“Despite its brevity, the diary is an illuminating document that offers a glimpse into the mind of the artist as a young woman.” The never-before-seen diary of Flannery O’Connor has been published in Image, an arts and faith quarterly, and reveals the shadow of the writer she would become. See also: our own Nick Ripatrazone on teaching O’Connor.
Dear Diary
Haiti: A Love Poem
Our friend Nelly Lambert, who spent several years in Haiti growing up, offers the country a love poem.
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New York: It Isn’t All That
Roxane Gay rounded up some of her favorite writers from “Outside of New York City.” (And she's not talking about Brooklyn.)
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Public Radio, Straight No Chaser
WNYC's Jazz Loft Project series is absolutely essential listening: a portrait of New York's bygone bohemia, complete with resident genius Thelonious Monk. And a book version is out this week from Knopf - a great gift idea for jazz lovers.
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Interview with John Darnielle
Recommended viewing: John Darnielle talks about his debut novel, Wolf in White Van, in a video for the Los Angeles Review of Books.
The New Face of Poetry
Denmark has a new superstar, and he’s a poet named Yahya Hassan. At 18, Hassan has published a poetry collection that sold 100,000 copies in three months -- a figure that, in Denmark, translates to one copy for every fifty residents. At the LARB, Pedja Jurisic delves into the young poet's incendiary politics.
Boycotting Indies?
We are now over a week into Amazon's boycott of the indie press e-books distributed under the Independent Publishers Group. IPG is taking a stand against Amazon's hardline negotiations during the retail giant's annual contract review, and 5000 titles are no longer available through the Kindle store. Last week Jim Hanas, author of the digitally and independently published Why They Cried, spoke out against Amazon to champion other e-readers and e-book retailers. The renegotiations are taking place across the industry, though, as Melville House's Dennis Johnson puts it, "major industry figures at the big houses in New York — facing similar cutthroat demands from Amazon for their own annual contracts — remain silent... This isn't over yet."
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One Does Not Try
“I preach the radio. I do not preach thinking you must know what you are about. Faulkner had good drugs and a big radio. I recall having heard my own little radio at times. It is rare, yes, and it is, now, rarer. But you are young and have your juice, you’re still full of poop, which is the necessary requisite to tuning the radio. Got to be some poop out there, on the airwaves, or in there, in you, for you to tune it in. Cherish the poop you are full of, and work on excreting it with sound fundamentals. End of tantric wisdom.” The ever-entertaining Padgett Powell was interviewed over at LitHub for the release of his new book, Cries for Help, Various.
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Poker Buddies BOMB
BOMB Magazine has a conversation between poker buddies Nam Le and Charles D'Ambrosio.
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