Even more Rossetti! Here is a hilarious reimagining of Rossetti’s “Jenny” by Mallory Ortberg over at The Toast. If it’s a belly laugh you’re looking for, then stick with Ortberg: try Dirtbag Jason and the Argonauts.
Money and Making Out Both
The Rise of the Typo
In the Times, Virginia Heffernan bemoans how technology and the economic struggles of the publishing industry are leading to an increasing number of typos in books. However: "The Pollyannish upside to writerly inattention and cutbacks in publishing, then, is that readers sometimes see more of the human writer, and less buff and polish."
●
●
Little Emotions in the Person
Recommended Reading: On Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie and the art of hiding one's feelings -- whether helpful or detrimental.
●
●
Living in Letters
Recommended Reading: On the collected letters and lovers of Iris Murdoch.
“I Will Ruin Him”
Creative writing teachers ply a hazardous trade. Don’t believe us? Then maybe this frightening tale -- excerpted from an upcoming book, Give Me Everything You Have, which you can read more about in our preview -- will help change your mind.
●
●
Houellebecq Wins France’s Top Literary Award
Controversial writer Michel Houellebecq finally wins France's top literary award, the Goncourt Prize, for The Map and the Territory (published in French last September).
●
●
Always and Never
Nicola Griffith gives us guidelines for writing about disabled people.
●
●
Combing through Gay Talese’s Laundry…Sort of
Remember that preview for Death to Smoochy, where the voice-over proclaimed, "From the twisted mind of Danny DeVito?" Me neither. But if twisty minds are your thing, you should check out this page from Gay Talese's outline for the classic "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold," written on a shirt cardboard. (Remember shirt cardboards? Yeah... Me neither.)
●
●
Best Translated Book 2010
The Confessions of Noa Weber by Gail Hareven and translated from the Hebrew by Dalya Bilu has won the 2010 Best Translated Book Award. Previously: The shortlist.
●
●