Jump to navigation Skip to content
Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell’s illustrated essay on the importance of reading; Eileen Myles talks politics and poetry; Jonathan Lethem’s Trump-inspired detective story; and other news.
“It was sad. I would rather talk to my idea of a person, a fantasy ghost-person that existed only in my imagination, than talk with my own parents.” Patty Yumi Cottrell, author of Sorry to Disrupt the Peace (McSweeney’s, 2017) and a recipient of a 2018 Whiting Award in fiction, reads from her essay “My Abyss.”
Leo Tolstoy’s vegetarian cookbook; Mark Twain’s writing advice; literary podcast recommendations; and other news.
In the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, Heather Lanier writes: “Don’t settle for your first idea or point, the thing that might have brought you to the page. Let that first point be a jumping-off place to deeper questioning.” Lanier shares an anecdote about starting an essay initially focused on exploring the etymology of a word, and then realizing it was on track to recreate a well-trod argument, a realization which steered her toward a more challenging and uncertain direction. Think of an essay topic that seems like a good idea for exploration, and then seek “the deeper questions, the ones for which you don’t have ready answers” as you write and dive into your topic. Where do you end up when you can’t see where you’re headed?
National Book Festival breaks records; Little, Brown to reissue series of J. D. Salinger classics; Sonia Sotomayor on the power of books; and other news.
Han Kang joins Future Library project; a profile of Sally Rooney, the “Jane Austen of the precariat”; Jeanette Winterson considers Virginia Woolf’s Orlando; and other news.
Novels to read over Labor Day weekend; Sarah Schulman on her forthcoming novel; revenue down at Penguin Random House; and other news.
“If you think about what it takes to be a writer, you really have to be an observer and you have to live life.” Regina Brooks, founder and owner of Serendipity Literary Agency, offers advice for publishing and discusses what a literary agent does for a writer in this interview with the Atlanta Post. Brooks answers questions in “Agent Advice” in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Ron Carlson resigns from UC Irvine after being accused of sexual misconduct; four finalists for the alternative Nobel Prize in Literature announced; twenty years of Harry Potter memorabilia; and other news.
“Writing memoir is the ultimate control of my story.” Sandra Gail Lambert talks to author Michele Leavitt about her own motivations for writing memoir, and the challenges that accompany it. Lambert, author of the debut memoir, A Certain Loneliness (University of Nebraska Press, 2018), is featured in “Outsiders on the Inside” by Michele Sharpe in the September/October issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
