“I write, always thinking about the generations of black women who came before me, who faced racism and sexism head-on, and in spite of it all, did their work. They encourage me not to despair.” For Vogue, author Brit Bennett writes about 2017, racism, Trump, and the forward progression of time. Pair with: staff writer Ismail Muhammad‘s interview with Bennett.
The Right Side of History
The Story of My Friend
“[T]here are no creative writing programs in Mexico, so people rely on the infinite patience of their friends.” Valeria Luiselli and Laia Jufresa, longtime readers of each other’s work, in conversation over at BOMB Magazine. See also: our review of Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth.
Garth Greenwell on Being a Mystery to Yourself
Garth Greenwell discusses the narrator of his two novels, who repeatedly "undergoes a process of coming into self-knowledge."
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Tuesday New Release Day: van den Berg, Tan, Faulks, Setterfield, Delaney
Year in Reading alum Laura van den Berg has a new book out this week, as does Amy Tan. Also out: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells by Sebastian Faulks; Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield; and a memoir by YiR alum Rob Delaney. For more on these and other new titles, check out our Great Second-Half 2013 Book Preview.
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Weird: France & Belgium
Recommended recommendations: Weird Fiction Review has compiled a list of notable “weird” French and Belgian writers.
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“The decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes”
In 1946, George Orwell wrote that political prose was formed “to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
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Bookends on Russian Literature
To accompany this infographic on Russian literature, The New York Times asked Francine Prose and Benjamin Moser what makes 19th century Russian writing so distinctive. Pair with our own Matt Seidel‘s take on rejected Bookends questions.
Appearing Elsewhere
My review of Tom Bissell‘s Magic Hours appears in this Sunday’s NYTBR.
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