As we careen headlong into the season of spring, the weather is growing warmer, the trees are growing greener, and new books are continuing to make their way into the world. April in particular abounds with essay and short story collections that have caught our eye, from debut works to collected editions that span the arc of a career. This isn’t to say that collections make up the entirety of the list you’re about to read; you’ll also find fiction […]
Morning Bites: Mary Gaitskill Interviewed, Archestratus Books, Writers Running, Jeremy Robert Johnson, and More
In our morning reading: interviews with Mary Gaitskill and Jeremy Robert Johnson, a look at the works of John Irving, and more.
Surreal Apocalypses, Collective Intelligences, and More: An Interview With Jeremy Robert Johnson
Readers seeking a particularly singular take on the end of the world would do well to seek out Jeremy Robert Johnson‘s new novel Skullcrack City. Featuring a plotline involving body modification, brain-devouring genetic experiments, sinister demonic gods, and an eye-exploding drug, Skullcrack City is a particularly manic entry in its field, irreverently finding new ways to riff on familiar concepts. I talked with Johnson about the creation of his new book, his fondness for apocalyptic literature, and more.
Morning Bites: PEN/Faulkner Finalists, Anna Lyndsey Interviewed, Jeremy Robert Johnson, Fictional Basketball Players, and More
In our Tuesday morning reading: news of the PEN/Faulkner finalists; interviews with Anna Lyndsey, Brandon Stosuy, and Jeremy Robert Johnson; Kevin Nguyen on Spacebomb Records; and more.
#tobyreads: Journeys into Technique, Journeys into the Weird
So I read MFA vs. NYC this week. I’d encountered a couple of the essays in it earlier–some in the pages of N+1; others at readings or excerpted elsewhere. And as collections of work go, it comes highly recommended: it’s an accurate summation of the debates around writing and the studying of it as you’re likely to find. Though looking to it for defined answers might be more difficult: the anthology offers up a host of points of view, each of which […]