St. Mark’s Bookshop won their desired rent reduction, and is throwing a party to celebrate! (via.)
Not Just a Book Party
Little Beasties
Recommended Viewing: Over at The New Yorker, Comma Queen Mary Norris tackles the big question we didn't know we needed answered -- what pronouns do you use for your pets?
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“The danger that is Lagos”
“Even after I realize that we are being robbed, that bullets can shatter glass, that being locked in is no help in this situation, I still feel a vague resentment at having to hand the laptop over. It’s mine. It contains my work, a week of writing, a month or more of photography, personal information. I have hesitated only a few seconds but feel as though I have just woken from a trance: briefly, I imagined myself with a bullet in my thigh, imagined myself bleeding out in traffic in Ojota.” At Granta, Teju Cole writes about living in Lagos.
NaNoWriMo Author Scores Big
Erin Morgenstern's debut novel The Night Circus went from National Novel Writing Month project to 6-figure book advance after being rejected by more than 30 agents.
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Literary Libya
Those following this weekend's events in Tripoli will no doubt be interested in Banipal's issue dedicated to Libyan fiction. And, as Moammar Gaddafi's reign appears to be ending, the Guardian's evisceration of his short stories is worth a read. On NPR's site, Hisham Matar also explains the influence of Gaddafi's rule on Libyan writing.
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Feeling Fraudulent
"Whenever I tried to invent a character or a situation, I felt a stab of guilt. I could hear my teacher's quavering voice saying, Write what you know! Why had she insisted on this so vociferously?" Writing class mantras are easy to impart but they are also easily misinterpreted. A.X. Ahmad, author of The Last Taxi Ride and The Caretaker, learns this truth the hard way as he tries to become a writer following a personal upheaval. Pair with Ahmad's Millions essay on "The Thriller, Reinvented."
Bud Powell Says “Goodbye”
Recommended Reading: Jessica Contrera’s mesmerizing account of a shuttered Waffle House in Bloomington, Indiana. I promise you. This is worth your time.
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