Dearest readers, the voting is now open in the 3 Quarks Daily Arts & Literature prize judged by Laila Lalami. Read and vote for your favorite piece from The Millions here!
Vote for your Millions!
Almost Operatic
“Yes, he cheated, he cracked up, he was irresponsible and even cruel in the way he marshaled his life for his art. Lowell nonetheless believed that women were his intellectual and artistic equals. He spent most of his life behaving accordingly even as he treated his wives and mistresses so terribly, in romantic terms, that it was almost operatic. That is the puzzle of Robert Lowell and women.” It’s not quite Valentine’s Day yet, but this piece on the inarguably tumultuous relationship between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick is sure to make you feel something.
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“If you must write prose or poems”
Stop the presses: Morrissey maybe, might, let’s not hold our breaths yet but could possibly in fact be publishing a memoir. To be recited in front of the cemetery gates of your choosing.
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Craft Work
It’s the kind of niggling question that drives a writer mad: is it best to edit a piece after you finish a draft, or is it better to edit while you write? At Electric Lit, Lincoln Michel argues for the latter, on the grounds that it lets writers fix endemic problems before it’s too late. You could also read Lincoln’s 2010 Millions review of the movie Avatar.
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How To Be A Woman (For Less)
(American) Readers who dug Rob Delaney’s Year In Reading post will be pleased to learn that the eBook of Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman is on sale for the low, low price of $1.99. (Along with nine other memoirs, too!)
Raising Hell
“When you read these books—I suggest perusing them, martini in hand, while your children (or better your friends’ children, for whom you are babysitting) run around shrieking—you’ll see every parenting stance you’ve ever adopted, every parent-story trope you’ve ever told or heard, expressed more perfectly than you ever could have.” Dan Kois on Shirley Jackson’s two memoirs on parenting.
A Mixed Media Analysis
Espen Terjesen, a Norwegian graphic artist, teacher, and writer, has put together a striking piece, equal parts graphic novel and academic essay, on Thomas Bernhard.
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