Readers are mourning a fallen Monterey cypress tree, said to have inspired the classic Dr. Seuss book The Lorax (once considered a very dangerous book). “The tree was estimated to be about 80 to 100 years old,” according to Tim Graham, a spokesman for the San Diego Parks and Recreation Department, who added that there is “no definitive cause on why it fell.” Let’s hope a Truffula Seed is found quickly before things get worse.
The Lorax Mourns Another Tree
Fall 2009 Story Contest
Narrative Magazine announces its Fall 2009 Story Contest, open to fiction and non-fiction writers. Submission deadline November 30th.
Shame and Queerness
Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased, writes on shame and queer identity. “Shame would give me the power to submit to almost anything.”
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A Listicle By Any Other Name
First our own Mark O’Connell pondered the relationship between listicles and our shrinking attention spans for The New Yorker, and now Arika Okrent suggests that a listicle is its own literary form – albeit a “gloriously unspecified” form, at that. Together, these pieces constitute 2 Meditations On Listicles That Will Totally Change Your Life.
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Haruki Murakami: Literary Ambassador
Among Haruki Murakami’s many significant literary achievements is the fact that the author has – since the 1990s – become “responsible for triggering and fueling the Japanese literature boom in South Korea.” Indeed, by “creat[ing] bonds of shared emotions and literary sensibilities among tens of millions of people with different cultural and historical backgrounds,” writes Yoon Sang-In, “Murakami’s literary works have emerged as a great cultural asset that contributes to stability in [the East Asian] region.” (Bonus: Murakami’s latest book – which will be published in the States in 2014 – is flying off the shelves in Japan.)
Sofia Coppola’s Little Mermaid
Sofia Coppola will direct a live adaptation of “The Little Mermaid.” No, not the Disney version, but the Hans Christian Andersen one. Expect something darker than singing crabs.
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Picture of Alienation
In 2006, Gene Luen Yang became the first graphic novelist to be nominated for a National Book Award. Yang earned a nomination in the Young People’s Literature category for the graphic novel American Born Chinese. Now Yang has been nominated a second time, again in the Young People’s Literature category, for a new book, Boxers and Saints. Francoise Mouly and Mina Kaneko talk with Yang at Page-Turner. (You can also read our interview.)
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