A real estate blog has calculated the approximate value of Hogwarts, and you might be surprised to learn that it’s worth only a fraction of a real life abode in Mumbai, and only about three times more than one in Orlando.
Pricey Pads
De La Pava Up for PEN American Literary Prize
As part of its 2013 literary awards, the PEN American Center will grant nearly $150,000 to writers, editors, and translators through sixteen different awards and fellowships, and for the first time ever they’ve decided to publish their shortlist online. Among the finalists is Sergio De La Pava, whose novel A Naked Singularity is up for the $25,000 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a debut work. You might recall our own Garth Risk Hallberg’s profile of De La Pava last summer, and you can catch a glimpse of the author’s next book on our Second-Half 2013 Book Preview.
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Envying Men
What's the one thing that Rivka Galchen envies about men? Well, "the envious thought was simply that a man can have a baby that his romantic partner doesn’t know about. This is a crazy thought, of course, but I find myself feeling it with such sincerity that I cannot see its edges."
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There’s always funny in the banana stand.
Rolling Stone asked David Cross about Arrested Development's Netflix relaunch and he says it's "audacious and amazing."
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There’s No Escaping Your Textbooks Now
A new service available to Australian students might cut down on the line lengths at university bookstores. Then again, it might also usher in an age of self-aware, Skynet-esque airborne Terminators. Presenting: drones specializing in textbook delivery.
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Not With a Bang, But a False Alarm
Remember all those people who believed the world was going to end last year? Where are they now?
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Earnest Jest
For Atlas Obscura, Tucker Leighty-Phillips writes on how a Portuguese-to-English phrasebook, introduced to English readers by Mark Twain, became a comedy sensation. Pair with this Millions piece on Twain’s travels.
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N.Y.C. vs. M.F.A. vs. R.I.P.
"I’m sure the ghost is fascinated by the N.Y.C. vs. M.F.A. debate, and would add that there’s a literary-world bias... toward writing done by the living." The New Yorker interviews Rebecca Curtis about ghost stories and her latest piece of short fiction, "The Pink House." For more about Curtis, check out our review of her debut collection Twenty Grand: And Other Tales of Love and Money.
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The Eternal Mystery
Recommended reading: Jonathan Russell Clark, who's written for us many, many times before, considers "The Eternal Mystery of the Reclusive Writer" for Literary Hub.
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