In our weekend reading: a playlist from Joni Murphy, an interview with Lucy Sante, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Vanessa Saunders’s Novel, The Rumpus News, Bobby Miller Interviewed, and More
In our afternoon reading: thoughts on Vanessa Saunders’s new novel, a new edition of a book on Orson Welles, and more.
AWP Day 1: Orgies & Offsites
My exhaustion is beyond catastrophic.
Nonetheless, I said I was going to go to the Little Engines offsite. And I should at least say hi to some people.
It’s weird to not be beholden to do anything but still hold yourself to do it. Like writing even when you’re not getting paid for it. And who does that?
Prelude to AWP: RDU->LAX
My father-in-law, who lives in Los Angeles, always says that we can stay at his house whenever we like. I’m sure he meant all three of us, not just me. With AWP being in LA this year, I considered it. Being the contributing editor I am, I reached out to the great Tobias Carroll, all powerful editor, to see if I could use Vol. 1 Brooklyn as an excuse to get a press pass to skip registration fees, and in exchange, I’d do coverage of AWP for the site.
Morning Bites: Eiko Ishibashi’s Latest, Meredith Turits on Books, Graeme Macrae Burnet on Trilogies, and More
In our morning reading: exploring the music of Eiko Ishibashi and Arvo Pärt, an interview with Graeme Macrae Burnet, and more.
Afternoon Bites: Ada Palmer’s Latest, Jordan A. Rothacker on Writing, Spring Reading, and More
In our afternoon reading: thoughts on Ada Palmer’s new book, spring reading suggestions, and more.
No Small Thing: On “The First Law of Holes: New and Selected Stories” by Meg Pokrass
V.S. Pritchett spoke in an interview of how Chekhov’s gifts were limited to short forms because he lived in an anarchic and chaotic society, diagnosing the same state of genius to Irish writers like Frank O’Connor and Liam O’Flaherty that came after him. Pritchett said, “the novel depends enormously upon its sense of a stable social structure and the short story does not really depend on there being a social structure at all.” To give form to our fractalizing 21st century chaos, traditional short stories are too neat, wishfully formal, consoling. Adorno believed art worth its salt does not aspire to console. So it may be in the fragments, flash fictions, micro fictions, that we’ll find the form of our current chaos aestheticized.
Morning Bites: Pedro Lemebel Remembered, Joan Didion’s Legacy, Anders Nilsen on Comics, and More
In our morning reading: exploring the legacies of Pedro Lemebel and Joan Didion, thoughts on Nathan Knapp’s new book, and more.