“The second prophecy was even more intense than the first one, and introduced a lot of new rules I didn’t even know existed, but everyone else seemed to kind of already know about them. But you know what? We’re a misfit band of teens who will do anything for each other now, like stand up to that town bully who’s not even scary to us anymore, now that we’ve faced pure evil and lived.” An excerpt of Mallory Ortberg’s best-selling YA novel.
The Chosen Ones
Beat the Drum of Conservation
"Among their other contributions to American life are words that some of the Beats marshaled on behalf of wild places. Kerouac, inspired by Snyder’s rapture about a summer spent in the clouds, followed him as a lookout to an area that eventually became North Cascades National Park in Washington State." Over at The New York Times, Timothy Egan takes a look at poetry's long, linked history with our national parks.
The Moth Wins MacArthur Award
Among the institutions that have just won MacArthur Awards are The Moth, for promoting the art and craft of storytelling, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, for engaging the public and sparking policy change.
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YiR, BOMB Edition
"It's not often that I find myself brandishing my copy and yelling, 'This book.This book! at my husband, but I had that pleasant, awed, envy-inducing reaction." We obviously love a good end-of-year reading roundup, and BOMB Magazine has "Looking Back on 2016" with entries from Jonathan Lethem, Will Chancellor, and other artists, writers, musicians, and filmmakers.
Roth v. Roth v. Roth
In April's Atlantic, Joseph O'Neill tries to separate Philip Roth from his perpetual themes of family, Newark, and Judaism, and from his many authorial personae. The task proves unmanageable, but the attempt sheds light on the man destined to become Roth's greatest critic: Roth himself.
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The Lost Female Beat Poet
The Beat Generation was such a largely male-dominated literary movement that its few female writers have mostly been forgotten. At The Toast, Megan Keeling remembers Beat poet Elise Cowen, who is mostly known as Allen Ginsberg's paramour but also wrote poetry of her own. "Her surviving poetry shows a unique perspective on the rigid cultural conformity of the 1950s and also the fringe artistic community of the Beat Generation." A collection of her poetry, Elise Cowen: Poems and Fragments, was just published.
Her surviving poetry shows a unique perspective on the rigid cultural conformity of the 1950s and also the fringe artistic community of the Beat Generation.
Read more at http://the-toast.net/2014/04/24/elise-cowen-and-the-female-beat-poets/#W1BLwQlomazyFTiH.99
Her surviving poetry shows a unique perspective on the rigid cultural conformity of the 1950s and also the fringe artistic community of the Beat Generation.
Read more at http://the-toast.net/2014/04/24/elise-cowen-and-the-female-beat-poets/#W1BLwQlomazyFTiH.99
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One Step Closer to a TARDIS
The New Museum wants Big Apple residents to recall their not-so-distant pasts. By calling 1-855-FOR-1993 from hundreds of pay phones throughout the city, New Yorkers can hear something interesting about their location – as it existed exactly twenty years ago.
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