Today marks the opening round of the always-worth-following Morning News Tournament of Books. In the ring, Adam by Ariel Schrag faces off against The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell, in a match refereed by Matthea Harvey. For background, you could read our review of The Bone Clocks.
Tournament of Books Kicks Off
The Gray Salt Sea, The Wine-Dark Sea
Writing for Lapham’s Quarterly, Caroline Alexander takes a deep dive into Homer’s “wine-dark sea” to uncover the origins and meaning behind the poet’s “incomprehensible” phrase.
MIT’s Open Documentary Lab
Andrew Phelps interviews Sarah Wolzin, director of MIT's new Open Documentary Lab, which "brings technologists, storytellers, and scholars together to advance the new arts of documentary." The Lab, according to Phelps, is "part think tank, part incubator for filmmakers and hackers."
●
●
On Reviewers, and Paying Them
LA Review of Books editor in chief Tom Lutz has written about the future of book reviews and "a missing generation of journalists."
●
●
Who Keeps the Gatekeepers?
Are you embarrassed about your lack of literary inheritance? You're not alone. Here's a great piece by Annie Liontas at The New York Times on those first, lonely forays into the literary world: "But I see my experience as an immigrant into the world of letters as a blessing. Being an outsider is the origin of my imagination; it gives me the constant consciousness that my perspective is only one of many and that there are myriad ways of being in the world. It grants me the gift of being attuned to the voices in the room, as well as all of those shut out of it."
●
●
Epic Fail Gets Epic Press
We’re thrilled by the early buzz surrounding Epic Fail, our first Millions Original eBook. You can learn more about the project courtesy of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Teleread. Of course, you could learn even more about the project by purchasing a copy of the book.
●
●