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
Text Turns to Artwork
Tom McCormack is midway through a three-part series on internet artwork, but not the kind involving Photoshop and GIFs. After exploring the history and usage of emoticons in part one of his series, McCormack traces the roots of ASCII artwork back to Guillaume Apollinaire’s 1918 book Calligrammes. Stay tuned for the conclusion soon: a look at the history of emoji.
Bad Education: The Confessions of Ed Dante
At The Chronicle of Higher Education: A breathtakingly ballsy piece by an anonymous professional writer of academic papers — friend to non-native speakers, the rich and lazy, and the hopelessly dim. Whatever your professor wants, he delivers (for a fee, of course). This Ed Dante might remind you of Vitaly Borker, the charmingly unapologetic (and equally ballsy) thug internet retailer profiled by David Segal in the NYTimes a few weeks back.
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Not Quite a Review
“This is a tricky novel to review. I’m not even sure it is a novel. And I’m not certain as to whether its fragmentary nature belies an organic structure of astutely sewn intention or is merely a disingenuous device to conceal a let’s-get-something-out cobbling together of unpublished material lying around the writer’s desk. What I can tell you is this: I was powerfully engaged and richly entertained by Sergio De La Pava’s Personae.” (Related: our own Garth Risk Hallberg wrote a profile of De La Pava.)
“The closest analogy for me is Woody Allen”
Following in the footsteps of Amy Poehler, The Office star B.J. Novak has signed a book deal with Knopf. Unlike Poehler, who plans to write a memoir, Novak will publish a collection of comedic short stories.
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Non-Issues
“As a gay man, I would argue that gender and sexual identities are irrelevant, complete non-issues.” Alexandre Vidal Porto talks with our own Bruna Dantas Lobato about Brazilian fiction, gender identity, and his second novel, Sergio Y., at BOMB Magazine.
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A Writer at Heart
“Vivian Lee is the kind of editor you want on your team: a writer at heart who understands the sometimes painful creative process, a fierce advocate when it comes to supporting her authors, and always at the ready with a hilarious tweet up her sleeve.” Check out an interview with Lee at The Rumpus. You could also read a piece in which a few editors share their experiences with their first acquisitions.
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Books for a Post-‘Game of Thrones’ World
What should you read to get your Game of Thrones fix now that the TV series is over? N.K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, and Kirstin Downey for starters.
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