Lavie Tidhar Considers the Past, Present, and Future of Jewish Writers in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Read more
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Author: GR
For novelist-podcaster Marlon James, it’s Dead Writer Summer
…“Marlon & Jake Read Dead People,” the deeply literary, deeply fun podcast about books by writers of the past. In this second season, they’ll turn to books new to at least one of them, along with some quirkier choices — while sticking to their theme of speaking candidly of the dead. Read more
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For Literary Novelists the Past Is Pressing
For the past two decades, the novels celebrated for defining our time have almost always been books set within our time, from Jonathan Franzen’s voluminous social comedies to Sally Rooney’s smartly self-knowing novels and the seam of contemporary autofiction that has run between them. Historical fiction, by contrast, has not been in fashion. Or, rather, it has been seen as its own fusty fashion, relentlessly uncontemporary and easy to caricature, filled with mothballed characters who wear costumes rather than clothes, use words like “Prithee!” while having modern-day thoughts, and occasionally encounter villains immediately recognizable by their yellow teeth or suspicious smell. Read more
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Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
To the growing genre of drug-riddled fiction—Irvine Welsh, Denis Johnson, Joel Mowdy, Nico Walker—Krauze adds a flourish, a kind of harsh music, with his use of gang argot … A gritty read for its gore, drugs, and profanity, but possessed of a raw and honest eloquence. Read more
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Dante in the dock: Why Florence wants to clear the poet’s name
Seven hundred years after the poet’s death, many believe he should be exonerated of the crimes for which he was exiled from Florence. Was he the victim of a conspiracy? Read more
Minnesota writer Louise Erdrich wins Pulitzer for her novel ‘The Night Watchman’
Minnesota writer Louise Erdrich won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction Friday for her novel “The Night Watchman,” a glowing and multilayered novel based on the life of her grandfather, Aunishenaubay Patrick Gourneau. Read more
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Reading Books About… People Reading Books?
…the best biblio-memoirs are a wonderfully quirky mix of autobiography, travel writing, literary criticism, self-help and immersion journalism. The list that follows includes books which push the genre boundaries, which explore and explode the form. So often books stay in our head precisely because we do not know exactly what they are. Read more
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Oxford University Press to end centuries of tradition by closing its printing arm
Oxford University’s right to print books was first recognised in 1586, in a decree from the Star Chamber. But the centuries-old printing history of Oxford University Press will end this summer, after the publishing house announced the last vestige of its printing arm was closing. Read more
2021 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced
Lambda Literary announced the winners of the 33rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards, known as the “Lammys,” on June 1 at a ceremony hosted by Rakesh Satyal, who won a Lambda Literary Award for his debut novel, Blue Boy. Read more
Black Barbecue Gets Its Due in an Inspiring New Cookbook
The first book from renowned pitmaster and chef Rodney Scott puts a long-neglected keystone of Black American culture on the table. Read more
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