“Raymond Chandler did not invent the private eye — Dashiell Hammett and a few others got there first. But his vision is the one that caught the public eye and stuck most indelibly in the imagination, like — in one of his aromatic metaphors — ‘a tarantula on a slice of angel food.’” On a new biography of the man behind Phillip Marlowe.
Like a Nun in a Motorcar
Kickstarter: Blessing or Curse?
Is Kickstarter a viable tool for self-published authors, or is it instead “a bit of a nightmare?”
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Points of Entry
When somebody you’re talking to brings up a writer -- say Richard Russo -- that you haven’t read, but should have, you probably say you haven’t read them because you “just don’t where to start.” Unfortunately, the folks at Book Riot just published a book, Start Here, that might blow up your excuse.
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Salman Rushdie on George Orwell
Granta posts Salman Rushdie’s 1984 essay ‘Outside the Whale’ - a response to an essay by George Orwell about the political role of the artist: “If writers leave the business of making pictures of the world to politicians, it will be one of history's great and most abject abdications.”
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Tir gan teanga, tir gan anam
If you missed the worldwide celebration of Irish literary greats on St. Patrick’s Day, you can make up for it with these podcasts of classic Irish writers at The Guardian.
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Orange to withdraw sponsorship of woman’s fiction prize
Kate Mosse announced that Orange will no longer be sponsoring the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction, given annually to the best work of English-language fiction written by a woman.
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Baldwin in the Classroom
James Baldwin couldn't be more relevant, but he is fading from America's high school classrooms. His controversial writing, censorship, poor student reading habits, and absence from the Common Core are all to blame for the lack of Baldwin in the curriculum. Pair with: Our essay on why Baldwin's work still resonates.
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The Other Arts
Six novelists discuss their second-favorite art forms (after writing, of course). Before you click, see if you can guess which one of these folks is most interested in opera: Kazuo Ishiguro, Lavinia Greenlaw, John Lanchester, Alan Werner, Sarah Hall and Colm Tóibín.
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