The Art of Villanelle Isn’t Hard to Master

Now this is the kind of fellowship an author can really get behind: The Standard, East Village, has teamed up with The Paris Review to offer a free hotel room to a writer in need of “three weeks of solitude in downtown New York City.” The deadline for applications is November 1. And in case you’re wondering, the answer is yes. Of course the fellowship will conclude with a swank cocktail party.

Recommended Listening: Over at WYPR, Baltimore’s NPR member station, White Trash author Nancy Isenberg responds to Michael Bourne’s Millions review of her book. Her comment starts a few seconds before minute twenty-seven.

A new library has been designed for the small village of Huairou on the outskirts of Beijing. Instead of adding a new building inside the village center, the architects chose a site in the nearby mountains, a pleasant five minute walk from the village center. “In doing so we could provide a setting of clear thoughts when one consciously takes the effort to head for the reading room.”