mephorical straw to my to-read list’s camel’s back, and I ended up ordering his essay collection […]
Afternoon Bites: Swans Reviewed, Tupelo Hassman Interviewed, 7x20x21 Revealed, And More
“…a perfect void of nostalgia that comes at a moment when similar indie rock heroes have reunited to defile the corpses of early works for lump sums of cash.” Grayson Currin on the latest from Swans, We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun In Our Head. The lineup for this BEA’s 7x20x21 looks incredibly good. Joseph Riippi is interviewed at The Collagist. Rosemary Hill on Susannah Clapp’s A Card From Angela Carter. Tupelo Hassman is interviewed at The Rumpus. […]