Welcome to February. When looking at the books we’re most excited about for this month, it’s difficult to find a common thread. There are revelatory books that help explain some of the most contentious issues of our time; there are also surreal works of fiction that turn the familiar into the utterly bizarre. These are narratives that unfold in unexpected ways, whether real or imagined–and whether the corners of the world that they illuminate are urgent or obscure, they offer […]
Morning Bites: N.K. Jemisin Interviewed, Clarice Lispector’s Stories, Kendrick Lamar, La Luz’s Latest, and More
In our morning reading: interviews with N.K. Jemisin and Monica Byrne, notes on Clarice Lispector’s short fiction, fiction from Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, and more.
#tobyreads: An Indie Press Quartet
There isn’t a lot that I can use to connect the four books up for discussion this week. They’re all released on small presses of distinction (two from the same one, in fact), but that shouldn’t be taken to represent some sort of consistent aesthetic. These books range in style from well-earned realism to a progressively-more-unhinged monologue in the key of John Hawkes. Regardless, quality abounds in these four works: the best of them is one of the freshest, most […]
Afternoon Bites: Chats With Vanessa Veselka and Julia Wertz, Ranking the Bond Novels, Inside Keret House, and More
Julia Wertz talked with The Comics Reporter about her new collection The Infinite Wait. Book Riot ranked Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Vanessa Veselka chatted with The American Reader. The New York Times takes us inside Keret House. Edan Lepucki makes the case that literary fiction is a genre. Roxane Gay was interviewed on the subject of short stories. Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi’s Fra Keeler is out now on The Dorothy Project, and The Collagist has an excerpt. New fiction from J.A. Tyler […]