“I lost the first good novel I ever wrote to a computer disaster. It happened at a crucial time in my life. I was working nights, living in a mouse-infested tenement in Giuliani-era Harlem and still figuring out if I could even do this thing — become a writer for real.” Mat Johnson on NPR’s All Tech Considered blog about the ultimate authorial nightmare, and how he recovered from it. Pair with our review of Johnson’s latest novel, Loving Day.
Lost and Found
An Interview in the Worst Way
We Are Champion, a handsome new online literary magazine promulgating “what Donald Barthelme called “back-broke” sentences,” features an interview with the great Gary Lutz.
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Reviews of Man Booker Longlist
Last week, we provided excerpts for several of the titles on the Man Booker longlist. This week, The New Yorker has helpfully rounded up reviews of the titles.
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Sheepoetry
“The idea was that the words would form a meaningful haiku – or ‘haik-ewe’ as Valerie called it – however they were viewed on the backs of the grazing sheep.”
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Roald Dahl Deals
Do you live in the UK? Well, if you can’t afford Roald Dahl‘s writing shed, perhaps these two £0.99 e-books of his will suffice: “Royal Jelly” and “Man from the South.”
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Which Author Spells The Best?
The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses is hosting their annual Spelling Bee Fundraiser on October 30th. New Yorker editor Ben Greenman will host the event, which will pit Jonathan Ames, Amor Towles and Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures author Emma Straub against one another (and more) in a battle of lexicographic perspicacity. (Can you state the language of origin, please?) The event will be judged by none other than Jesse Sheidlower, editor of the inimitable Oxford English Dictionary.
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An Interview With Marilynne Robinson
Read here, in the University of Washington’s alumni magazine, about how Marilynne Robinson approaches a book’s essence as “an elaborate needlepoint of decisions and observations”; how novels visit upon her as surprises; and how her recent move to New York might spawn yet another gift to readers.