Recommended Reading: Parul Sehgal on Jonathan Franzen’s first novel. (You could also check out Eric Lundgren’s counterpoint.)
The Feel of Municipal Politics
So Far So Good
Recommended reading (and reading, and reading): Oyster has listed the "100 Best Books of the Decade So Far," led by Teju Cole's Open City, which was reviewed for the Millions here.
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McSweeney’s Column Contest
You have until 8/20 to enter the 4th Annual Column Contest at McSweeney's.
Something Simple
"When I want to be ambushed, captured, thrust into a strange and vivid world, and tossed aloft until I cannot stand it, until everything is at stake and life feels almost unbearably vivid, I do something simple. I read short stories." Electric Literature has posted Ben Marcus's "paean to the contemporary American short story," which doubles as the introduction to New American Stories and does a pretty good job of capturing just what it is we love about reading fiction.
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Defining Poetry
A look back at the women who have edited Poetry magazine.