It takes a certain skill to link Taipei by Tao Lin, My Struggle Part I and Part II by Karl Ove Knausgaard and an old book on Italian painting in a single essay, but Zadie Smith is (naturally) the writer for the job. In a new piece for The NY Review of Books, she asks the reader to “imagine [a drawing of a corpse] represents an absolute certainty about you, namely, that you will one day be a corpse.”
Stiff Manners
Just Right
The National Rifle Association is featuring a series of reimagined fairy tales on their website. The only difference? Way more guns. In the debut story, Hansel and Gretel don't bemoan their lack of food since they had been taught from birth to hunt with guns for sustenance. No, it's not yet April Fools' Day.
Mixer Publishing Contest
"Mixer publishing, with guest editor Paul Tremblay (author of Swallowing A Donkey's Eye), is offering a $1,200 honorarium for the best speculative/sci-fi story, graphic narrative (comic), or poem." The contest deadline is June 30th.
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Dylan Thomas, Rediscovered
A poem by Dylan Thomas, “A Dream of Winter,” has been rediscovered after 70 years. Celyn Jones, who acted as Thomas in Set Fire to the Stars, will perform the poem in London tomorrow. We wrote about the the power of reading poetry aloud and how it connects us to the dead.
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Tinkers’ Chain
At Slate, The Pulitzer win for Tinkers continues to shine a light on what's broken about the publishing industry right now. "Instead of relying on the Great Chain of Publishing... Tinkers' chain jumped several links to get to the Pulitzer." (Thanks, Craig)
A Literary Thriller
Ahead of next week's publication of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the battle over Stieg Larsson's lucrative literary estate. (Thanks, Craig)
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“Every writer needs an editor”
"Every writer needs an editor, and anyone who says he doesn’t has a fool for a muse." The New York Times interviews journalists on the importance of editors, and it's well worth the short read. Pair with our own Edan Lepucki's conversation with her editor.
What Soderbergh is Reading
Remember back in 2011 when Steven Soderbergh made that list (PDF) of every movie, TV show, book, play and short story he had watched that year? Well according to his recent interview with New York Magazine, the book he most recently finished is Paul Murray’s Skippy Dies. (And what a coincidence! The book Murray most recently blurbed is Epic Fail, our first Millions Original.)