Recommended Reading: M. Soledad Caballero’s poem about cultural displacement “Losing Spanish” at The Missouri Review. “In the Oklahoma panhandle, she did not remember the sirens, the curfews”
Poetry of Lost Cultures
Just Lie Down
“Will excessive drinking unleash your creative energy? Who can say?” Over at The Toast, intrepid cataloger Ren Arcamone has compiled a list of things you could be doing instead of writing your thesis. Go read it instead of writing your thesis. Continue the stay of essay execution and check out Mallory Ortberg’s hilarious (and helpful) guide to some common signs that you might be dying in a Victorian novel.
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This Week In Good People
In Bogotá, Colombia, a garbage collector by the name of Jose Gutierrez has been working tirelessly to rescue thrown-away children’s books for use in his homemade community library. If this doesn’t immediately call to mind Bohumil Hrabal’s classic Too Loud a Solitude, then it might be time for a re-read. Also, check out this Millions essay by John Yargo on Hrabal’s rambling fiction.
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New Directions in The Coffin
The Coffin Factory, a “magazine for people who love books,” interviews New Directions’ Barbara Epler and Tom Roberge about “publishing and finding bold, new experiments in literature from around the world.” (via)
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Inseparable
Male bonding can take many forms, among them the rarely-seen joint book tour, which Mike Harvkey and Josh Weil decided to undertake in support of their new novels. The two write about meeting each other, travelling around America and bouncing ideas off trusted friends in a Salon essay. FYI, our own Bill Morris wrote a piece about his own book tour for The Daily Beast.
To the Inferno
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Writer: The Game
Trying to get some writing done? Procrastinate with a game about trying to get some writing done without procrastinating.
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So wait, does this mean Martin Amis has read 50 Shades of Grey?
Thus spoke Martin Amis: “There’s a bit more song in women’s writing, there’s more real sincerity in women’s writing.” Also, apparently women are better at writing sex scenes.