Lindsey Drager considers the novella and argues that it is neither a feminine form nor a smaller type of novel. As she puts it, “while other fiction aims outward, the novella curls in, coiling around itself until there’s no distinction between the story’s body and the story’s shell.” Pair with our own Nick Ripatrazone’s essay on the art of the novella.
This Is Not a Novel
A New Modesty
Recommended reading: The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the new modesty of literary criticism and the complicated relationship between texts, critics, and politics. For more on the balance between art and politics, look no further than Jonathan Clarke‘s Millions essay, “Alive with Disagreement and Dissent.”
It Ain’t Hard To Tell
This essay by Mensah Demary for Electric Literature on Nas and the literary legitimacy of hip-hop is the best thing you’ll read this morning. “Nas is a world-class storyteller and practitioner of the narrative form,” Demary writes, “I don’t understand why there isn’t more discussion around hip-hop’s literary value among today’s millennial-and-boomer intelligentsia.”
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Hemingway in Love
One of Hemingway’s friends reveals in a new memoir how the writer’s secret lover changed his life and work. Pair with Stephanie Bernhard’s Millions essay about cooking with Hemingway.
Devouring Fiction
For her project Fictitious Dishes, graphic artist Dinah Fried whipped up five iconic meals from famous novels.
Know Any Oregon-Based Writers?
Portland-based Literary Arts is offering a total of $59,000 in Fellowships and Book Awards this year for Oregon-based writers and their published works. Past prize recipients have included Wild author Cheryl Strayed, as well as Patrick deWitt for his novel, The Sisters Brothers (which our own Mark O’Connell raved about).
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Good Morning, Poems
A dozen lullaby poems written by Goodnight Moon author Margaret Wise Brown were recently unearthed in an old trunk, and the trove is slated to be published in the United States soon.
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