Jason Rice interviewed our own Emily St. John Mandel yesterday. They talk about her new book, The Lola Quartet, which celebrates its One Day Old birthday today.
Fun Fact: Emily’s Not Keen on Time Travel
When Foxes Become Dogs
The Silver Fox Experiment began in 1959 when Soviet scientist Dmitri Belyaev began selectively breeding wild foxes until they became more “dog-like” and tame. Today, the experiment continues at The Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk.
Cleaning Up After W.H. Auden
Growing more annoyed with your roommate during the quarantine? Comfort yourself with the knowledge that, at the very least, you're not living with W.H. Auden.
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I Sanction This
Talk about built-in irony: the class of tricky words known as “contronyms” can mean the opposite of what you think they mean.
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Calling All Students!
Calling all undergrads and grad students! McSweeney’s is holding their first-ever Student Short Story Contest. The grand prize — $500 and publication in their 51st issue — will go to the student who sends in the best story before the last day of August. Get cracking, but don’t go beyond their 7,500-word limit.
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The Grenadier
Recommended Reading: Leo Robson’s review of a new book of essays by Craig Raine.
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Sex Appeal
You may remember the brouhaha surrounding Bustle, the first website in history to market primarily to women. Now, in this week’s New Yorker, Lizzie Widdicombe profiles the website, which she describes by pointing out that “[its] articles are modest, but the ambitions of its founder, a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Bryan Goldberg, are not.”
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Decolonizing Our Shelves
“… Stop talking about diversity and start decolonizing our shelves.”At the Winter Institute 2018 (Wi13), keynote speaker Junot Diaz lambasted the publishing industry for talking — but doing little else — about diversity in literature, and implored librarians and booksellers to fill their shelves with diverse books. From our archives: an essay on race, gender, and Diaz’s writing.