Recommended Reading: Eric Farwell sits down with John Darnielle (aka The Mountain Goats) at Bookforum. You could also check out Darnielle’s Year in Reading piece.
“Kind of like gothic mansions”
Know Your Facial Hair Etymology
Did you know sideburns got their name from the extravagant facial hair of a 19th century American soldier by the name of Ambrose E. Burnside?
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Writing a New Canon
Over at VICE, Karan Mahajan, Tanwi Nandini Islam, and Jenny Zhang talked about the new generation of Asian American writers. “There isn’t really a canon, which means if you are Asian American and writing, you’re automatically adding to it. Once I realized this, I became extremely protective of my writing,” said Zhang. Pair with this Millions interview with Mahajan.
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The Nobel Curse
A simple question: has the Nobel curse killed Orhan Pamuk? You could just ask President Obama, who recently picked up a copy of Pamuk’s most recent work, A Strangeness in My Mind.
America’s Next Top Laureate
California’s San Mateo County is “seeking nominations for poet laureate, someone who can act as an ambassador for literary arts.” Do you have what it takes?
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The Best Prison Literature
With Guardian reporting that the “Tome Raider,” a Cambridge graduate turned antique book thief, was sentenced for thefts worth £40,000, AbeBooks has put together this list of the best prison literature.
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A Death Certificate and Memorial Combined
“A ‘Complete Poems’ is a death certificate and memorial combined. After the Selected and the Collected, the Complete marks the poet’s official demise and at the same time erects a carven monument designed to outlast the ages.” At The Guardian John Banville reviews The Complete Poems of Philip Larkin which will be out on these shores in March.