Recommended Reading: “Ode to Country Music” by Sandra Simonds.
“If I wasn’t such a deadbeat, I’d learn Greek.”
In the Distance, a Dog Barked
At Slate, Rosecrans Baldwin notes “Pick up just about any novel and you’ll find a throwaway reference to a dog, barking in the distance.” Amazingly enough, he’s right.
American Literature in the 19th Century
“American literature in the 19th century speaks in the 21st in terms we have not yet abandoned – for all our technology, globalism, and panache.” (via Arts and Letters Daily)
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Yup, Still Cold
With a huge winter storm bearing down on the East Coast, the Hopkinton library in Massachusetts did the only sensible thing: they erected a sign extolling the virtues of curling up with a book. What makes theirs unique is that, unlike many of their peers, they found a way to avoid the “warm yourself up” cliché. (Previously spotted on Reddit: “What are some good books to read [in jail?]”)
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Dyer on Unusual Histories
Ahead of the forthcoming release of Zona, Geoff Dyer rounds up five unusual histories for The Browser.
Bad Sex in Fiction
Bad sex in fiction! Here are your excerpts from Literary Review‘s annual contest.
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And the NMA Winners Are…
The good souls at Longform.org have organized all of this year’s National Magazine Award winners.
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Steal Like a Gypsy
The winner of this year’s Dzanc Books/Disquiet International Literary Program Award for fiction is Sofi Stambo. Here’s a rather savage piece of hers over at Guernica Magazine.
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