Year in Reading alumnus Jonathan Safran Foer and Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman have been exchanging emails for over a decade. Over at The New York Times Magazine, they share their recent correspondence on how things have changed since the beginning of their friendship.
Friends Forever
A Literary BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed is launching an Emerging Writer's Fellowship, complete with $12,000 stipend, and Saeed Jones, whose poetry collection Prelude to Bruise was released last year, will be their new Literary Editor. Electric Literature talked to Jones about digital journalism, the need for diversity in writing and publishing, and what he's looking for in Fellowship applicants.
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Finnegans Wake Hits Chinese Shelves
I don’t know how they managed to translate the thunderwords into Chinese, but if sales figures indicate success, they did a bang up job. Finnegans Wake is huge in China right now.
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An American Poem
"I offer you a moody campaign!" Illustrator Nathan Gould revisits the 1992 presidential election, in which badass feminist (and really great writer) Eileen Myles ran as an "openly-female" write-in candidate.
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Thanks But No
Rejection is something all writers face and no one's pretending it's pleasant, but worse than the rejection itself are the hours spent deciphering where a submission went wrong. Thankfully Lincoln Michel at Electric Literature was inspired by a 1920s rejection slip to create a self-explanatory "thanks but no thanks" note. While we're thankful these aren't the norm, we can definitely see the appeal...
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Stories With Grit
Open Road Media is highlighting a collection of “Stories With Grit,” which is composed of stories that “grab you by the collar, knock you around a bit.” They’ve shared excerpts from some of their favorites, but which ones would you recommend?
Digital Publishing and Changes to Copy
“Just as the written word changed the spoken word and the printed word changed the written word, so too will the digital word change the printed word, supplementing but not replacing the earlier forms of information technology.”
What your next-beach-umbrella neighbor is reading
Yes, but what's everyone else reading this summer? Bookstores in beach towns know better than to stock "business, personal finance, or diet" books--though poetry does pretty well--but they are looking forward to these bestsellers. The print-disinclined can take heart that there are even a fair number of literary movies coming out soon. (Related: our own recommended summer reading list, also blessedly personal finance-free.)
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Hilarious. Foer is arguably the worst writer of his generation, but he is unquestionably the most pretentious. Imagine a human being who would do this:
“For the last half a year, we have played a game at dinner called the Wonder Line. If one of the kids can tell me something that generates the experience of wonder — the cocked head, slight nod, raised eyebrow and muttered ‘hmmm …’ — we call it ‘clearing the Wonder Line.”
And then imagine a human being who would be so gol’ darn proud of doing this that he humble-brags about it in the New York Times.
“Imagine a human being who would do this…”
Yes but isn’t it heartwarming when fading propaganda assets come together to generate more… propaganda…? (and *when* is Woody going to put these two adorable kids in a movie…?)