An Education opens this weekend in theaters. Newcomer Carey Mulligan stars and her performance has generated a lot of buzz at Sundance and Cannes. Also starring Alfred Molina, Olivia Williams, Emma Thompson, and Peter Sarsgaard.
Meet Carey Mulligan
Soccer: The Sublime & the Nonsensical
Recommended Reading: Michael J. Avogino‘s “Total Utter Madness: A Story of Soccer” from the Tin House archives. If you’re going to watch soccer all day, might as well throw some good writing in there too, right? An example: “Life would go on, as would the sport of soccer and all that came with it: the brotherhood, the ethnocentricity, the sportsmanship, the nationalism, the love, the regionalism, the racism, class conflict, the sublime, the nonsensical, amongst white, black, brown, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Jew, everyone guilty and innocent.”
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New Directions in The Coffin
The Coffin Factory, a “magazine for people who love books,” interviews New Directions’ Barbara Epler and Tom Roberge about “publishing and finding bold, new experiments in literature from around the world.” (via)
The Singer’s Gun on the Indie Next Highlights List
Congratulations to our very own Emily St. John Mandel, whose second novel, The Singer’s Gun, is included, along with 19 other books, in the 2010 Indie Next List Highlights. Jason Hafer of Wolfgang Books says: “The Singer’s Gun is a taut, restrained book with a quick hook and a long pull. It is a moving and mysterious work, wholly authentic.”
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Primary Colors for the Age of Obama
Anonymous strikes again: On January 25th, the entity that brought us 1996’s deliciously scandalous Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, offers a roman à clef for the Obama age: O: A Presidential Novel. Then it was Joe Klein, but this Anon. is still Anon. Perhaps better than the insider gossip: The media-fueled whodunit the novel’s sure to inspire.
Non-Issues
“As a gay man, I would argue that gender and sexual identities are irrelevant, complete non-issues.” Alexandre Vidal Porto talks with our own Bruna Dantas Lobato about Brazilian fiction, gender identity, and his second novel, Sergio Y., at BOMB Magazine.
The Common’s Postcard Auction
Our friends at The Common have organized a Postcard Auction, and you have until May 20 to bid online. Users can bid on the chance to have well-known authors – such as Adam Johnson, Téa Obreht, Chris Ware, and Kiese Laymon – send handwritten postcards to the address of their choosing. Come on, now. This is your chance to get a handwritten note from an Orange Prize-winner.
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The Bard is Back
Shakespeare’s First Folio will leave its heavily guarded vault to tour the U.S. in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the bard’s death. You could also read our essay on the holiness of Shakespeare.
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