Are you familiar with Spook magazine founded and edited by Jason Parham? It focuses on promoting artists of color and their work. This month the fiction issue, was released and it features work from beloved writers (and Year in Reading alums!) Junot Diaz, Angela Flournoy, and Vinson Cunningham. Along with YiR favorite Justin Torres. You can buy it here! Perfect read for the snowy weekend.
YiR Alums In Spook
The Chance of a Lifetime
It’s famously easy to get scammed on OkCupid. Sarah Hepola (of Salon) knew as much when she joined. But when someone who claimed to be Joseph Gordon-Levitt sent her a flirty message, she figured... what could she do?
The City That Reads
Before adopting the relatively unimaginative (and highly debatable) moniker “The Greatest City in America,” Baltimore, MD was for a time known as “The City That Reads.” In an essay for Poets & Writers, Jen Michalski explains how the city’s bookish reputation endures despite the motto change.
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The Parent Trap
"This is how he justified what he did even as he knew what kind of parent he’d become, the kind that used to make him gag as recently as two months ago. The ones who blithely assumed their online friends were gluttons for punishment. Here’s my baby lying on his back! And here’s my baby also lying on his back! And how about this one: blurry baby on his back! Good God, the vanity of it all, the epic self-centeredness. He knew all this, and still he uploaded eleven pictures of Brian." An excerpt of Victor LaValle's new novel The Changeling. (You could also read our interview with the author from last year.)
“The First Step Into the Wide World”
This is from two years ago, but it's worth a listen if you missed it the first time: a moving Radiolab podcast on Alzheimer's, Düsseldorf, and the creative use of bus stops.
Watch me spit, classic lit
Based on a recent Jay-Z and Kanye West joint, La Shea Delaney and Annabelle Quezada bring you the addictive track "B*tches in Bookstores." This all despite West being a confirmed, even proud, non-reader.
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The Keys Speak
"'All of these things happened to me with keys,’ she says. 'It was as if the keys were saying, “Don't talk about us.” It was as if they didn't like it.’" Year in Reading alum Helen Oyeyemi discusses her fascination with keys and What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours at NPR. For writing from the author, check out her piece on Silvina Ocampo’s Thus Were Their Faces.
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