Author: Matthew Westphal

Antonia Fraser Cuts Ties To Man Booker Prize

“Lady Antonia Fraser has resigned as an adviser to the Man Booker International Prize (she sits on its e-Council) because she was not consulted about the decision [to open the main prize to writers from all countries, including the U.S.]. ‘I have resigned from the committee since I was not warned about this when I was asked to join in August,’ she tells me.”

Why American Book Critics Rarely Do Hatchet Jobs Anymore

Lee Siegel: “[The] dissolution of literary ghettos, where the slaughtering review once reigned, … [has meant] that serious negative criticism – there had always been the brisk negative newspaper review – could, for the first time, have real-life consequences. Now that authors could make a living from their advances, a withering takedown could be a blow to someone’s livelihood.”

Why Donald Antrim Won’t Call Himself A Novelist

The new MacArthur winner says that an editor he once worked for “felt that a novelist was a person who had dedicated his or her life to the pursuit – the professional pursuit – of the art form. At the time, I thought that Ray’s opinions seemed curmudgeonly, old-school. Now that I’ve spent some years writing fiction, I am more inclined to see his point, the rightness of it.”

Shakespeare: To Update Or Not To Update? The New York Times Launches A Debate

As a series of high-profile productions opens in New York this season, writes Charles Isherwood, “fellow New York Times writers and I will be regularly posting commentaries on aspects of them, engaging larger questions about how today’s theater artists approach these canonical works, and inviting you to add your opinions about how vitally Shakespeare continues to speak to modern audiences.”

German Stand-Up Comedians Not Only Exist, They’re Telling Jokes About Germans

“Germany has had a kick-me sign on its back for comedians at least since Kaiser Wilhelm donned a spiked helmet more than a century ago.” (Think Charlie Chaplin, Mel Brooks’s The Producers, Hogan’s Heroes, Mike Myers’s Sprockets.) But all those acts were outsiders laughing at Germans. Germans are getting in the act now. … Lederhosen-wearing Hilby the Skinny German Juggle Boy is among a growing group of German comedians who get laughs mocking Germany.”

Why Zaha Hadid Designs With Curves And Not Corners

“People think that the most appropriate building is a rectangle, because that’s typically the best way of using space. But is that to say that landscape is a waste of space? The world is not a rectangle. You don’t go into a park and say: ‘My God, we don’t have any corners.’ It’s like saying that everyone has to write in exactly the same way. And it is simply not the case.”