Our own Edan Lepucki (who has a novel coming out soon, by the way…) interviewed four of the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards: Tenth of December author George Saunders, The Lowland author Jhumpa Lahiri, The Good Lord Bird author James McBride, and The Flamethrowers author Rachel Kushner. We reviewed both Saunders and Kushner’s works here and here, respectively, and you can also take a look at the rest of the NBA finalists over here.
Edan Lepucki Interviews the NBA Finalists
Baumbach to Direct Emperor’s Children
Whoever decided to sign Noah Baumbach to adapt Claire Messud's The Emperor's Children for the screen has a good feel for the material (Keira Knightley and Eric Bana are also attached). One kind of has to wonder about Richard Gere, though...the Murray Thwaite role is clearly destined for Brian Cox, or vice versa.
Tana French’s Accidental Writing
Aspiring writers who’ve long dreamed of critical acclaim will no doubt be slightly miffed at Tana French’s admission that her writing “happened by accident.” As the former actress explains to The Guardian, writing In the Woods was a subconscious, almost involuntary experience: “I thought I could never write a proper book, I'd never done it before. But I thought I could write a sequence. Then I had a chapter.”
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The Kite and the String
"Some people see things others cannot, and they are right, and we call them creative geniuses. Some people see things others cannot, and they are wrong, and we call them mentally ill." The Atlantic has an excellent contribution to the age-old thesis that creativity and madness are inextricably linked--and tied, moreover, to mental illness--based in part on a sample of students at Iowa Writer's Workshop. Pair with another essay on creativity and the "touch of madness" from our own archives.
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They’re So Tough
"I liked the war parts the most, but peace was fine. It was fine." It seems as though Trump has taken a liking to Tolstoy. Over at Electric Literature, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump makes book blurbs great again.
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For Jane, Forever Ago
"It’s part of Jane Austen’s genius that she can bring the maximum of drama and momentousness to the most minimal of occasions." Here is David Denby from The New Yorker on reading (and listening to) Austen's Emma, which is celebrating its two-hundredth year in print. We've brought you a bunch of bits on Austen in the past.
Apple’s Foray into Education Publishing
If you missed Apple's "Education Announcement" last Thursday, you can check out Peter Kafka's play-by-play coverage of the event for AllThingsD. The whole affair made quite a splash because the biggest publishers in the world today are education publishers. The star of the show was iBooks 2, and it has many people talking: some view it as education publishing's savior, some fear it, and others think its EULA is downright creepy. At least one person believes the whole idea might've been the brain child of a lowly intern. And, finally, what should we make of Steve Jobs' 1996 admission that "what's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology?"
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