At McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, a disgruntled Laura Jayne Martin rants about why she is tired of sharing an apartment with poet William Carlos Williams.
The Downside to Living with William Carlos Williams
Overlooked Books of the Decade
The Daily Beast offers up a list of "the most overlooked reads of the past 10 years - none of which involve a wizard, a vampire, or a code" from John McGahern's By the Lake to Pandora in the Congo by Albert Sanchez Pinol.
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Lost and Found and Lost
Recommended Reading: On translation and Máirtín Ó Cadhain, author of Cré na Cille, which is widely believed to be the greatest Irish-language novel of the twentieth century.
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Draw Hard
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a classic children’s book. Is it also a writing guide? In an essay for Bookslut, Mairead Case explains why she re-reads it whenever she’s finishing a project: the main character’s need to create a room for himself is a corollary to the writing process.
Words of the Year Watch, Con’t
Two more words of the year as 2016 comes to a close: Merriam-Webster has chosen "surreal" while The Guardian, in an act of timeliness, nominates "unpresidented."
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Do You Even Want to Know How?
Did the phrase “screw the pooch” originate in 1950 in a Yale dormitory?
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Load Up!
Oh, snap! Dalkey Archive Press is having its Summer Sale! 10 books for $65, or 20 books for $120.
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He’s at a Loss
Guess which famous novelist and new Twitter user got 19,000 retweets for the following: “On Twitter at last, and can't think of a thing to say. Some writer I turned out to be.” (Hint: his last name rhymes with “sing.”)
So Many Rooms Within a Self
Over at Lit Hub, Paul Holdengraber interviews Tracy K. Smith about parenting, loving books, and identity. Pair with Sophia Nguyen’s Millions review of Smith’s new memoir, Ordinary Light.