Jim Harrison, outdoorsman and author of Legends of the Fall, has passed away at 78. Harrison was a prolific writer whose lust for life was evident in the scores of essay and poetry collections he published during the course of his career. Our own Bill Morris has some thoughts on why Harrison never managed to garner the audience that a writer of his caliber deserved.
RIP Jim Harrison
New Vonnegut
A never-before-published novella by Kurt Vonnegut called Basic Training is now seeing the light of day as a Kindle Single. Julie Bosman has a bit more info at the New York Times.
●
●
The Man and His Image
Recommended Reading: Can we separate Knausgaard the writer from Knausgaard the narrator?
●
●
On That F*ckin’ “A”
Members of the Word Reference forum contemplate the etymology and meaning of the “A” in the expression, “Fuckin’ A.” Elsewhere Geoffrey Nunberg, linguist and author of Assholism: The First Sixty Years, shares his take on the ubiquitous “a-word,” which he believes originated during World War II.
A Bombing Hits Home
Recommended Reading: On the recent terrorist attacks in Ankara, and longing for home.
●
●
at the utmost limits of writing itself
Christian Bök wonders about the future of conceptual poetry:”How do we write poems in a world where a spambot, like @horse_ebooks, gets to write all the great lines…?”
●
●
Gilead
Recommended Reading: Willa Paskin’s review of Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale.
●
●