Ernest Hemingway was a great drinking buddy as long as you didn’t make any plans with him. At The Moth, author A.E. Hotchner recounts when Hemingway convinced him to be a matador for the day.
Life as an Afición
Is a New Dave Eggers Novel on the Way?
A tipster has pointed us to a mention of what seems to be a new Dave Eggers novel on the back cover of a catalog from a Dutch publisher. the title translates loosely to A Hologram for the King. A description from a Dutch bookselling site (again translated poorly by Google Translate) suggest that the book will follow an American in Saudi Arabia where he tries to sell holographic technology to King Abdullah. We’ve seen no other mentions of this book anywhere, and so far McSweeney’s hasn’t responded to our questions. Anyone out there know more?
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OYC to Print
Selections from Open Yale Courses are headed to print. As program director John Donatich explains, “At first glance, you might look at it skeptically and ask why would anybody pay for something that you can get for free. But on second glance you realize that it’s actually not the same thing at all.”
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McCarthy, Literary Idol
“In addition to fearing, as a young person, that I lacked sophistication, I also feared that I lacked courage. It was hard for me to say something even mildly tough about someone else or their work; hard for me, generally, to be critical. Mary McCarthy had no such trouble.” Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings, writes about her literary idol for the LA Times.
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Seriously, What’s With Those Geese?
Here’s a Sunday poem by Elisa Gabbert. Maybe its first line will entice you: “What’s with these geese always wandering / around by the museum?”