Mark your calendars, New Yorkers. The third installment of Ryan Chapman and Jason Diamond’s inimitable networking shindigs will take place on Thursday, July 25th at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. Come for the craic and the free booze, but stay for the balloons.
The Mingle, Part III
Novel Reviews You
Maybe your novel got bad reviews, but at least you weren’t attacked for it. This is the story of Oleg Kashin, a reporter-turned-novelist who was beaten to within an inch of his life for his critiques of the Russian government.
“Wounded Women”
“I am worried about the implications of throwing the label ‘women’s pain’ around individual experiences of suffering, and I am even more uncomfortable with women who feel free to speak for all women. I worry about making pain a ticket to gain entry into the women’s club. And I worry that the assumption of vulnerability threatens to invigorate just the sexist evils it aims to combat by demanding that men serve as shields against it.” In an essay for the Boston Review, Jessa Crispin shares her concerns about the “wounded women” trend in literature right now, citing Leslie Jamison‘s The Empathy Exams and Roxane Gay‘s Bad Feminist as well the Twitter campaign #yesallwomen as particular examples. Pair with Ryan Teitman‘s Millions review of The Empathy Exams.
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.
“Publish for readers, not authors.”
OR Books recently announced a forthcoming book from Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Meanwhile, OR’s publisher, Colin Robinson, shares ten ways to “save the publishing industry.”
Where In The World Are You?
Jim Harrison passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 78, and there’s no better way to honor his memory (and get acquainted with his work) than to take a moment to sit down with these seven fantastic poems from his last collection, Dead Man’s Float.