We’ve covered the Atlantic series By Heart a number of times before. It features notable authors writing about their favorite passages. In the latest edition, Mary-Beth Hughes picks out a paragraph from Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Blue Flower, about a poet who’s trying to cope with grief. Sample quote: “Reading Fitzgerald, I felt it was possible to write as I’d experienced dancing.”
Pirouettes
Trump the Truth
"It is not normal for the President of the United States to refuse to offer even passing respect to the idea that telling the truth matters. It is not normal for the President to pretend that any news coverage he dislikes is 'fake news' that has been fabricated by the reporters who made up the story as well as their sources."Because this is where we are, PEN America has issued Trump the Truth, a report on free expression during the President's first 100 days. And in case you missed it, you must read our own Adam Boretz's review of Mark Lamont Hill's Nobody.
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A Good Character Is Hard To Find
I've told you about The Atlantic's By Heart series plenty of times before. This week brings us novelist Paul Lisicky taking a close look at how Flannery O'Connor's "flawed" characters are the ones we find ourselves drawn to most.
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RIP Doris Lessing
Nobel laureate Doris Lessing passed away last night at the age of 94. The author of The Grass is Singing, The Fifth Child and The Golden Notebook took home the Nobel in 2007 for "subjecting a divided civilisation to scrutiny," in the words of the prize committee.
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Su Hui’s Masterpiece Palindrome
Chinese poet Su Hui composed an 841-character array in the fourth century that can be read forward, backward, horizontally, diagonally, and vertically. The poem, entitled “Xuanji Tu,” can be read in 2,848 different ways as a result.
2013 (Indie and Poetry) Book Preview
Justin Daugherty supplements our massive 2013 Book Preview with a short list of upcoming indie and small press titles. Elsewhere, Craig Morgan Teicher lists some of the coming year's most exciting poetry. Anything you’d add to either list?
Good News, Grammarians!
Alison Baverstock takes a wide eye look at ten ways self-publishing has changed the book world. One item of note? “The copy editor, a traditionally marginalised figure, is now in strong demand.”
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On Stage With Myself
It looks like today is your lucky day. This piece from The Literary Hub gives you two for the price of one: first, there’s Herta Muller’s gorgeous take on the poetry of Liu Xia, and next, a careful selection of those very same poems.
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Readers and Returns
"I would argue that decent books coverage in a daily newspaper — especially when it’s presented in such a way that readers are likely to stumble over it and discover titles they might not otherwise have heard of — is more supportive of writers in the long run than a scholarship program." At Salon, Laura Miller explores literary culture and the downsides of the MFA, which include teaching high school.
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