Submissions are open for the Oxford American‘s Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship, which awards a $10,000 living stipend, housing, and an editorial apprenticeship toward a nine-month residency with the magazine. The goal is to support the writing of a debut work of creative nonfiction, and the application deadline is midnight EST, March 30, 2017.
Jeff Baskin Writers Fellowship
Hustle and Flow
The writer needs to be a hustler to survive, essayist Aaron Gilbreath argues. He literally took to the streets of Portland to hand sell his work. Pair with our essay, “Instant Lessons: First Novel Karma.”
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Compressed Madness
In a conversation from Upstairs at the Strand, Year in Reading alumnus Junot Díaz and Hilton Als discuss masculinity, science fiction, realism and truth, and representations of Latino culture. Pair with Paul Morton’s Millions interview with Díaz.
William Kelley, a Lost Literary Giant
“I didn’t know who William Kelley was when I found that book but, like millions of Americans, I knew a term he is credited with first committing to print. ‘If You’re Woke, You Dig It’ read the headline of a 1962 Op-Ed that Kelley published in the New York Times, in which he pointed out that much of what passed for “beatnik” slang (“dig,” “chick,” “cool”) originated with African-Americans.” Are you familiar with William Kelley? Let Kathryn Schulz be your guide on this historical literary adventure as she discovers an immensely influential writer whom most of us have never heard mentioned.
Writing Every Day
Do you want to nurture your writing? Sign up for the Skillshare online class Creative Writing for All: 10 Days to a Daily Habit, taught by Friendship author and Year in Reading alumna Emily Gould and featuring a 10-day creative writing challenge. Also: enrollment is free through April 12.
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“Global” or “World Literature” vs. Internationalism
The success of international authors like Orhan Pamuk, Ma Jian, Haruki Murakami, and Tash Aw – each capable of “transcend[ing] their homelands and emerg[ing] into a planetary system where there work can acquire a universal relevance” – has caught the attention of n+1’s editors. In a lengthy piece from their last issue, they suggest that we should be less concerned with such examples of “World” or “Global Literature,” and instead focused on more diverse, politically-charged and unique international works. “Global Lit tends to accept as given the tastes of an international middlebrow audience; internationalism, by contrast, seeks to create the taste by which it is to be enjoyed,” they argue.
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On the State of Syrian Publishing
The Syrian publishing industry is but one of the casualties in the nation’s ongoing civil war. “The whole of publishing is not more than 10 percent of what it was in the past,” says Samer al-Kadri who runs Bright Fingers Publishing House in Damascus.
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“Perfect translation … is of course impossible.”
Ever wonder how Google Translate works? Now you know. These two pieces (one and two) on Lydia Davis‘ translation of Madame Bovary are worth revisiting, too.
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