The Spring edition of the Virginia Quarterly Review contains a gob of unrelenting lit crit about the business of literature. The following are 9 great quotes from Richard Nash’s lead essay that comprehensively covers the history of book publishing and where it’s all going. Currently, Nash is doing great work with Small Demons and Red Lemon.ade. The full VQR essay can be read here.
“For all that Walter is frequently lauded as a humorist, the best stories in We Live in Water play the simple emotional chord of men just trying to do their best.” Alison Hallett on Jess Walter’s new collection We Live in Water. Hyperallergic on Nick Cave’s protest song. Richard Nash on the business of literature. “This is the beautiful paradox of Sonic Youth: making their instruments sound like everything that a guitar ought to be capable of creating, while simultaneously using them in […]
Folks with a fondness for indie presses who watched the first episode of Girls may have had a similar experience as they watched Lena Dunham’s character awkwardly attempting to parlay her internship into a full-time job. Specifically, they may have uttered some variation on the following: “Hey, wait a minute — is she working at Melville House?” From the books on the walls behind her, it looks like that might be the case.
Plenty of people paid tribute to the late Barney Rossett: Loren Glass at the Los Angeles Review of Books tweeted their September piece on Rossett and the history of Grove Press, The New York Times called him “The publisher who fought Puritanism, and won,” and Richard Nash plans to tweet a link about Rossett for each day of Lent. The first look at the Fuck Yeah Menswear book. Adam Wilson thinks Jesus was the first literary slacker. Wilson also talks to Julia Jackson at […]
“At 47, Lethem is 11 years older than Mailer was in 1959, so he’s had time to get more reading in. But that’s hardly the biggest advantage of an omnivore who devoured a book a day on the subway in high school and has spent 15 years working in bookstores…” Robert Christgau reviews Jonathan Lethem’s nonfiction collection The Ecstasy of Influence. Sarah Glidden visits Occupy Miami. Keith Gessen on his arrest at Occupy Wall Street. Here’s a combination of writers […]
Posted by Tobias Carroll This weekend, I took a look at Small Demons, currently in beta. I’ve read a few intriguing things about the site, and set out (invite in hand) to take a look. It doesn’t hurt that one of the folks working there is Richard Nash, best known around these parts as an editor who knows a thing or two about literary communities. And their introductory video is full of nice uses of slightly outdated technology — notably, […]
Posted by Juliet Linderman If you guys are in a place with radio or the ability to listen to radio on the internet tune in right now to listen to WNYC fave Brian Lehrer talk to a few really brilliant bookish dudes (including Richard Nash!) about the future of publishing.
At Slate: Looking at Leo Tolstoy 100 years after his death. At The Huffington Post: White people trying to make up for destroying ancient civilizations At Jewcy: An interview with Richard Nash. At Boing Boing: Somebody is really excited about the John Hodgman podcast. At The Atlantic: Sure, Harry Potter makes a ton of money, but is it the best franchise ever? At The Guardian: Saul Bellow: Letters is reviewed.