“The wish to be a writer, and the will to be one, solve nothing about how you will live, and don’t even solve anything about how you will write. You have given yourself the vaguest designation.” Kristy Eldredge writes for The Rumpus about drawing inspiration from the unconventional career choices of Year in Reading alum Geoff Dyer, including the New York Times column he almost never wrote. Pair her essay with our own Janet Potter‘s review of Dyer’s latest full-length work, Another Great Day at Sea.
The Vaguest Designation
On Optimism and Despair
“In your earlier novels you sounded so optimistic, but now your books are tinged with despair. Is this fair to say?” Zadie Smith's remarks upon accepting the 2016 Welt Literature Prize on November 10th, and the question of whether "multiculturalism" is a failed experiment. Read our review of Smith's latest novel, Swing Time, here.
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Aftermath
"So what now? Well, first and foremost, we need to feel." The New Yorker has essays from sixteen writers including Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, Mary Karr, and Gary Shteyngart on the causes for and effects of Trump's win.
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Inspiration, Via Goat
Literary prizes are nothing new, but prizes that give writers real estate are a thoroughly modern development. At Salon, Michele Filgate investigates our odd new economy, in which lucky writers win leases to homes, inns and (in one case) a goat farm. You could also read our own Nick Ripatrazone on the Amtrak residency.
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Reading Aloud and Clear
"My wife likes to drive. I like to read aloud. So, she takes me places, and I take her places. It’s a match made in heaven — or at least in a Honda." In honor of World Read Aloud Day, book critic Ron Charles writes about his love of reading out loud for the Washington Post. Pair with: an essay about the importance of reading aloud as adults.
Not Trolling Can’t Get Mad
The Digital Reader has done us all a solid on this summer Monday and put together a list of five blogs featuring bad book covers. Now That I'm a Ghost I'm Gay, indeed.
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Brow Raised
Not highbrow, not lowbrow, not even middlebrow - is American culture now dominated by the upper middle brow?
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Papa’s Cuba
Hemingway biopics are nothing new, but the latest is the first Hollywood film shot in Cuba since 1959. Papa will tell the story of Hemingway's friendship with a Cuban journalist during the 1950s.
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“Sunset: bitter orange and almond milk”
Recommended Reading: “Joseph Brodsky in Venice (1981)” by Campbell McGrath, one of the best poets in South Florida.