“The demise of young Quaker poet Aquila Rose, while surely lamentable, is virtually forgotten. But this obscure death nearly three centuries ago is arguably among the most momentous deaths in Philadelphia’s 300-plus years – not for who Rose was, but for what he precipitated.”
Category: words
Let’s Talk Candidly About How Much Writers Make
“Writers know so little about how other writers make ends meet that it’s difficult for them to have much perspective on their own ability to do so.”
The Books That Have Experimented With What A Book Is
Irma Boom has been undertaking “a quixotic, endless undertaking of creating a library of what she called ‘only the books that are experimental.’ Above her studio here, the recently opened library is made up almost entirely of books from the 1600s and 1700s, and the 1960s and ’70s.
National Book Critics Circle Finalists Announced, And There’s One Huge Snub
Zadie Smith, Michael Chabon, Louise Erdrich, Ann Patchett, Jane Mayer, Robert Pinsky, Marion Coutts, and Peter Orner are there; Margaret Atwood’s getting a lifetime achievement award – but conspicuously missing is one of 2016’s biggest successes, a National Book Award winner and Oprah pick.
Literature In The Time Of Obama (Is It A Thing?)
What will we mean when someday we refer to Obama Lit? I think we’ll be discussing novels about authenticity, or about “problems of authenticity.” What does that mean?
How Money Changes What (And How) Writers Write
“Money taints everything, why not writing too? Once its value is determined by the marketplace rather than the writer or the reader, our relationship to literature becomes estranged. From bloated celebrity advances to rejected masterpieces, the market is more than just a poor arbiter of lasting quality: it tends to obscure that quality behind purely economic motivations. Good writing, we’re told time and time again, is born from love, not avarice. But this romantic picture of the writer, toiling without regard to money, is itself a fiction—one whose roots stretch back several millennia, and whose effects we’re still dealing with today.”
What Will Help Marines Prepare For Future Wars? Why, Science Fiction, Of Course
That’s right, the U.S. Marine Corps hired science fiction writers to come up with ideas for future scenarios. “The stories share common themes of political chaos, a rising China, a less-powerful and more inward-looking United States, conflicts over environmental resources, and the growth of megacities in the developing world. For Marines, who are the first US boots on the ground in the toughest situations, the toughest challenges may stem from the latter.”
How Did President Obama Survive The White House? Books. He Says
The man who wrote two books that helped propel him to the presidency has his favorites. “The writings of Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, Mr. Obama found, were ‘particularly helpful’ when ‘what you wanted was a sense of solidarity,’ adding ‘during very difficult moments, this job can be very isolating.'”
More Writers Need To Talk More About (More) Money
Look, no, it’s not some kind of romantic garrett life: “It’s very tricky because there is a lot of dangerous romanticization, and that can set writers up, particularly in the beginnings of their careers, to blunder in a business they know nothing about.”
Fleeing A Country To Find Privacy – And Artistic Freedom
Writer Xiaolu Gua: “I think of my parents as slaves of industrialisation – the state had its ambitions, and it completely shaped family life. There was no private or personal space. My mother worked from six in the morning until midnight. I had a connection with my father, but neither of my parents had much emotion to give to their family.”