On Flannery O’ Connor’s practice of making visual art, and how the habits of an artist informed her sensibility as a writer.
Anything that helps you to see. Anything that makes you look
This Land Press
This Land Press, which launched in 2010 as a project to “bring literary journalism to Middle America,” will suspend publication of its magazine this spring, and there are no immediate plans for future publication.
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McCann: Reading, Writing and Soccer
The New York Times interviewed Colum McCann about what and who he's reading, and if you're looking for a book recommendation this piece is full of them. For more from McCann, be sure to check out his Year in Reading, our review of his novel TransAtlantic, and this reading of his soccer poem.
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Margaret Atwood and Philipp Meyer Headed to the TV Screen
Here’s a double-shot of television news: Darren Aronofsky is said to be developing Margaret Atwood’s MaddAdam for HBO, and AMC has ordered an adaptation of Philipp Meyer’s The Son (which has been holding steady on our Top Ten).
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“We need a theory of jerks.”
"Everywhere you turn, are you surrounded by fools, by boring nonentities, by faceless masses and foes and suckers and, indeed, jerks?" If so--as this insightful if somewhat confidence-shattering piece at Aeon suggests--the jerk may be you.
In Moominland
"After [WWII], the other Finnish artists formed themselves into political groups but Tove wasn’t a joiner; besides, the only political activity she enjoyed was tyrant-baiting. She decided to emigrate to the island kingdom of Tonga but the governor wrote back saying there was a housing shortage and she wouldn’t be welcome. So she created her own Tonga: Moominland." A new biography looks at the "conflicted life" and creative work of Tove Jansson, whose name has appeared several times here at The Millions.
“Bad Neil Gaiman”
Recommended watching: Neil Gaiman reads "bad Neil Gaiman" stories.
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The Experience of Being Human
Recommended Reading: Over at BOMB Magazine, Jesse Ball and Catherine Lacey discuss strategies for a non-interview, why they write, and poetry’s “direct utility toward experience.”