What is it like to work for a major book publisher? In an excerpt from the new reprint of her My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum discusses the myth of the glamorous editorial job, one in which no time is wasted reading self-help books and unauthorized biographies of cable stars. As she explains it, “We’re secretaries fully versed in Derrida, receptionists who have read Proust in French.” Also check out our own Hannah Gersen’s review of Daum’s latest essay collection The Unspeakable.
Chasing After Literature
The Black Woman Writer
“Women writers and writers of color don’t really have the luxury of being known simply as writers. There’s always a qualification,” Roxane Gay writes for The Nation. She ponders what it means to be a “black woman writer” and concludes that we should view diversity as a search for “urgent, unheard stories.”
News Roundup
Like bestseller lists? The Book Standard’s giving them away for free for the next two weeks.Alibris is bought by a private equity firm. PW article suggests Abebooks could be next. (via BookFinder blog)Small publishers book big rewards (via Mumpsimus), but…Bookshops fall prey to online sales.
It Is Shark Week, After All
Bret Easton Ellis is collaborating with Taxi Driver director Paul Schrader on a new “psychological horror” movie about sharks. Coincidentally, HTMLGiant‘s Blake Butler just revisited Ellis’ infamous novel American Psycho.
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Your Adventure is Chosen For You
Last week, popular science fiction author John Scalzi wrote a contentious (but necessary) blog post that likened the lives of straight white males to “the easiest difficulty setting” in the “videogame” known as life. While comments on the original post had to be closed due to uproar, the piece was reposted to Kotaku where the discussion rages on.
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Shout Out
Recommended Reading: Aaron Burch’s new poem “Far from the Hudson” at Big Lucks. You might want to put some Wu-Tang on when you read this.
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