Scott Esposito has rounded up some fabulous Oulipo resources over at his blog, Conversational Reading.
Exercises in Style
#ThisIsWhere The Sun Bakes Our Chancletas
To kick off South Florida’s O, Miami poetry festival (which I’ve written about before), event organizers and WLRN staffers are asking local residents to snap photos of “a place in South Florida that means something to [them],” and “write a short poem about it including the phrase ‘this is where.’” Then, share the poems and photos on Twitter or Instagram for a chance to be featured throughout the month of April. Meanwhile, the New York Times is on it.
Parsing the Subtext
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Most Important Meal
"Anyone reading my fiction would never guess how seriously I take food." Extra Crispy has an interview with Junot Díaz about his diet, with particular attention given to breakfast: "I split my time between two cities so when I’m in Boston there’s a Dominican restaurant called Merengue that serves the classic Dominican breakfast of mangú, fried egg, and fried salami. I leave off the fried cheese because well, damn." If you're hungry for more, might we also suggest our own Nick Ripatrazone's ode to the day's first meal, as it figures in both literature and life.
Global Crises, International Art
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich put together a reading list to help children understand the global refugee experience, and Kaveh Akbar compiled a list of poems from the seven countries — Iran, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, and Syria — impacted by President Donald Trump’s executive order. Meanwhile, Kieran Hebden (a.k.a. Four Tet) has been curating a Spotify playlist of music from those countries as well.
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Rigoberto González on Teaching the M.F.A.
"I was enrolled in a writing program to imagine a cultured life, not just to dream about the rewards of being a writer." Rigoberto González for Publisher's Weekly on why he attended and later returned to teach at a M.F.A. program.
New Philip Pullman!
His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman has reportedly completed another trilogy, The Book of Dust, that will publish in October of this year. The new works "will stand alongside his bestselling series," sources say.
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Through the Pain
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Joseph Roth’s Letters
"Among the 457 letters in Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters, there is not one love letter," begins Stefany Anne Goldberg's review of the author's collected--and often outright misanthropic--correspondence.
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