Need some more Canadian literature in your life? The Walrus asked several authors to pick their favorite books of the year. Among their selections are The Betrayers, a novel by Year in Reading alum David Bezmozgis, and Wallflowers, the recent collection of stories by Eliza Robertson. Pair with: Andrew Saikali on Canadian novellas.
The Latest from Canada
Back When Poets Had Drivers
Chilean Communists want to exhume Pablo Neruda's body to determine his actual cause of death. The endeavor is being undertaken because Neruda's "former driver said he received an injection which provoked a heart attack."
“It is difficult to make a living”
“There is a possibility of your having a decent attitude toward people and work. That alone may make a man of you.” Wise words from Sherwood Anderson.
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An Old Story
"We aim to foster a review culture where all genders can write about all topics and be met with equitable coverage." Launched last year by a group of McGill University students, Just Review is an advocacy project that aims to help publications combat gender bias in the literary and publishing worlds. Would that this weren't such an evergreen subject.
Ishiguro Interviewed
"Maybe in the future I’ll feel compelled to write that kind of specific and current book, but right now I feel that my strength as a fiction writer is my ability to take a step back. I prefer to create a more metaphorical story that people can apply to a variety of situations, personal and political." Electric Literature interviews Kazuo Ishiguro about his most recent novel, The Buried Giant, which our own Lydia Kiesling reviewed here.
Elkin’s 80th
Today would be author Stanley Elkin's 80th. On this occasion, one fan posts an excerpt from The Franchiser and suggests "Read it out loud three times: the first to hear the sounds, the second to feel your mouth and tongue and throat make the sounds, the third time to listen to what Elkin is saying."
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Self-Publishing like a Woolf
"History is littered with poets... who set up their own presses to publish their work, because it was so different from the normal forms of the time. Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard are one example- they started their own press called the Hogarth Press (it is still going today) to publish collections of their work." Self-publishing is something we've written about many times before, but Sarah Gonnet raises a good point - self-publishing isn't truly a new phenomenon, and it does allow for a great deal of creative freedom.