Every Tuesday from now until November 6th, Melville House will post original flash pieces about the U.S. presidents. Here’s Millions contributor Steve Himmer on George Washington, and here’s Level End author Brian Oliu’s take on James Monroe.
Forty Four Presidential Flashes
Brickjest
Infinite Jest may have “really taken on a foothold as the ‘novel of ideas’ of the late 20th and early 21st centuries” but now it’s also a “novel of legos,” courtesy of Kevin Griffith and his 11 year old son, Sebastian.
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BOMB’s Biennial Fiction Content
Have a short story manuscript and you’re not sure where to send it? BOMB Magazine‘s Biennial Fiction Contest, judged by Sheila Heti (who wrote How Should a Person Be? and was interviewed by The Millions here), is accepting submissions until the end of the month.
Revolutionary Word
Lewis Lapham, namesake and founder of Lapham’s Quarterly, has compiled a “revolutionary reading list.”
iCat
The first feline review of the iPad is in. According to Iggy the cat, the game Noby Noby Boy and the Magic Piano iPad ap are quite enjoyable (c/o Kotaku).
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Sick
What drives the Year in Reading alum and Boy, Snow, Bird author Helen Oyeyemi? If we can believe her interview with The Globe and Mail, it isn’t just the enjoyment she derives from writing fiction. When asked why she wrote her new book, she said: “A few reasons, but mainly to see if I could…at this point, it’s perversity that keeps me writing.”
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A Review in Verse
There’s a new Seuss book, What Pet Should I Get?, due out in a week, and Michiko Kakutani has reviewed it in verse for the New York Times. A sample:
“Yes, yes, it’s truer than true:
The great doctor made fun that was funny!
His creatures are shaggy and splendid and squishy,
In a cosmos uncertain but sunny.”
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Lahiri on Salter
As part of a Paris Review series of essays celebrating James Salter, Jhumpa Lahiri writes “For over half my life, I have returned repeatedly to Light Years.”
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Occupy Wall Street, the Coloring Book
Wondering the best way to explain Occupy Wall Street to your 9-year-old? How about a coloring book? Out today, Occupy is a 36-page coloring book depicting the events and opinions surrounding the Occupy movement.
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