Even though James McBride (new National Book Award winner for The Good Lord Bird) is an accomplished jazz musician, he doesn’t listen to any music while writing. “Because I’m a musician, listening to music is…it’s a bit like work for me,” he told The Daily Beast for the “How I Write” series.
Writing on Mute
Kesey Documentary
A new documentary on Ken Kesey and his band of Pranksters "presents the LSD-loving pioneers who spawned ’60s counterculture in their own words and images."
“My school was on fire.”
Recommended Reading: Everything being written by Delaney Nolan – the most recent example of which being “I Was a Teenage Arsonist.”
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Goodbye to Naples
Recommended Reading: Year in Reading alumna Elissa Schappell interviews Elena Ferrante about feminism, friendship, and her latest Neapolitan novel. Pair with Cora Currier’s essay on reading Italy through Ferrante’s books.
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“I have always wondered.”
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s "Diary" for the Financial Times features the Mars Curiosity, Quaker school songs, and all sorts of family bonding.