“The label ‘Immigrant Fiction’ derives from the same problematic Pantheon in which ‘Women’s Literature,’ ‘Black Literature,’ and more, exist. Unlike the genre of, say, science fiction, which describes the content and style of the writing, categories like ‘immigrant’ or ‘Black’ fiction seem to be concerned more with the author’s identity and/or perceived audience.” On literary categories and immigrant fiction, over at Guernica.
The Boundaries of Literature
A Film of Common Prayer
Looks like Joan Didion’s 1977 novel A Book of Common Prayer will now be adapted for the screen.
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Happy Birthday, Baldwin
Yesterday was James Baldwin’s birthday. Revisit “Stranger in the Village” or Justin Campbell’s essay on fatherhood and Baldwin in celebration of his life.
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Literature and Commerce
The Rumpus points out that both it and HTML Giant are experimenting with ads. I was also noticing recently that several enterprising literary magazines – including The Paris Review and Canteen have been advertising on Google. (You can buy ads on The Millions too.)
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Prisons From Another World, Another Time
Eric Benson interviewed Bruce Jackson about “the strange and brutal world of Southern prison farms.” Jackson, who recently published a collection entitled Inside the Wire, snapped prison photographs in Texas and Arkansas from 1964 to 1979. The images depict both the mundane and the surreal, occasionally appearing as though they were “taken from a fever dream.”
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Reading In The Future
Over the years, Maria Popova (aka Brain Picker) has provided readers with thousands of hours of diversion. But how, exactly, does she think we will read years from now?
Vote Knope
The most important news of 2013 so far: Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler is currently writing a memoir, to be published in fall of 2014.