The poems of Barack Obama
Obama once published two poems, in the Spring 1981 issue of a now-defunct literary journal called Feist. (Via.)
SF survey: from post-cyberpunk to alt-history in Stross
Crooked Timber reads 12 Charlie Stross books exploring different forms in the SF genre, and Paul Krugman participates.
Enforced disconnection
Freedom is an application that will disable your browser for up to 8 hours at a time.
Beyond The Yellow Wallpaper
In one of her lesser-known works, Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman imagines a women-only utopia.
A designer’s eighty-five composition notebooks
The great Michael Bierut’s collection of composition notebooks (1982-2008) has me feeling all self-righteous and vindicated for choosing their unfussy functionality over the trendy, overpriced moleskine.
Seeing his laid out in rows like that was so inspiring, it almost made me second-guess the practice of ripping out my rough drafts [...]
Kate Christensen’s Trouble playlist
“I’m standing in the middle of life/With my past behind me…” Kate Christensen’s writing soundtrack includes Learning to Crawl.
R.I.P. Ellen Miller (and a public memorial service)
I’m only now learning that Ellen Miller, author of the amazing ’90s junkie novel Like Being Killed, died of a heart attack on December 23 at the age of forty-one.
When Ken Foster announced the terrible news a couple weeks ago, he quoted the book’s opening:
We crowded around the rickety kitchen table, predicting how each [...]
From the paper bullet to news online
Jill Lepore recalls the first time newspapers were dying, in 1765, after Parliament levied a stamp tax on every printed page in the colonies.
Jim Shepard’s dad
Granta supplements its “Fathers” issue — which includes Lethem, Bechdel, & many more — with a brief piece from Jim Shepard.
Bolaño’s “The Beach” translated at Eyeshot in December
The Times‘ Larry Rohter reports on the controversy that has erupted over the details of Roberto Bolaño’s life story.
Bolaño himself fostered the idea, enthusiastically embraced by U.S. critics and readers, that he had a heroin habit. But his widow and agent dispute this detail, as do Latin American critics. Julio Ortega, a [...]
R.I.P. John Updike
Shocking — despite his age, he seemed somehow immortal — but John Updike has died after a battle with lung cancer. (Thanks, David.)
The Smart Set: Lauren Cerand’s weekly events
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled and posted by Lauren Cerand, that usually appears Mondays at 12:30 pm, and highlights the best of the week to come. Special favor is given to New York’s independent booksellers and venues, and low-cost and free events. Please send details to Ms. Cerand at lauren [at] maudnewton.com [...]
For such a person described was not at all known to us
Jamaica Kincaid’s The Estrangement reminds me why my adulation reached such heights, I once named a cat after her. (Full text; thanks, Davis.)
The sound of words, and more
The sentence is a lonely place, says Gary Lutz. (Via.)
Woolf’s Freshwater on stage
Written as a divertissement for the Bloomsbury group, “Freshwater” proves that Virginia Woolf had a light side, says Charles Isherwood.
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