The weekend’s Times ran an excerpt from “Cancel Them: The Problem With Literary Readings,” which appears in the latest issue of n+1. Some salient bits: If you’ve made the mistake of going to literary readings, you know that the only thing that can make them endurable is to ha at each funny bit, and ah at each clever observation, and . . .
The Atlantic, suddenly flush with cash, has joined the host of general-interest literary magazines (the Saturday Evening Post, Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan, to name a few, used to publish O. Henry award winners with some frequency) that have stopped publishing short fiction in recent years. Sort of. For now, “the magazine plans to offer a newsstand only fiction . . .
A.S. Byatt admires the “American-style reportage” present in the work of Zadie Smith and Monica Ali, and argues that a renewed focus on storytelling since the 1970’s has left the British novel in good shape. Ali Smith and Toby Litt touched off a firestorm (ably summarized by Annie Reid) last week when critics branded their introduction to the New Writing . . .
Since last week’s Denis Johnson update (fourth item), I’ve learned that the first chapter of Tree of Smoke — the Jesus’ Son author’s novel-in-progress — will appear in McSweeney’s Issue 16, forthcoming in May or June.
The Smart Set is a weekly feature, compiled by Lauren Cerand, that appears Mondays 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 submit details to lauren@maudnewton.com. MONDAY, 3.28: Perhaps aiming to give the Upper West Side a little much-needed edge, Columbia: A . . .