My last sight of you alive: Ted Hughes’ long-lost poem “Last Letter,” inspired by the suicide of his wife, Sylvia Plath, will be published Thursday in The New Statesman. (See also.)
Some writers shame and immobilize me with their brilliance, while others, like Twain, de Vries and Spark,* dwarf my own efforts but inspire me to keep on. It’s hard to pinpoint what separates the two groups; if pressed I’d say it’s an affinity of perspective — a morbid fixation on the absurdities of human existence — combined with precision, bluntness, and . . .
Rivka Galchen talks with Chris Adrian about his forthcoming novel, The Great Night, “a magical retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, set in contemporary San Francisco.” (Via.)
In Howl, the new film about Allen Ginsberg starring James Franco, a “trial turns into a seminar on literary criticism led by the befuddled prosecutor.” (Via.)