Year in Reading alum Margaret Atwood interviews Louise Erdrich. They discuss Canada, reproductive rights, their hopes for the future and writing messy characters in a dystopia. Find it in Elle.
Literary Icons Interview Each Other
Wood on the Missing Bits of HHhH
James Wood’s New Yorker review of Laurent Binet’s HHhH, makes note of the sections of the book that were cut by editors (and name-checks The Millions). Here they are if you want to read them and learn more about the context behind the cuts.
●
●
Books for a Post-‘Game of Thrones’ World
What should you read to get your Game of Thrones fix now that the TV series is over? N.K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, and Kirstin Downey for starters.
●
●
●
Yugolysses
The “Yugoslavian Ulysses,” (not actually titled Yugolysses) has been newly translated into English, and gets a thoughtful but mixed review in TNR.
●
●
Carla F. Cohen
Carla F. Cohen, co-owner and founder of legendary Washington, D.C. bookstore Politics & Prose, died this morning.
The Sleepy Short Story
Recommended Reading: Louise Erdrich’s new short story in The New Yorker, “The Big Cat,” which is about snoring among other things. “The women in my wife’s family all snored, and when we visited for the holidays every winter I got no sleep.” Deborah Treisman also interviewed Erdrich about the story. “I like the idea that this story reads like a fairy tale, but there is no moral at all, unless it’s Beware of Snoring Cats. Nothing I write ever has a moral.”
●
●
Good Intentions
“To make money, I’m planning on teaching English, or coaching recreational soccer, or something. But that’s not important because apartments are cheap, and that part, kicking around a ball, or helping Thai children have a better command of the English language, even though I don’t speak a word of Thai, will probably only be a chapter in my book. Those things will provide some nice blog-potential details, too. They’ll show the texture of my everyday life.” Travelling to the East for the sole purpose of writing a memoir.
●
●
Academic Activism
“In a bewildering new trend, it is young rationalist bloggers in Bangladesh who have emerged as the primary target of Islamic extremists.” K. Anis Ahmed writes about the brutal murders of bloggers at the front of the secular movement who have demanded punishment for those committing genocide. Pair with an essay from Hasan Altaf about how celebrating literature can be a form a protest.
●
●