Among the better tidbits from Gary Shteyngart’s diary of his book tour for Little Failure is the fact that he’s apparently had fellow Russian immigrants ask him to sign books for “a failed paralegal” and “a worse failure than even you.” If, after reading that, you’d like another dose of Shteyngart, you could do worse than his Year in Reading entry.
Such a Disappointment
Levine Named Poet Laureate
Philip Levine has succeeded W. S. Merwin as America’s latest poet laureate. Now is as good a time as any to revisit his interview with The Paris Review. You could also watch one of his readings if that’s more up your alley.
Meet the Millions.
If you’re in NYC this coming Sunday, come out to KGB Bar and meet some Millionaires Millions staffers. Emily St. John Mandel, Michael Bourne, Garth Risk Halberg, and Sonya Chung will all be reading. Our editor in chief, C. Max Magee, and other friends and staffers will be there too, so if you’re able why not come out and put faces to names, say hi, have a drink, and help us make a little merriment.
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A First for the Odyssey
The New York Times Magazine profiles Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate the Odyssey into English. Her translation is one of our most eagerly anticipated for November. “One way of talking about Wilson’s translation of the “Odyssey” is to say that it makes a sustained campaign against that species of scholarly shortsightedness: finding equivalents in English that allow the terms she is choosing to do the same work as the original words, even if the English words are not, according to a Greek lexicon, ‘correct.'”
The Epicenter of Pacific Literature
Mike Sonksen takes a look at both Tinfish and Bamboo Ridge Press, as well as a handful of influential Hawaiian writers, as he investigates “Maui, Pacific Literature, and the Aloha Spirit.”
The Philosopher Queen
At Slate, Jillian Goodman asks, where are all the female cultural critics?
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Tuesday New Release Day: Wolitzer, Aciman, Berg, Brennert
New this week: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, Harvard Square by André Aciman, Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg, and Palisades Park by Alan Brennert.
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