Guernica picks a scuffle with the VQR‘s Ted Genoways over what’s killing literary fiction. (Writers? Editors? M.F.A.s? How about late capitalism? Or the term “literary fiction?” Or the surfeit of articles about its demise?)
The Lonesome Death of Lit-Fic
Amazon’s Top 100
Amazon has finished unveiling its top-100 books for 2010. At the top of the big list: Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
“Welcome to my book collection”
Dear Internet, can you please get to work on a single-serving Tumblr dedicated to weird literary videos? And, when created, can it just eternally re-post this video of a shirtless Glenn Danzig posing by his bookcase (and apparently a roaring fire)? (h/t Adam Boretz)
●
●
Portrait Book Documentary
Years ago, we wrote about La Porte, Indiana, a nifty book with a connection to Found Magazine chronicling a cache of found photographs from a small town. Now the book is being made into a documentary.
●
●
What Do Essay Prompts Mean to You?
You may have heard that Tufts University’s latest application forms use the term YOLO in one of their essay prompts. Herewith, a few more essay prompts, courtesy of Stacy Brook at The Hairpin.
●
●
You Are Invited
All Millions readers are invited to join us at McNally Jackson bookstore in New York to celebrate the release of The Late American Novel: Writers on the Future of Books. I'll be joined by my co-editor Jeff Martin, as well as Reif Larsen and Millions staff writers Garth Risk Hallberg and Emily St. John Mandel. It's shaping up to be a fun night; hope to see you there!
●
●
A Young Writer
Recommended reading: Joseph Scapellato summarizes the life of a young writer for Electric Lit. "You are a young writer. Write."
●
●
Borges and Bergoglio
In an interview with America Magazine, Pope Francis admits that the authors he most admires are Fyodor Dostoevsky, Johann Hölderlin, The Betrothed author Alessandro Manzoni, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. He also goes on to share an interesting anecdote about his compatriot Jorge Luis Borges: “In the end I decided to send Borges two stories written by [the secondary school] boys [I was teaching]. I knew his secretary, who had been my piano teacher. And Borges liked those stories very much. And then he set out to write the introduction to a collection of these writings.”
●
●
Tuesday New Release Day: Dyer, Aira, Wilson, Iyer
Zona, Geoff Dyer's book about Tarkovsky's film Stalker, is out today. Also hitting shelves are César Aira's Varamo, Adam Wilson's Flatscreen, and Lars Iyer's Dogma. We were looking forward to all four of these books to start the year.
●
●