Does poetry still matter? At NPR, Tracy K. Smith says yes.
Beautiful and Pointless?
Punctuate With Extreme Prejudice
Noreen Malone – writing in Slate – launches a rearguard action against the em-dash. Is it fair to harbor punctuation prejudice? If so, a confession: I can’t stand the ampersand.
A Laugh for the Jobseeker
At McSweeney’s: “A GREAT JOB OPPORTUNITY!” (Funnier/sadder if you’re jobless right now.)
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Can’t Stop Won’t Stop
“I couldn’t put the books down. Now that so many of us complain of diminished attention spans— our own as well as our companions’—it’s worth asking what has made millions of readers willing to suspend their disbelief—to suspend their selves—for thousands of pages.” Why have so many people gone gaga for Ferrante and Knausgaard? We have our own theories as well.
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Pictorial Gateways
What is the best approach for creating a book cover? Over at Capatult, Tanwi Nandini Islam considers the best book cover for her debut novel, Bright Lines. Also check out this comparison of U.S. and U.K. book covers.
Costume Drama
Callan Wink, the Wyoming writer who’s published two stories in The New Yorker since 2011, has a new story, “One More Last Stand,” in Granta’s Spring issue. Among other things, it depicts the oddly frightening “heat of battle re-enactment.”
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The Originals Series
Farrar, Straus & Giroux will team up with GQ for something called “The Originals Series.” The series, as stated in a blog post from FSG’s digital marketing manager, will consist of “authors and musicians in conversation, hosted by David Rees (Get Your War On, Artisanal Pencil Sharpening, Kale City), in an intimate West Village loft space. We’ll film each event and edit it down to a compelling short film for broadcast online.” You can RSVP to the November 8th kick-off, which features John Jeremiah Sullivan and the Brooklyn-based band Caveman, here.