Here’s an odd scenario straight out of a Thomas Pynchon plotline: in the course of fact-checking a review of Pynchon’s new novel, Alex Yuhas found himself emailing a person known only as “The Great Quail.”
Try Finding a Picture
Let’s Write About Sex Baby
"Her pincers tore at me... I stormed her openings as if she was a beleaguered fortress." We're wincing-slash-laughing at Lapham's Quarterly's infographic of authors' attempts to put sex down on the page throughout history. Pair with author Julia Fierro's great piece about trying to *do it* in her first novel.
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New from George Saunders
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Something Brewing on Twitter
Be sure you're following @The_Millions on Twitter if you're interested in entering our first ever sponsored giveaway of a special signed book. Look for details on Twitter later today.
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Bookstore Fairy
Recommended Reading: On the mysterious benefactors keeping St. Mark’s bookstore alive.
The New Great Books
"How can we represent four hundred years of American literary history in a way that doesn’t reinforce the unfortunate hierarchies of those four hundred years?" Year in Reading alum Rebecca Makkai writes for Electric Literature about the opening of the new American Writers Museum in Chicago and what it means to curate an historical canon of letters. See also: our interview with Makkai from a couple of years back.