Elissa Bassist took an intro improv class and used what she learned to create some rules for writing funny fiction. (Thanks, Rachel)
What Improv Can Teach You about Writing Humor
Me and Myself
What is the personal essay, and where could it go from here? In The Boston Review, Merve Emre traces two paths.
●
●
App Happy
Several recent novels -- among them Dave Eggers’s The Circle and Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge --tackle the effects of social media on our world. The latest, Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen, may be the best of the bunch, writes Andrew Hulktrans. At Bookforum, he explains why Cohen's depiction of an app-saturated world is unparalleled. You could also read Jonathan Frederick Post on Cohen’s novel Witz.
Graphic Novelists
HTMLGiant's Jimmy Chen follows up his "Author venn diagram" with a "Men matrix" and a "Women matrix."
●
●
Dear Sirs, I Do Enjoy This
Brontë-inspired short fiction courtesy of Rachel Cantor? Sure, why not. (For background, you might want to read our own Edan Lepucki’s takedown of the love interest in Jane Eyre.)
Mon Semblable, Mon Frere
In a 6,000 word essay for The Point, founding editor Jon Baskin wades into the personal and professional psychodrama of the Franzen-Wallace friendship. Beneath the public surface, finds deep questions about the "novel of the self," the "novel of society," and the life worth living.
What’s the point?
“What’s the point of reading literature?” Electric Literature shares a video that offers a compelling 4-point answer.
●
●