What’s more staggering: the fact that After, a 25-year-old Texan’s “erotic One Direction fan fiction,” has been “read” online more than 800 million times, or the fact that Simon & Schuster has decided to pay “a six figure advance” for its publication rights? Oh, and there’s more. Billboard reports that United Talent Agency is “shopping the film rights as well.”
Harry Styles: The Next Christian Grey?
Norman Mailer Slept Here
You can purchase Norman Mailer’s Provincetown home for the cool price of $3.9 million. The house was previously used for the Norman Mailer Center’s Summer Writers Colony, which Millions contributor A. Igoni Barrett attended and wrote about for Electric Literature.
●
●
Ruin-Reading
Junot Díaz is at home discussing his native Hispaniola as he muses on the function of apocalypse - New Orleans, Haiti, and Japan - in our global media landscape.
Not Named Knausgaard
Think Knausgaard is the only Norwegian writer worth knowing? Think again. Lit Hub has a roundup of "Five Great Norwegian Writers Not Named Knausgaard."
●
●
What Should Fiction Do?
Bonnie Nadzam asks us what should fiction do? “An artistic practice that perpetually reinforces my sense of self is not, in my mind, an artistic practice.”
●
●
You Can’t Go Home Again (If You Understand What This Means)
The 113th anniversary of Thomas Wolfe’s birthday was last Thursday, but the author lives on in America’s cultural memory thanks to the title of his 1940 novel, You Can’t Go Home Again. Unfortunately, the titular phrase seems to be taken at face value by many people these days, and that can lead to some groan-worthy invocations. A newly-minted Tumblr blog illustrates the point.
Where In The World Is That Book Going?
The Book Depository is “the UK’s largest dedicated online bookseller,” which is all well and good, but their live visualization of which customers are ordering what (and from where) might be the best part of the entire website.
●
●