There’s a new Tournament of Books winner in town, and it’s also being adapted for the screen by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, so it truly does rain when it pours.
The 2017 Rooster
Jack Gilbert Dies at the Age of 87
Jack Gilbert died yesterday at the age of 87. Gilbert was the author of five standalone poetry collections—as well as additional collected volumes such as last March’s Collected Poems—and he was also a past winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award. For The LA Times, John Penner reviews the poet’s legacy. Or, perhaps as fitting tribute to Gilbert’s life and work, better to hear his own final lines to the poem “Failing and Flying”: “I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell, / but just coming to the end of his triumph.”
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Keeping Pace
“I wish I were jogging shirtless but / I need somewhere to clip the mic,” says Jon Cotner as he records his poem, “Long Meadow,” while jogging through Prospect Park.
Tuesday New Release Day: Gartner, Talib, McLain, Lively
Out today are Zsuzsi Gartner's Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, which was shortlisted for Canada's top literary prize, and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder bestselling expert on chaos Nassim Talib. Out in paperback: The Paris Wife by Paula McLain and How It All Began by Penelope Lively.
Paddington Gets a Trailer
The theatrical trailer for the movie adaptation of Michael Bond’s beloved children’s classic, Paddington, was released this week. The film will star the likes of Sally Hawkins, Colin Firth, and Nicole Kidman, and it will be released in theaters later this year.
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Kim Lit
This week has been full of news about unorthodox children's book authors. First, there was Keith Richards's picture book, and now an Australian academic claims that Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung wrote children's books, too. "I was astounded that children's books (purportedly) written by Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung were vastly more readable than one would expect from any political leader in the democratic west, still less a severe authoritarian," doctoral student Christopher Richardson said.
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