New books of poetry from names like Linda Gregerson and James Tate are always a cause for celebration. Over at the New Yorker, Dan Chiasson takes a look at Gregerson’s Prodigal: New and Selected Poems and Tate’s Dome of the Hidden Pavilion in one extremely thorough essay.
Connected by “And” and “And”
Out-of-print Favorites
Used-book search aggregator BookFinder.com has published its annual report on the most sought-after out-of-print books. As always, the lists are eclectic, spanning everything from stock market conspiracy theories to a lost work by Edward Gorey. (Thanks, Laurie)
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Bad Habits
There are many things you could call William S. Burroughs, who was born a hundred years ago this month, but Will Self prefers to call him “the original junkie,” a title which reflects the author’s hedonistic background and the strangeness of books like Naked Lunch. Self takes a close look at Burroughs’s novel-cum-memoir, Junky, in The Guardian.
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The London “Book Map” Has It All
The good folks at Dorothy labored over a tremendous “Book Map” depicting the settings of some 600 literary works based in London. The books, poems, and essays selected for the map run the gamut from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
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“Knowing Suarez is difficult”
Recommended Reading: Wright Thompson’s profile of Luis Suárez will make you want to drop everything you’re doing and travel to Uruguay and work as a sportswriter.
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Bill Morris, Artist
Our own Bill Morris has long worn his writer's hat, but he recently revealed to us his artistic side. Now his Flannery O'Connor portrait has fetched an impressive price in the recent One Story magazine charity auction. Is art world stardom next?
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The search for absurdity
How The Daily Show may have an advantage over mainstream news, by virtue of its refusual to take "View from Nowhere." Conor Friedersdorf makes the compelling case that comedy writers, with their eyes rooting out the absurd in the world, can put give the news some much needed perspective.
Go Forth and Delight
Any time two writers like George Saunders and Ben Marcus get together for an interview, it’s worth a read. Here are a couple of Millions essays on Saunders and Marcus, respectively.
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‘Sweetbitter’ Comes to TV
Stephanie Danler’s best-selling, semi-autobiographical novel, Sweetbitter, has been given the green light by Starz network for a six-episode series. "As she learns the ropes of restaurant work, [Tess] falls for bad-boy bartender Jake, and makes her first forays into wine, drugs, lust, betrayal and adulthood," writes the Los Angeles Times. Pair with Jason Arthur's essay on novels about work.