There’s been a lot of talk about Young Adult writing lately – we’ve covered it here and here and here – but where did YA come from, anyway? The New Yorker profiles writer S.E. Hinton, whose debut novel The Outsiders launched the genre, by way of answer.
YA Origins
Again, I Ask You: Is Big Back?
Filmmaker/novelist John Sayles has written a freaking huge novel revisiting the historical moment of Ragtime and Against the Day. Published by McSweeney’s (“We Print Enormous Books”), it’s getting strong pre-pub reviews.
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Reading The Power in 2017
Buzzfeed interviews Naomi Alderman author of The Power, a 2016 book receiving heightened attention this year for its timely feminist premise. “In the book, women develop the ability to electrocute people at will, and as the dynamic between the genders shifts after centuries of oppression, women (finally) begin to take control back from men.” Why all the newfound attention? Alderman believes that it’s due to the subject matter and it being released in the States. ‘It’s only just been published in America and some American reviewers have responded to it as if it was written in response to Donald Trump, but in fact no, it was written before that. I think some of the things in the world have not changed and that is why you can mistake it for having been written yesterday.’ But she adds: ‘I think actually one thing that has really changed is that women are really fucking angry.'”
Does Hollywood Screw Up Science Fiction?
“Look. There are are only two truly great science fiction movies. The first is Stanley Kubrick’s 2001…The second is Blade Runner…You may disagree with this statement. You would be wrong. Let’s move on.” Damien Walter at Guardian accuses Hollywood of screwing up science fiction.
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Elaborate Gilded Contraptions
I wonder if this historical look at the crafting of espresso machines in The Smithsonian will make you think, as I did, about how incredibly Steam Punk a good cappuccino can be.
Liberty is the air we breathe
The text of Salman Rushdie’s PEN World Voices lecture on liberty and censorship has been published on the New Yorker‘s website.
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Conversations & Connections, 2013
Are you a writer in the Philadelphia area? Are you looking for “a comfortable, congenial environment where you can meet other writers, editors and publishers?” If you answered yes to both of these questions, then this September’s Barrelhouse Conversations & Connections conference will be right up your alley. This year’s keynote speaker will be Familiar author J. Robert Lennon.
In Search of Lost Self
“I feel nothing. I think: What an ugly place for it to happen. I call it The Accident. I didn’t hear, or see, or feel any of it, or if I did, I stored it somewhere irretrievable even to me.” Gloria Harrison‘s essay “Where the Highway Splits” stuns over at The Rumpus.
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