To commemorate publication of the 65th anniversary edition of Raymond Queneau’s Exercises in Style, New Directions has asked ten contemporary writers to “create new exercises in homage to Queneau.” Over at The Rumpus, you can check out Jonathan Lethem’s “Cyberpunk” exercise, as well as one of Queneau’s twenty eight “never before translated” exercises making its English debut in the new edition. Bonus: read our own Mark O’Connell on the “radical claims about the relationship between form and content” in Queneau’s writing.
Much Ado about Queneau
Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead
“If you remember the sixties, then you weren’t really there.” We’ve all heard the saying, but in case you actually forgot what the sixties were like, I have good news for you. The complete archive of Oz Magazine, sometimes called the most controversial magazine of the sixties, is available for download over at Open Culture. Oz regularly featured work by such artists as R. Crumb, Germaine Greer, and many more.
Lerner Interviews Gizzi
Leaving the Atocha Station author Ben Lerner interviews Threshold Songs author Peter Gizzi in what can only be described as a poetry explosion.
Men Crying Over Poetry
A new anthology celebrates poetry “that moves men to tears,” and it includes the likes of Jonathan Franzen, Ian McEwan, and Salman Rushdie. Meanwhile, for BBC Newsnight, Clive James gets choked up while reading Keith Douglas’s “Canoe.”
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On Ebooks on the Cheap
Chad Post of Open Letter Books writes a compelling piece on the devaluing impact of ebook pricing, and why, despite that, Open Letter not only now offers ebooks, it put them all on sale for $4.99 for the month of June.
New Chabon Story
Recommended reading: A new short story from Michael Chabon is now available from Tablet.
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Secret Lives of Mascots
The story of the rise and fall of New York Mets mascot Mrs. Met is like a kind of Christ narrative. Here’s something of an elegy for the original Mrs. Met from Sadie Stein over at The Paris Review. Here are a couple of other Millions pieces on America’s favorite pastime.
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CSI: Poetry Edition
An international group of forensic experts studying the poet Pablo Neruda‘s remains, which were ordered exhumed in 2013, says he didn’t die of cancer, as the Nobel laureate’s official cause of death states. The question remains: was he poisoned? And if you want to see how Neruda lived, perhaps you might enjoy this tour of writers’ houses.