Matthew Salesses Interviewed

Over at the Bennington Review, Michael Dumanis interviews Year in Reading alumna Dorothea Lasky about persona poetry, the first-person “I,” and creativity. Pair with Gila Lyons’s Millions essay on creativity and madness.

“Our bookstores hold a place in our communities where people go to escape their lives, to talk to a real person and just sit in a comfy chair surrounded by personally curated literature. This is what we do, who we are, so let’s make an extra effort to step away from our desks and computers and provide a safe and compassionate place for people to share their anger and grief today.” In the wake of Monday’s tragedy, Boston’s bookstores figure out how to deal. And at The New Yorker, a poem for Boston.

“I’m here to visit the prison’s weekly book club. Six men burst through the library doors, holding copies of White Teeth by Zadie Smith.” Emily Rhodes shares stories from inside a prison book group.

Year in Reading alumna Nell Zink writes on the future of global sport. As she puts it, “Under my plan for reform, the Olympics will no longer be assigned a fixed geographic location.”

Science now confirms what’s long been suspected by people related to theater kids: “the quality of a performance does not drive the amount of applause an audience gives.”