An Illustrated Interview With Alexander Maksik

Alexander Maksik’s second novel, A Marker to Measure Drift, follows the life of Jacqueline, a young homeless woman struggling to survive on a Greek island. A Liberian refugee, she makes herself a ghost among Santorini’s tourists, haunted by her family’s past under the brutal regime of dictator Charles Taylor. Grappling with exile and aftermath, Maksik’s prose is elegiac and deeply felt, and a stunning Sophomore effort just two years after his debut, You Deserve Nothing.

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Afternoon Bites: Diane Williams, Glen Campbell, Alexander Maksik, and more

“I’m going to spend 2012 seeking out the kind of writing I know is out there but is not receiving the attention it deserves. I’m going to spend 2012 committed to great(er) expectations rather than surrendering to the status quo. We’ll see how this goes.” At The Rumpus: Roxane Gay’s “Resolved: A Year of Great(er) Expectations.” (Via Lauren Cerand) Hey, look — it’s an excerpt from Diane Williams’s Vicky Swanky is a Beauty. Google Maps reveals the secrets of McNally […]

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Afternoon Bites: Steve Almond, R. Crumb, St. Vincent, and more

“The central power-dynamic itself — teacher seems superhuman then is revealed to be a normal human — is, well, boring. But that makes it all the more amazing when Maksik somehow pulls it off.” At Full Stop, Scott Beauchamp reviews Alexander Maksik’s You Deserve Nothing. Jeffrey Wasserstrom on the works of writer Yu Hua. R. Crumb’s album artwork has been collected. Gabrielle Gantz on Steve Almond’s recent reading at Greenlight. At Book Riot, Liberty Hardy on alternative methods of bookshelf organization. Jon […]

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