Can’t get enough of Orange is the New Black? Neither could The Missouri Review. Their new blog series, Literature on Lockdown, shares narratives from those who teach or write in prisons. This week’s post comes from Ace Boggess, a poet who spent five years in a West Virginia prison. “One thing about being a writer in prison is that you have not lost everything. You still have that driving need to speak whatever truth you know in whatever way you can. No one can take that away from you, not even the State.”
Jailhouse Rock
“Once on This Island”
“I thought it was going to be a short novel, that it was one person’s story. But I was wrong, because history is always shaping everything.” The New York Times reviews Marlon James‘s latest novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, which we covered in our “Great Second-Half 2014 Book Preview.”
Is Poetry Ever Nonfiction?
A few weeks ago, I let you know about The Guardian’s new series spotlighting the best 100 nonfiction books of all time. Today, we have a curious addition to the list: Ted Hughes’ 1997 collection Birthday Letters. Here’s a bonus Millions review of Jonathan Bates’ controversial new biography of Hughes, Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life.
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Sprechen?
Recently, a Czech linguist named Jakob Murian came up with an estimate of the number of languages your average European speaks. The study is complicated, however, by the question of how much you need to know to really understand a given language. At the LRB’s blog, Glen Newey asks: are you fluent when you can order a beer, or when you can translate Virgil? Pair with: Abigail Rasminsky on learning to speak German.
Monster Mash
Infographic of the Week: Are you ready for Halloween? Check out this infographic of literary monsters from Morphsuits at Electric Literature. Pair with our essays on reading House of Leaves on Halloween and long hallways in horror films to get in the spirit.
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So Tired Today
Recommended Reading: Year in Reading alumna Roxane Gay on the importance and exhaustion of continually bearing witness.
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Poems Come Out
Recommended Reading: Adam Fitzgerald at LitHub interviews Deborah Landau about her newest collection of poetry, The Uses of the Body. Read it with this Leah Falk piece from The Millions about poets reading aloud.
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