Robert and Richard Kalich are identical twins, and their family had the misfortune of having them both grow up to be writers.
“Happiness was born a twin.”
Writing a Novel in Prison
“What’s it like to write a novel in prison?” An interview with Daniel Genis addressing this and similar questions is online at The Airship. For more writing about and after prison, be sure to check out our own interview with Matthew Parker, author of Larceny in My Blood:A Memoir of Heroin, Handcuffs, and Higher Education.
O’Reilly Book Burn
U.S. forces stationed in a remote area of Afghanistan recently received about twenty copies of Bill O’Reilly’s book Pinheads and Patriots. Their orders upon receiving the tomes: Burn them.
Sanitize and Simplify
Recommended reading: The New York Times reports on a growing literary trend – YA nonfiction.
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Beer is a beer is a beer is a beer
“There is no use no use at all in smell, in flavor, in taste, in anything, there is no use at all and the lack of respect is mutual. More, that is more, yes. But what I want is less.” Gertrude Stein reviews Bud Light Lime and other beers at The Rumpus’ Funny Women Column.
Saying Without Saying
Giles Harvey discusses the ways in which Anton Chekhov’s characters — as dramatized in his stories and a new stage production — “long to express their innermost desires … but instead they find themselves saying things like, ‘Why did I go out to lunch?’ “
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By Way of a Recommendation
Charles D’Ambrosio‘s Loitering has officially made it into our Hall of Fame. It was also a finalist for the PEN award for the Art of the Essay. Now the book’s preface is available on the PEN website, just in case all the book’s popularity and prizes haven’t yet convinced you to read it.
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