Over at the Literary Hub, Morgan Jerkins writes about the struggle to describe blackness. As she puts it, “My hope is to create imperfect, multitudinous black women who are more in tune with themselves than their audiences.” Pair with our own Michael Bourne’s list of books that “shed light on the history and evolution of racism in America.”
On Blackness
On The Road With DFW
At the LA Times, Scott Esposito gives David Lipsky's Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip With David Foster Wallace a mixed review.
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The Best of the Best
Authors, including Jennifer Egan, George Saunders, Ali Smith, and our own Chigozie Obioma, chose their Best Books of 2017 in a two-part series for The Guardian. If you enjoyed that list, make sure to check out our Year in Reading: 2017 series all throughout December.
V.S. Naipaul on Writers, Kittens
"The writer is all alone," Sir Vidia said. "He has only himself—just like a little kitten." The Atlantic interviews V.S. Naipaul. (via Book Bench)
Pre-Revolutionary Russia… In Living Color
Tsar Nicholas II commissioned Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky to document pre-revolutionary Russia. His color photographs taken between 1904 and 1916 are incredible.
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A DeLillo Retrospective
In its recently released third issue, The Point - a terrific Chicago-based journal of ideas - takes up the vexed question of Don DeLillo's literary significance.
The Buffalo Prize
Hobart (who just joined Twitter) is running a new contest dubbed The Buffalo Prize. Enter for a shot at $500, or if you're feeling saucy, for the bonus $100 prize awarded to the "best cover letter ridiculing or praising contests." They're also calling for interns to join their team, too.
Kurkov’s Penguins
Anthony Olcott takes a look at the crime fiction -- and penguins -- of Andrey Kurkov.
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Not to Be Missed
At Slate, our own Mark O’Connell reports back from The Boring Conference, a riveting event that takes place each year in a nondescript hall in East London.