Recommended Reading: On Herman Melville and his reputation for “being sexually dangerous, and even depraved.”
The Birth of the Novel
Done Deals
Longtime writers know how hard it can be to tell when a piece is finished. Tolstoy famously tried to revise War and Peace right up to the book’s publication. At the Ploughshares blog, Amy Jo Burns offers tips for evaluating a piece before deciding to give it to someone else.
Karen Russell, Short Story Sorcerer
A master of the short story, Karen Russell discusses supernatural metaphors for motherhood, lonely mutants, and the pleasures of world-building.
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Appearing Elsewhere: The Pale King and the DFW Legacy
You can read my take on The Pale King – and what it says about Wallace’s legacy – at New York Magazine.
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Still I Rise
Maya Angelou reciting “Still I Rise“–in case you’re feeling be-Job-ed today and need of the consolation of literature or if you have doubts about the existence of true poetry in the present age. (Printed text of the poem is here.)
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Tuesday New Release Day: Soli; Zambra; Newman; Tyler; Spindler; Hepworth; Lange; Kushner
Out this week: The Last Good Paradise by Tatjana Soli; My Documents by Alejandro Zambra; The Country of Ice Cream Star by Sandra Newman; A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler; The First Wife by Erica Spindler; The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth; Sweet Nothing by Richard Lange; and The Strange Case of Rachel K by Millions 2013 Year in Reading favorite Rachel Kushner. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great 2015 Book Preview.
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Allan Seager’s Place in the Canon
John Warner‘s great uncle Allan Seager wrote a short story “etched permanently into the American consciousness in a way even Hemingway can’t match.” In this marvelous essay, Warner investigates the writer’s inspiration and legacy.
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Literary Graphic Novels
At Paste, eight literary works that deserve the graphic-novel treatment. (via AuthorScoop)
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