Our own Hannah Gersen writes for Catapult on titling her debut novel, Home Field. As she puts it, “The idea that a title could dissuade a reader was not something I had even considered.” Pair with Bill Morris’s Millions interview with the author.
Working Title
“I’m going to go jump off the Burnside Bridge”
Recommended Reading: Powell’s bookseller Kevin Sampsell’s piece about talking a customer out of committing suicide, only to then be plagued by the thought of killing himself afterward.
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“Years passed.”
Recommended Reading: “So I Went Away” by Crapalachia author Scott McClanahan.
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“Freedom is not a tea party, India. Freedom is a war.”
Recently Salman Rushdie spoke at a conference in Delhi. He had been scheduled to appear with the Pakistani politician Imran Khan, who later pulled out of the event citing the "immeasurable hurt" that The Satanic Verses had done to Muslims. Rushdie, who had earlier been prevented from attending the Jaipur literary festival for fear of his presence inciting a riot, dismissed Khan's claims: "The chilling effect of violence is very real and it is growing in this country."
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No Light Before
Recommended Reading: Peter Fulham on William Styron’s Darkness Visible.
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Book Decor
Will books in white wrappers become this year's deer head? At The New York Times: Physical books find new life as design objects.
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What They Share
At The Rumpus, our own Nick Ripatrazone writes about his twin daughters, Amelia and Olivia, who taught him that, when it comes to twins, “there are two babies but three identities: one for each baby, and then the twin identity, an amorphous, shared mass of personality and action that makes Amelia fuss one night and Olivia the next.” The essay nicely complements Nick’s Millions piece on Andre Dubus.