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.
Morning Bites: Dan Fante on John Fante, Porchista Khakpour, Thelma & Louise, and more
Publishers Weekly gives us a lineup of the most literary cemeteries in the world. [The picture above is Herman Melville’s grave at Woodlawn cemetery in The Bronx via us.] “John Fante was also sort of a hack and was always pissed off at the studios and always working on some deadline, on some piece of dreck for some producer.” Dan Fante to Royal Young at Interview, talking about his new book Fante: A Family’s Legacy of Writing, Drinking and Surviving. […]
Afternoon Bites: Post-earthquake, everybody on David Foster Wallace, Dischord Records makes us smile, and more
Of course we’re okay from the earthquake. Thanks so much for asking. How are you? You may have already read Maud Newton’s much-discussed essay on David Foster Wallace, but if not… Edward Champion offers his response to the Newton piece mentioned above. Gothamist chats with Dave Herman of the City Reliquary. Dischord will be releasing the full-length debut from Office of Future Plans later this year. Are we excited? Yes.
Afternoon Bites: David Mitchell, Ellen Willis, 33 1/3 Live, Kate Bush, Tina Fey, and David Foster Wallace’s Self-Help Archives, and More
Tomorrow at Greenlight in Brooklyn: Christopher Weingarten, Daphne Carr, Bryan Charles, and Hank Shteamer discuss their contributions to the 33 1/3 series. Jesse Miller on novels by John Brandon and David Mitchell. Several months ago, we mentioned a conference on the music criticism of Ellen Willis, to take place at NYU. One can now pre-register for said conference here. And Robert Christgau provides some context here. After a twenty year legal pursuit, Kate Bush has been granted the rights to […]
“The Process of Being Celebritified”: David Foster Wallace and Lipsky on Award Tour
Although Of Course You End Up Being Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace by David Lipsky 320 pp, Broadway Books, paperback, $16.99 Posted by Nick Curley David Lipsky calls his latest book a DVD commentary track for Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s very long masterpiece that returned the phrase “magnum opus” to our lexicon. This is the down and dirty print version of a five day series of interviews Lipsky conducted with Wallace for a Rolling Stone profile. […]
Bites: Ben Greenman(s), David Foster Wallace Story, Glasses and More
Kyle Minor likes Ben Greenman(s). Go over to The New Yorker and read the David Foster Wallace story. Captain Beefheart’s 10 commandments to playing a guitar. Two optical stories: Glasses for 3rd world countries. Did you hear the one about the rabbi who banned contact lenses?
Literary Trading Cards #1: Happy Birthday David Foster Wallace
Margarita Korol dedicated the first in our weekly series of literary trading cards would be to celebrate what would have been the 49th birthday of the great David Foster Wallace. You can purchase a limited edition copy of this literary trading card at Cafe Press.
Infinite Jest as a Penguin Classic
(Via @mattbucher)