The Seattle Times reviews The Will to Climb by Bainbridge Island mountaineer Ed Viesturs (with David Roberts), which chronicles what it takes to climb Annapurna, a particularly challenging Himalayan peak. Viesturs appears tonight at Town Hall Seattle.
The Will to Climb
Emergent Criticism
The National Book Critics Circle has announced its inaugural class of Emerging Critics, including our own Ismail Muhammad! Read his first piece for us, "Frank Ocean and the Black Male Body," here.
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If You’re Reading This
Actor and humorist Nick Offerman at "By The Book" on choosing George Saunders to write his hypothetical life story: "I think [Saunders] would embarrass me by telling the justifiable truth, but with such élan that I would have to shrug and say, 'It was worth it.' If anybody could pull it off, I believe Mr. Saunders would have the tools and talent necessary to render the woodshop traumas of sandpaper and spokeshave, the roller coaster dynamics of a character actor’s life in showbiz, and my relentless penchant for filling a room with noxious gases into a palatable narrative. George — if you’re reading this and you’re up for it — before you dive in, I would just like to say that I think you’re very handsome."
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Thomas M. Disch Appendix
At Waggish, David Auerbach has published an appendix to his recent piece for The Millions on Thomas M. Disch.
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Listening to Poems
At The Rumpus, Darcie Dennigan pens a strange and beautiful review of G.C. Waldrep's new collection of poetry, Archicembalo: "I dreamt that G.C. Waldrep was offering me a tumbler of Pepsi, and amid the soda bubbles were many pills."
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Poetry of Lost Cultures
Recommended Reading: M. Soledad Caballero's poem about cultural displacement “Losing Spanish” at The Missouri Review. "In the Oklahoma panhandle, she did not remember the sirens, the curfews"
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Postcard Nostalgia
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How to Treat an “Apocalyptic Hangover”
The second issue of the new journal Music & Literature is a feast for Krasznahorkai enthusiasts and neophytes alike, with some 70 pages of previously untranslated fiction, interviews, and essays, along with critical context on the "Hungarian Master of the Apocalypse." Alas, only George Szirtes' essay and an interview with translator Ottilie Mulzet are available digitally. But the complete analog package is highly recommended.