Since 2014, I haven’t been able to convince myself that there is a literary genre as enigmatic, macabre, and folkloristically rich as a work of hagiography, the vita or “life” of a saint. Six years ago, I traveled to a handful of Read more >
An open letter published today and signed by 30 members of the National Book Critics Circle calls for sweeping changes to the organization’s structure and practices, with a specific set of recommendations meant to address inclusion, accessibility, and anti-racism. The Read more >
Ah, yes, the good old days: when novelists lent their faces and testimonials to advertisers hoping to sell tires, or a certain kind of beer, or fancy watches. It’s something you don’t see very much anymore, because we writers have Read more >
Break out the mustache wax and pour yourself a stiff G&T, because the first trailer for Death on the Nile—the Kenneth Branagh-directed adaptation of Agatha Christie’s canonical 1937 crime novel in which Detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a Read more >
Harnessing the power of extremely famous people to sell books is nothing new, but what about combining the influence of multiple famous people—from billionaire “philanthropist” Richard Branson to beloved journalist/Twitter lush Susan Orlean—to sell books combined with the vaporous concept of “access” Read more >
Organizations representing bookstores, writers, and publishers sent a joint letter to the House Antitrust Subcommittee yesterday asking them to put a stop to Amazon’s “unhealthy degree of control” over the the marketplace for books. Addressing Congressman David Cicilline (D-RI), the Read more >
Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the American publication of Vladimir Nabokov’s most controversial and iconic work. Lolita—the story of a verbose, middle-aged literature professor, sexually obsessed with pre-pubescent girls, and his perverse and destructive relationship with 12-year-old Dolores Haze—became Read more >
The Democratic National Convention has begun, and this year, it’s refreshingly personal, with the majority of statements and speeches coming from inside people’s homes—or backgrounds of varying oddity. Among the highlights: Megan Rapinoe has utterly mastered both monochromatism and lighting; Read more >
I used to be a steadfast book-finisher. At least when it came to books I picked up voluntarily, I was committed to gritting my teeth and cleaning my plate (unfortunately, this didn’t apply to the many assigned history texts I Read more >
Oh boy. Today, Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced that they would be publishing New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s American Crisis on October 13th. The publisher describes the book as “a revealing, behind-the-scenes account of his experience leading Read more >
Ah, the days of summer are winding down. The days are getting shorter. The leaves are starting to brown. The air feels a little crisper. (Unless you’re in Death Valley. Global warming is real!!) Before we switch over to full-blown Read more >
Listen, guys: we may all love Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell series—lord knows the Booker Prize judges do—but Mantel has had enough of the genre for now (and after almost 2000 pages, who could blame her?). So stop bugging her about Read more >
Every year, Longwood University’s John Dos Passos Prize sets out to celebrate one vital but under-appreciated writer. Previous recipients include Colson Whitehead, Tom Wolfe, and Annie Proulx. (Obviously, they were awarded the Dos Passos Prize before they won, say, two Pulitzer Read more >
Margot Livesey’s The Boy in the Field, Diane Cook’s The New Wilderness, Kathleen Rooney’s Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey, and Elisa Gabbert’s The Unreality of Memory all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week. Fiction 1. Read more >
The Women’s Prize for Fiction recently debuted an upcoming project which will mark the 25th anniversary of the prize: an initiative called “Reclaim Her Name” (#ReclaimHerName) which republishes famous works by twenty-five female authors who published under male nom-de-plumes in Read more >
There’s nothing I love more than a demonic preacher. Whether it’s murderous Robert Mitchum singing “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” as he stalks children through the friscalating West Virginia dusklight in Night of the Hunter, or supernatural misogynist Nathan Fillion Read more >
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