Notes on Letters
From Iowa to Illinois
Poets & Writers‘ 2011 MFA rankings are out, and poet John Gallaher has some questions for students in the top 20 programs. (via The Rumpus)
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Marty the Monster
True Detective ended weeks ago, but someone once told me, “Time is a flat circle,” and that everything we’ve ever done or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again. And this piece on the show’s finale by Lili Loofbourow is going to be the best one you’ll read on the internet again and again and again forever. (Bonus: Our own Ujala Sehgal crafted a reading list based on one of the show’s [missing] elements.)
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The Long-Awaited Return of Gayl Jones
Gayl Jones published her first novel in 1975. It was hailed by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and John Updike. Then Jones disappeared from the literary scene. Now she's releasing her first novel in 20 years.
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New Bechdel Memoir
Yesterday we learned Alison Bechdel won a MacArthur grant, and we thought we couldn’t be happier. Then we heard there’s a new Bechdel graphic memoir in the works, The Secret to Superhuman Strength.
Adaptation Progress Report
This week in book-to-film adaptations: Meredith Goldstein rounds up some possible and upcoming projects for The Boston Globe, including adaptations of The Goldfinch (which we cast here) and our own Emily St. John Mandel‘s Station Eleven.
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Stay Woken
“Woken is the usual past participle of the verb wake in modern English, but in some historical and contemporary varieties the past tense form woke is also used as a past participle.” The Oxford English Dictionary offers notes on the more than 600 new words, phrases, and senses added to its lexicon this quarter, including hygge, particle zoo, post-truth, and woke. Perhaps the OED can help our own Edan Lepucki, who needs help giving 11 feelings and experiences names.