In 2010, Sam Anderson showed us his Year in Marginalia. This year, he’s taken that show on the road. Or, more accurately, I guess he’s taken it back home.
Sam Anderson’s Margins
The Banal, Unexceptional Recovering
“So much of recovery is a fight against exceptionalism—that necessary act of saying, What I’ve lived has been lived before, will be lived again, is nothing special but still holds meaning, still holds truth.” Chris Kraus interviews Leslie Jamison about recovery, memoir, and her forthcoming title, The Recovering, for The Paris Review. Pair with: our interview with Jamison.
Wanderlit
As part of their Five Books series, The Browser interviews Colin Thubron, a travel writer from the UK (and author of a recent book on Tibet) who shares his favorite books from the genre.
Reader’s Tan
Have you ever gotten stuck in a book? Here’s a delightful little comic by Grant Snider that explores the process of losing oneself in reading.
Delicate Husk, Inconvenient Hair
Recommended Reading: “So Often the Body Becomes a Distraction” by Kaveh Akbar.
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The Ultimate Literary Celebrity
Has Joan Didion become “the Ultimate Literary Celebrity“? In an article for the New Republic Laura Marsh says “yes,” and then explains how that happened. Marsh’s efforts pair well with Franklin Strong‘s recent Millions essay on “The Manliness of Joan Didion,” Joan Didion being a literary figure who easily adapts to any description.
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The Best Lincoln
The Morning Edition crew sifts through nearly 15,000 biographies of Abraham Lincoln in order to determine the best of the best. Janet Potter, you have your work cut out for you.
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Let’s Talk Poetry, Shall We?
Willard Spiegelman’s provocative essay in the VQR’s recent State of American Poetry issue, “Has Poetry Changed?” incited quite a few responses. One of the better rejoinders came from William Childress, whose response, “Is Free Verse Killing Poetry,” raises some excellent points. “Poetry needs readers, not writers,” writes Childress. “But how many poets read any poetry but their own?”
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