Watson’s stories—those in the volumes published in his lifetime and the new ones—are wry, tender, darkly funny, and deeply idiosyncratic. Read more
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Author: Proprietor
Five of the Best Books About Conspiracy Theories
From Covid misinformation to the JFK assassination, these compelling reads explore how conspiracies seduce believers Read more
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Martin MacInnes Wins Arthur C. Clarke Award for ‘Intense Trip’ of a Novel
Scottish writer Martin MacInnes has taken home this year’s Arthur C Clarke award for what judges described as an “intense trip” of a novel, moving from the depths of the ocean to outer space. Read more
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Chattanooga Hosts Third Annual James Baldwin Festival of Words
The 3rd annual James Baldwin Festival of Words celebrates black excellence in the literary arts with a full slate of events. The festivities kick off on Friday, August 2nd at 4:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Chattanooga Public Library Downtown and is free to the public. Read more
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Are Authors Now Writing for TV Producers Rather Than Readers?
The new novel from Taffy Brodesser-Akner has all the makings of a great TV show, so it’s no wonder an adaptation is already in the works. Is the entertainment industry’s enthusiasm for snapping up novels having an impact on writers? Read more
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The Misfit Wisdom of Harry, Barry and Larry
Harry Crews, Barry Hannah and Larry Brown were part of a Southern writers’ movement that centered dissidents and outsiders. They’re still worth reading. Read more
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Jo Callaghan Wins Crime Novel of the Year with Story of an AI Detective
A “boundary-pushing take on the police procedural” which features a human detective working with an AI sleuth in order to solve a missing persons case has won the coveted Theakston Old Peculier crime novel of the year award. Read more
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‘Quincas Borba’ by Machado de Assis
A welcome, fresh translation of an overlooked classic, a superb novel of (bad) manners. Read more
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Does America Still Care About Authors?
Once upon a time, writers were celebrities; now, the role of the public intellectual has gone up in smoke. For one novelist, a glamorous trip to France showed what literary life back home could be like. Read more
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The Sports Novel is Enjoying a Renaissance
In the beginning, it was just for boys. Originating in the late nineteenth century as a popular, morally instructive piece of entertainment for preteen males, the sports novel has had a long, slow climb to respectability. Ever since it began to encroach on more elevated terrain in the middle of the twentieth century, the genre has maintained an uneasy relationship with the higher claims of literature. With its cast of larger-than-life characters, its central place in the lives of so many fans, and its mirroring of the world beyond the field, the sports universe is a rich site of inquiry for the receptive novelist. Yet the novel of athletics has only sporadically taken advantage of these possibilities. Now a wide range of writers have picked up the thread again, employing a dizzying array of stylistic and thematic approaches that have gone a long way toward refreshing the genre. Read more
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