My review of Martin Stannard’s Muriel Spark biography appears at Barnes & Noble Review (and is reprinted at Salon). One of the things that struck me while reading is just how easily Spark — one of the finest and funniest novelists of the last century, or of any century — could have continued to write poetry and criticism and not . . .
This Saturday, April 17, I’ll be discussing the future of criticism as part of the Center for Fiction’s Conference in Honor of Roger Shattuck. Other participants in the panel discussion are Granta editor John Freeman and New Republic critic Jed Perl, and it will be moderated by National Book Critics Circle President Jane Ciabattari. I’m also excited to attend Lorin . . .
“We would give a great deal to secure from you an article.” Virginia Quarterly Review digs into its Sherwood Anderson archives.
At night, when I get home from work, or from whatever I’ve done after work, I open packages from publishers. Then I stack most of the books* along this wall, behind the dining room table and next to the liquor credenza. Classy, I know. But it’s an improvement. At our old place, when the galleys piled up, Max and I . . .
“This short, perfect novel seems to encapsulate all the world’s pain in a soap bubble.” Deborah Eisenberg reviews Dezso Kosztolányi’s newly-translated Skylark for the NYRB.