“I haven’t been able to write since the moment I started thinking I could or should be making money as a writer.” Meritt Tierce with a refreshingly candid piece on writer’s block and how success doesn’t always negative the likelihood of failure.
Dog Eat Dog
The Long Road
On the occasion of the publication of his novel The Madonnas of Echo Park, Brando Skyhorse writes about the decades-long path that got him there and the rules for writing that he devised. (Thanks, Steve)
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Or Is this Just a Silly Comparison?
Could the reinvention of prolific food chronicler Ricky Rozay’s rap persona provide a guidebook for the recently exposed Jonah Lehrer? (h/t Ryan Chapman)
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Ireland’s Favorite Poem
Though traditionally a cultural staple, Irish poetry’s popularity has been on the decline for some time now. The best way to reignite public interest? A contest, of course, and Seamus Heaney just won. His sonnet “When all the others were away at Mass” was voted “Ireland’s best-loved poem written over the past 100 years.”
Down, Set, Read
Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is the NFL’s unofficial librarian. According to his teammates, Luck is a voracious reader who regularly recommends books in the locker room. The genre is unimportant; Luck reads everything from books on concrete architecture to Love Life by Rob Lowe. Where is the Football Book Club when you need them?
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Yaa Gyasi on the Inevitable Risk of Living
Yaa Gyasi discusses the theme of risk in her latest novel, Transcendent Kingdom, and how it is necessary in both pleasure and pain.
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PW’s Top 10 of 2009
Publisher’s Weekly has released a Top 10 adult books list for 2009, fiction and non-fiction. Click here for the (perhaps surprising) list, including reviews.
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