Last month Peter Campbell, writing about the British Museum’s Babylon, Myth and Reality exhibition, observed, “Held in the hand, a typical cuneiform tablet is about the same weight and shape as an early mobile phone.” Hold it as though you were going to text someone and you hold it the way the scribe did; a proverb had it that “a . . .
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 . . .
Tonight’s Girls Write Now event at the (gorgeous) Society for Ethical Culture will feature Judy Blundell (2008 National Book Award Winner for Young Adult Literature) and of course original collaborative works by Girls Write Now emerging teen writers from throughout New York’s five boroughs—and originally from countries around the world—and the professional writers who mentor and inspire them throughout the . . .
Colson Whitehead’s Wow, fiction works!, a parody of James Wood’s How Fiction Works, is so light-footed and deadly, it makes most rebuttals in this genre seem plodding. Christian Lorentzen forwarded a link to the piece as I was leaving work, and I laughed so hard while reading it on the packed train home that even the pervy guy inched away . . .
Kate Christensen and I finally met — we’re both slackers — and I learned her 5th novel, Trouble, is out in June. (Can’t wait.)