On average, Neda Ulaby of NPR writes, someone in the world buys a copy of Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar every 30 seconds. The classic picture book, first published in 1969 and since then translated into more than 62 languages, turned 50 yesterday. Asked about its appeal earlier this year, Carle said, “I think it is a book of hope. Children need hope. You, little insignificant caterpillar, can grow up into a beautiful butterfly and fly into the world with your talent. Will I ever be able to do that? Yes, you will. I think that is the appeal of that book.” We’re not crying, you’re crying…
‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ Turns 50
Edwidge Danticat on Gabriel García Márquez
“I had always felt that [Gabriel] García Márquez’s short stories often took a back seat to his longer works, and that his deadpan dark humor was not discussed often enough,” writes Edwidge Danticat.
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Writing for Their Lives
Over at Bloom check out this 3-part feature—a conversation and excerpts—on fiction writers-cum-memoirists Robin Black (If I Loved You I Would Tell You This, Life Drawing) and Natalie Serber (Shout Her Lovely Name)—former classmates at the Warren Wilson low-res MFA program, both later-life bloomers, and both “writing for their lives” in new memoirs.
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“The muscle that helps you ignore people with bad advice”
“The greatest mistake the American writer ever made was asking everybody else what they thought of their writing. Look around your current writing workshop. Look right and left. Most of those people will stop writing. Because it’s too hard, they have no ideas, no one understands them, whatever. A few of those failed people will become editors. These are the only people in the room who should ever really matter to you.”
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Poetry in a Box
Recommended Reading: On poetry about poem-making and the poetics of assemblage.
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Between the Pages, Between the Sheets
Attention promiscuous literary types, the September issue of Bookslut is now online.
Heated Opinions
Some people scribble in books. Some don’t. Some people (like former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas) chuck books with marginalia out the window.
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New Dramas Focus On Atom Bombs and Witch Hunts
WGN America has ordered a 13-episode drama about the Manhattan Project. The series, which is set for a summer 2014 premiere, will be written by Sam Shaw and directed by Thomas Schlamme. This marks the second series ordered by WGN America this year. The first one, Salem, will focus on the Massachusetts town’s infamous 17th century witch trials.