Below writer and professor Carrie Spell offers an appreciation of her former writing instructor Mary Robison’s latest novel, One D.O.A. One on the Way, in the context of the author’s larger body of work. In their memoir Double Down, Frederick and Steven Barthelme describe a trip to a Mississippi Gulf Coast casino with their colleague, story writer and novelist . . .
“Just start talking, as Mark Twain did”: from Barry Hannah’s (handwritten) writing tips, scanned at HTML Giant. (Via; via.)
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 by the Thursday prior to . . .
For the summer issue of Bookforum, I wrote a joint review of Eileen Luhr’s Witnessing Suburbia, on the development of the Christian youth culture, and Bethany Moreton’s excellent To Serve God and Wal-Mart, on the making of Christian free enterprise. Here’s an excerpt: Books claiming to decipher evangelical Christianity for the secular reader are nothing new, but the Bush years . . .