Lambda Award Winners Announced

“As time passed, I realized the Philip Roth I’d known before the two documentaries we ended up doing was in the process of transformation. The Roth I’d known for many years was an obsessively committed writer who, in the terrifying limbo between one book and another, could fall victim to a storm of depression or be spent to the point of looking as if his blood had been drained from his veins… This Philip Roth seemed to be discovering new, unexpected pleasures in life, like spending time in bed reading in the morning or inviting friends to his home to share with him the meals prepared each night by his newly hired, young and lovely cook.” Livia Manera Sambuy writes about her friendship with Philip Roth for The Believer. Pair with Gabriel Roth‘s recent guide to “everything you need to know” about the elder Roth’s oeuvre.

A scholar who has uncovered Walt Whitman‘s handwritten documents announced his findings Tuesday at the National Archives.  These documents are from Whitman‘s time as a government worker, concerning civil rights, war crimes, treason, and western expansion.  View the documents here.

Back in April, our own Sonya Chung linked to an excerpt on Bloom of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, then featured on the cover of the Sunday Times Book Review. At Bookforum, Lisa Locascio reads the book, drawing comparisons to Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker and Hari Kunzru’s The Impressionist.

The Rumpus points out that both it and HTML Giant are experimenting with ads.  I was also noticing recently that several enterprising literary magazines – including The Paris Review and Canteen have been advertising on Google.  (You can buy ads on The Millions too.)