At the Washington Times, Emily Colette Wilkinson reviews Reif Larsen’s The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.
Wilkinson on Larsen
“Insatiable Maw”
"In recent decades the traditional outlets for individual short stories have dwindled, with literary magazines closing or shrinking. But the Internet has created an insatiable maw to feed." Why both the Internet and electronic devices might be good for the short story.
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Granta’s Horror Issue
Granta's "Horror" issue was published just in time for Halloween, and I can't think of a better way to whet your appetite than to read Daniel Alarcón's "The Ground Floor."
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Tuesday New Release Day: Zancan; Jackson; Lansens; Bushnell; Catullus
Out this week: Local Girls by Caroline Zancan; The Star Side of Bird Hill by Naomi Jackson; The Mountain Story by Lori Lansens; Kay Boyle: A Twentieth-Century Life in Letters; Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell; and a new translation of the poems of Catullus.
Tuesday New Release Day
Nemesis, the latest from Philip Roth is now out. Other new fiction this week includes Nicole Krauss' Great House and Myla Goldberg's The False Friend. In non-fiction, Steven Johnson takes on a thought-provoking topic with Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Also new are Ron Chernow's massive biography of George Washington and a new book from Bill Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life.
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Top Longreads of 2011
They say you're only as good as the company you keep. If that's the case, we're thrilled to have published Jim Santel's piece on The Moviegoer, which has made The Awl staff's list of "Top Longreads of 2011".
Slashing the Sestina
What's better than slash fiction about your favorite authors? Slash sestinas about your favorite authors. At The Toast, Jade Sylvan writes three sestinas pairing Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. "Two friends, writers, men,/in the most flamboyantly seedy café on the Left/Bank. Scott can’t get past the second word: 'Write.'"
Inferno (A Poet’s Recommendation)
Looking for some new poetry? Inferno author Eileen Myles pens a ringing endorsement of Erica Kaufman's Instant Classic. The book has "haunted and befuddled" her for over a year, she writes.
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