In the run-up to the spring issue, Narrative magazine has named my novel excerpt, When the Flock Changed, Story of the Week — meaning that it’s out from behind the Backstage wall, so you can read for free. I’ll be reading from the piece at Housing Works this Wednesday at an event also featuring new work from Kate Christensen and . . .
More Christensen: “I have been collecting male muses ever since [8th grade]. Each of my novels has a different one.”
Kate Christensen, observing how rare the male muse is in art, admires Arthur Phillips’ fourth novel, which centers on a man & the songwriter he inspires.
Stendhal called the novel “a mirror that one walks down a road.” Did he have in mind a perspective like Google Street View’s? (Via.)
Tod Linafelt argues, contra James Wood, that the Bible “may be read not only as a foil to Flaubert (and other novelists) but also as a precursor.” (Via.)