Benjamin Moser: “In [Susan Sontag’s] essayistic writing, strength expressed through categorical statements often became a besetting weakness. … In her often unloved fiction, however, she turned insecurity into a virtue.”
Charles McGrath: “What we tend to forget about Kipling, in our haste to pigeonhole him as a Victorian crank and reactionary, is that for all his failings he was also prodigiously gifted.”
Category: words
How ‘Bookchat’ Came To Devour Literary Discourse
“There are listicles of books or about books: there was even one recently about ‘The Top Ten Squirrels in Literature.’ There are interviews and aspirational how-tos. There are publicity statements, which are circulated and regurgitated into light critical opinion – as much as any book review. There is the relatively new phenomenon of the author self-testimonial: upon publication of his novel, the author will write a piece about writing the novel.”
How Public Poetry Can Change Lives – Or Get You A Cup Of Coffee
“Scottish poet Robert Montgomery has consciously made an ‘awkward space’ for himself in between artistic categories – and he thoroughly enjoys it. His work puts poetry in front of people in eye-catching visual formats: from advertising billboards he has covered with poems, to words he has set on fire or lit with recycled sunlight in public spaces – including the Sussex seafront and a Berlin airport.”
What Made The National Book Critics Circle Awards So Unusual?
Categories, basically: “It’s an odd quirk of the NBCC Awards, a wonkier cousin to the National Book Awards (where Coates won in November), that arbitrarily divided categories — ‘criticism,’ ‘biography,’ ‘nonfiction’ — actually encourage a blurring of boundaries.”
This Poet Laureate Appointment Made Scotland Practically Giddy
“‘Her poetry achieves that joyful and rare thing,’ one literary commentator said last week. ‘It is of high literary merit and also accessible.'”
City Eliminates Funding For Libraries. Volunteers Say They’ll Keep Them Going
“In 2015 the Labour-run city council agreed the libraries should no longer be funded and managed by the authority as part of budget savings. Volunteers will staff the buildings, while the books and equipment remain owned by the council.”
Wikipedia – It’s All About The Tiny Edits
“Researchers found that even though Wikipedia editors don’t tend to change much—they typically add delete, or alter about half-a-sentence at a time—even small edits to an article prompt other people to jump in and make edits of their own. And those edits encourage even more edits. And so on.”
The Controversial Chinese Gay Erotic Novel You Can Finally Read In English
“In 1998, an anonymous writer began publishing installments of a gay erotic novel online. Perhaps the first gay novel ever published in China, it quickly became a touchstone for queer men in the country. This week, Beijing Comrades is finally coming out in the US.”
National Book Critics Circle Awards: Ta-Nehisi Coates And Lauren Groff Suffer Upsets
“Some thought Ta-Nehisi Coates would take home another prize for Between the World and Me, his memoir and meditation on race in America … “Lauren Groff’s novel Fates and Furies, about the secrets of a marriage, also seemed like a front-runner in the fiction prize.”
Having Killed The Mass-Market Paperback Of ‘Mockingbird’, HarperCollins Will Discount Trade Paperback For Schools
“HarperCollins will offer a discount on its trade paperback of Harper Lee’s 1960 classic To Kill a Mockingbird through retail accounts that sell directly to schools. The announcement came days after the news broke that the cheaper, mass-market paperback edition, which is popular in schools, would be discontinued next month.”