There There by Tommy Orange is one of our most anticipated books of the year. It debuts next week and this week Orange receives the New York Times treatment along with a few other rising star indigenous writers in an excellent profile. “Mr. Orange is part of a new generation of acclaimed indigenous writers from the United States and Canada who are publishing groundbreaking, formally innovative poetry, fiction and prose, shattering old tropes and stereotypes about Native American literature, experience and identity. Their ranks include poets like Layli Long Soldier, Natalie Diaz, Joshua Whitehead and Tommy Pico, and the essayists and memoirists Elissa Washuta and Terese Marie Mailhot.
A New Native American Epic
New Zadie Smith Story
Recommended Reading: “Meet The President!” by Zadie Smith. (Yes, that Zadie Smith.)
Back in the High Life Again
Self-styled music critic Patrick Bateman, the protagonist of Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel American Psycho, certainly had a lot to say about 80s mainstays like Genesis and Huey Lewis and the News. Over at The New Inquiry, J. Temperance argues for Steve Winwood as Patrick Bateman’s musical doppelgänger. Go ahead and take a look at this essay by Bill Morris of The Millions on The Canyons, a film for which Ellis wrote the screenplay.
●
●
Blind Submissions
The editors of Apogee Journal have reserved themselves the right not to read submissions blindly. As they explain it, "Blind submissions don’t actually protect writers from the existing prejudices of editors, and they alone do not contribute to editors reading inclusively."
Reading Lolita on Tumblr
"[I]t becomes an act of subversion, an act of catharsis." Plougshares has a piece about the Lolita aesthetic on Tumblr. See also: our conversation with John Gall who, as art director for Vintage and Anchor books, was responsible for at least two Lolita covers, not to mention the redesign of the entire Nabokov catalog.
●
●
Paper Towns is Coming to Screen
The Fault in Our Stars isn't even out yet, but John Green already has another adaptation on the way. Fox 2000 will bring Paper Towns to screen next with the same screenwriters and producers as The Fault in Our Stars. Green will also be producing. "If you don't like something, you can blame me," he tweeted. Fault supporting actor Nat Wolff will star as the sleuthing Quentin. We just want to know who will play the enigmatic Margo Roth Spiegelman.
●
●
“Oh, you Irish—you’re such MAR-velous storytellers”
The Testament of Mary author Colm Tóibín was interviewed as part of the President’s Reading Series at Johns Hopkins University, and he spoke about the difference between “being a reader, and being an Irish reader.”
Coffee House to Publish Essays and Nonfiction
“Coffee House Press is pleased to announce that in addition to literary fiction and poetry, the nonprofit press will add essay collections and creative nonfiction to their publishing program.”
●
●