Courtney Traub talks with Kevin Begos, Jr, publisher of Agrippa, a Book of the Dead, a 1992 book that contains an encrypted poem by William Gibson set to self-erase after a single reading. Begos explains his intentions when creating the book, and Traub recounts the difficulties Oxford recently had when deciding how to archive a work that deliberately resists preservation. Gibson’s newest book, Distrust That Particular Flavor, made our list of the most anticipated releases of 2012. Also don’t forget to read our review of Gibson’s 2010 novel, Zero History.
Preserving Ephemera
NEA’s new literary director
Meet Ira Silverberg, the National Endowment for the Arts’s new literary director.
●
●
“but for now it’s dust in our teeth”
Recommended Reading: “Appalachian Farewell” by Mark Wagenaar.
St. Crispin’s Day is Here Again
Today is St. Crispin’s Day, a day immortalized in Shakespeare’s Henry V when the title character rallied his British “band of brothers” to face their French adversaries. And according to Guy Patrick Cunningham, “there are lots of ways we can celebrate it.”
●
●
e-reading Thomas Pynchon
After years of resistance, Thomas Pynchon is only now allowing for his work to be sold as ebooks.
●
●
Secret Identity
Elena Ferrante’s introduction to the Folio edition of Sense and Sensibility is available at The Guardian. She describes the experience of reading Jane Austen as a girl. “At the time, I was enthralled by the great male adventure novels, with their stories that ranged all over the world, and I wanted to write such books myself: I couldn’t resign myself to the idea that women’s novels were domestic tales of love and marriage. I was past 20 when I returned to Austen. And from that moment not only did I love everything she had written but I was passionate about her anonymity.”
●
●
The Formative Years
Over at the Literary Hub, twelve writers reflect on the high school English teachers who changed their lives. Also check out Nick Ripatrazone’s piece of advice for English teachers.
●
●
“Aaliyah would have been on Twitter”
HTMLGIANT interviews Patricia Lockwood, Twitter’s “Poet Laureate“.
●
●