“After receiving a hundred of his letters, meeting him fifteen times, either at his apartment on Bilu Street or at a Tel Aviv café, and receiving too many calls from his cell phone to ever hope to return, I gave up trying to count the number of times that Yoram Kaniuk had died.” Nicole Krauss remembers her relationship with Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk, author of The Last Jew, in her obituary for The New Yorker.
The Many Lives of Yoram Kaniuk
Curiosities: No Glamour in Publishing
Want to catch up on John Updike in a single summer?Dick Cavett reminisces about the time Updike and John Cheever appeared on his talk show... together.Clancy Martin on his failed attempt to become the world's largest maker of Fauxbergé eggs and how he evaded the Russian police.Ward Sutton literalizes the idea of the cartoonish critique at the Barnes & Noble Review. First up: T.C. Boyle's The Women.Street artists smell a conspiracy around the recent arrest of "Hope"-monger Shepard Fairey, the artist formerly known as Giant.On the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution in Iran, our friend Porochista Khakpour looks back.WNYC presents streaming audio (mp3 link) of Zadie Smith's NYPL talk on then-President-elect Obama.Fresh Air's Maureen Corrigan raves about Yu Hua's Brothers.More heads roll in the publishing industry.How close did we come to economic apocalypse?Glamorous publishing people: "No, there is no glamour left in publishing."Food for your ears: "The Dinner Party Download is a fast and funny 'booster shot' of unconventional news, cuisine and culture to help you win this weekend's dinner party." Sarah Shun-lien Bynum was a recent guest.Amid stimulus package largess, arts getting left out in the cold.Epilogue, a new mag that marries short writings, art, and music.File under: links you probably don't need to click on
To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway
Aaron Sorkin is writing the first Broadway production of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. To prepare, Michael Bourne’s essay introduces us to the real Atticus Finch.
Ferrante Furor
In case you missed it, this past weekend The New York Review of Books likely outed the author who's been writing under the nom de plume of Elena Ferrante. Condemnation was fast and furious, including pieces by n+1 and this fantastic Twitter thread by critic Lili Loofbourow. We join the chorus of voices who would rather direct the attention back to Ferrante's work. Might we suggest starting with this piece about The Neapolitan Quartet's subversive power?
Five Favorite Story Collections
Curtis Sittenfeld shares her favorite short story writers, from Alice Munro to new voice Jennine Capo Crucet.
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America’s Next Top Laureate
California’s San Mateo County is “seeking nominations for poet laureate, someone who can act as an ambassador for literary arts.” Do you have what it takes?
Paper Towns is Coming to Screen
The Fault in Our Stars isn't even out yet, but John Green already has another adaptation on the way. Fox 2000 will bring Paper Towns to screen next with the same screenwriters and producers as The Fault in Our Stars. Green will also be producing. "If you don't like something, you can blame me," he tweeted. Fault supporting actor Nat Wolff will star as the sleuthing Quentin. We just want to know who will play the enigmatic Margo Roth Spiegelman.
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