Best of the Week: December 19 - 23, 2016
THE BEST OF THE LITERARY INTERNET
- From Etel Adnan to Jordan Zandi, the best poetry collections of 2016. | The New York Times
- “One cannot dispute that the president has been an exemplary ambassador for literature, a leader who has championed reading as a way to open our eyes to the world, to nurture understanding, to see ourselves in others.” Reflecting on Obama’s literary presidency. | San Francisco Chronicle
- “Already, at quite a young age, poetry was like an invisible figure—the lyric I—walking at my side and holding me lightly by the right arm.” An interview with Fanny Howe. | The Paris Review
- The motorcycle guys like Trump: Hunter S. Thompson is the most recent addition to the ever-growing list of writers who anticipated the results of the election. | The Nation
- “To re-encounter nature, after losing your way in your own country, would never be an escape from history or social life into a greenwood idyll.” Reading Thoreau between the elections and their consequences. | n+1
- On Kafka’s “brief alternative-history as a \travel hack” and life outside of his writing. | Prospect Magazine
- “The logic of Book Twitter is: Books are inherently good. Therefore, if we’d all just read more books, Donald Trump wouldn’t have been elected.” Kevin Nguyen on the failings of book twitter (and IRL publishing culture). | The Millions
- A heartening trend countering the upsurge of xenophobia: On “this year’s bonanza of English-language fiction published by writers of Asian descent.” | VICE
- “There are definite solutions to climate change out there that could make a nice place to start for alternative narratives.” How better writing about climate change can make it less polarizing. | Publishing Perspectives
- “Hybridity is what the characters and the book, and hopefully its readers must engage with.” An interview with Peter Ho Davies. | Fiction Writers Review
- From Pedro Almodóvar’s take on Alice Munro to the Swedish-language adaptation of A Man Called Ove, the best films inspired by literary material of 2016. | Signature Reads
- Recommendations of books from (over 100!) independent presses. | BookRiot
- For those curious about Junot Díaz’s breakfast preferences, your answers have arrived. | Extra Crispy
- J.K. “Always Working on a Novel” Rowling is currently writing two new books. | Slate
- The novel is hamstrung by its 18th-century origins and the TV box set sets fiction free: An intrepid critic wonders if Westworld tells “a truer story than a novel can.” | The Guardian
And on Literary Hub:
The Literary Hub staff shares their favorite books of 2016 · Visiting the last bookbinder on the Lower East Side · Charles Johnson on the art of revision: Most of what you write should be cut · 10 overlooked books by women in 2016 · Kurt Vonnegut’s atheist marvels: How the famous humanist achieved transcendence without God · Our favorite and the most popular stories at Literary Hub this year · Why is it ‘unrealistic’ to show women in power in fantasy? Kate Elliott and Ken Liu in conversation · The 60 best covers of this year, as selected by book designers · Jason Diamond on working through depression to finish a book · My Louise Bourgeois: Siri Hustvedt on the complex, brilliant, contradictory artist
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