Skateboarder Patrik Wallner snuck some video footage of North Korea around the time of the 100th birthday celebrations for its deceased ruler Kim Il-Sung. His footage shines a vivid and personal light on what’s otherwise a very concealed and distant nation.
DPRK Footage
First Steps
Can a book prepare you for motherhood? A reader asks this question in the Match Book column in the Times.
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Amtrak Residency, First Class
The 24 writers selected to be part of the first Amtrak Residency Program have been announced. For more about the residency check out our past coverage of the program and our own Nick Ripatrazone‘s essay on reading and writing on trains.
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The Southern Review’s New Digs
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All the Sad Young Literary Women
Are New York Times book reviewers biased toward writers who are “white and male and live in Brooklyn”? Chris Jackson at The Atlantic laments all the sad young literary women.
The New York Times Reviews The Pale King
C author Tom McCarthy takes on The Pale King in the New York Times Book Review this week. Separately, though the hard cover of The Pale King shipped and appeared on shelves ahead of the announced April 15 release date, the Kindle version only became available yesterday, right on schedule.
Franco Takes on the Bundrens
The first official trailer has been released for James Franco’s As I Lay Dying adaptation. The film will premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
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