Everyone’s favorite scrappy San Fransisco literary web site, The Rumpus, has relaunched with a major redesign. Go over and poke around why don’t you? If you’re looking for a place to start, why not Roxane Gay’s recent essay on the New York Times Book Review section’s dismal numbers when it comes to reviewing books written by people of color?
The Rumpus Redesign
Still Fighting It
The "Albums of Our Lives" series from The Rumpus has produced a couple gems. In this newest edition to the series, Andrea Laurion takes on the Ben Folds classic Rockin' the Suburbs.
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Zen and the Art of Headlines
This handy guide from The Week shows how to identify which website a headline comes from, from Gawker to The New York Times. Pair with Janet Potter's Millions piece on rewriting book titles to get more clicks.
Late American Novel Love
The brief excerpt of The Late American Novel that appeared in the New York Times Magazine this past weekend was also the first appearance of "A Tiny New Culture Section With No Name," part of the Magazine's redesign. At the Magazine's "behind-the-scenes" blog, Editor Adam Sternbergh talks about the tiny new section and has some very nice things to say about The Late American Novel as well.
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Have a Seat
"If I've sat on my arse all day—and it’s definitely my English arse I sit on, not an American ass—then what I most want to do come evening is sit on it some more," Geoff Dyer loves to sit. He and other authors discussed why the standing desk is overrated at The New Republic. Here's where our writers work.
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From Russia with Love
Take a break from watching the snowboarding and skating at the Winter Olympics, and read some Russian literature instead. At NPR, Andrew D. Kaufman recommends three books to learn more about the Caucasus. For more on Russian literature, read our own Nick Moran's essay on duels in Russian fiction.
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Tuesday New Release Day: Adler, Nabokov, Hemon, Jansma
At long last Renata Adler's re-released Speedboat is out from NYRB Classics. The book's attracted quite a bit of (deserved) pre-release hype. Also out today are a pair of books covered in our Great 2013 Book Preview: Vladimir Nabokov's The Tragedy of Mr. Morn (no relation to yours truly) and Aleksandar Hemon's The Book of My Lives. In three days you can get your hands on Kristopher Jansma's debut novel The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards.
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