The National Book Foundation has an online exhibit of the runners up for the award since its inception in 1950. That’s a lot of titles, so you might like to let John Williams be your guide.
The legends and the largely forgotten
“A Caul of Ambiguity”
"How could we possibly trust any creature that comes into the world wearing such a caul of ambiguity? That’s “essayists.” Four hundred and four years later, they continue to flourish." John Jeremiah Sullivan offers a loose history of the essay, essayists, and all their many contradictions in a piece for The New Yorker.
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Time’s Authors with Influence
Somehow, I did not make Time's list of the 100 most influential people of 2011. But authors Jonathan Franzen, Jennifer Egan, George R.R. Martin, and "tiger mom" Amy Chua did.
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SPD Books Discount
SPD Books' staff picks are 40% off!
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A Book about Beauty
In his latest Year in Reading, Chigozie Obioma told us about Eka Kurniawan’s Beauty Is a Wound, “the howling masterpiece of 2015...a howl, an outrage, and a sheer burst of particular talent.” In an illuminating interview for Electric Literature, Kurniawan discusses the label “magic realism,” epic creation, and his ideas for his next novel.
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Retromania
When authors tweet: the cautionary tale of Brett Easton Ellis.
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Writing Home About
"In Go Home! — a collection that feels particularly timely in the midst of attacks on immigrant families and communities — Asian diasporic writers are both thoughtful and generous in their reflections about who they are, where they have been, and where they belong." For Shondaland, Nicole Chung interviewed Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, the anthology's editor, and a few contributors (including Alexander Chee, Karissa Chen, T Kira Madden, and Esmé Weijun Wang) about what home means to them. Pair with: our review of Chee's The Queen of the Night and Wang's 2016 Year in Reading entry.
Tragedians
As part of their Literary Ladies Cage Fight series, The Butter pitted two of Shakespeare’s most well-known characters against each other, staging contests between Hamlet’s Ophelia and Romeo and Juliet’s Juliet. Who won, you ask? Only one way to find out. You could also read Stefanie Peters on women and Shakespeare’s plays.
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Not With a Bang, But a False Alarm
Remember all those people who believed the world was going to end last year? Where are they now?
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