Two more words of the year as 2016 comes to a close: Merriam-Webster has chosen “surreal” while The Guardian, in an act of timeliness, nominates “unpresidented.”
Words of the Year Watch, Con’t
Lingua Donna
In honor of Women in Translation month, The Guardian asks 10 female translators and writers about the work that inspires them, with answers ranging from Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck to Valeria Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth, which we reviewed when it came out in the States. Pair with this survey of the work of Argentine writer Leila Guerriero.
Standing Atop a Very High Wall Made of Ice
“The right candidate will be a big idea thinker, meaning that they have the capacity to understand the huge idea that White Walkers are coming for us, all of us, and someone’s got to do some shit about it. If you love telling brand stories through digital mediums, can think very conceptually about social media, and love working alongside hardened criminals wearing identical black cloaks, then this might be the perfect step in beginning your career.” Good news! The Night’s Watch is looking for a social media intern.
Truest Forms
As a literary technique, imitation is usually thought of as an amateur move, despite the number of classic works that began as overt acts of mimicry. At the Ploughshares blog, Anca Szilagyi comes up with several prompts for writers who want to imitate thoughtfully.
On Optimism and Despair
“In your earlier novels you sounded so optimistic, but now your books are tinged with despair. Is this fair to say?” Zadie Smith‘s remarks upon accepting the 2016 Welt Literature Prize on November 10th, and the question of whether “multiculturalism” is a failed experiment. Read our review of Smith’s latest novel, Swing Time, here.
●
●
Stuffing This Curiosity Full of Taxidermy
Anjuli Raza Kolb reviews Rachel Poliquin’s The Breathless Zoo, which “tracks the history of whole animal and animal specimen preservation, particularly taxidermy, which refers to the stretching and mounting of the skins of vertebrates, from the seventeenth-century European explorers to the present, with a heavy focus on Victorian practitioners and collectors.” No word on whether or not Poliquin remarks on this curious Danish Facebook group of terrible taxidermy. (Bonus: Caitlin Horrocks’s new story on FiveChapters, “The Lion of Gripsholm – Part Four: IV. The Taxidermist.”)
●
●
Inferno (A Poet’s Recommendation)
Looking for some new poetry? Inferno author Eileen Myles pens a ringing endorsement of Erica Kaufman’s Instant Classic. The book has “haunted and befuddled” her for over a year, she writes.