Essay John Weir Adapted from a photo by Jake weirick on Unsplash Like a dead pop star, Susan Sontag left behind a lot of fans who claim they knew her. After the release last September of Benjamin Moser’s new biography, Susan Sontag: Her Life and Work, they were all over the internet, sharing stories. Writers, of course. Especially queer writers. Does every queer writer who lived in New York City and published a book sometime between 1960 and 2000 have a Sontag story? I do! Here’s mine: Eighteen years ago, shortly after she won the National Book Award for her fourth novel, In America, some of which she had been accused of plagiarizing, and a few months before she published, in the New Yorker, maybe the only response to the 9/11 attacks, in their immediate aftermath, that was worth considering, she was invited, along with John Updike and Norman Mailer, to read at Queens College CUNY, where I teach creative writing. Surely the most impressive trio of literary bigwigs of a certain era ever to read together in Flushing. Three idols. I had long regarded their work with awe and envy. In my early twenties, in the 1980s, in a studio apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, hot and airless in summer, frigid in winter, I read—eagerly, jealously—everything they wrote. I was an aspiring writer, and they were my workshop instructors and problematic literary parents. Updike’s Couples taught me how to do a party scene. Mailer’s An American... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-01-07 22:09:56 UTC ]
If your local bookstore is all sold out of its books on anti-racism, good. Finally. Backorder them for yourself. But in the meantime, the audiobook version of Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the 2016 National Book Award... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-06-04 14:34:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Bestselling author and National Book Award finalist Carmen Maria Machado will discuss the forthcoming The Low, Low Woods at BookExpo Online's Adult Book & Author Dinner. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-26 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Parisian bookstore and lending library Shakespeare and Company is digitizing decades of its records, revealing the reading habits of its famous patrons. The post The Reading Habits of Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2020-05-22 20:30:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News and Events WLT Top row (left to right): Laurie Halse Anderson, Eric Gansworth, Meg Medina. Middle row: Linda Sue Park, Mitali Perkins, Jason Reynolds. Bottom row: Cynthia Leitich Smith, Laurel Snyder, Alex Wheatle Finalists for the 2021 NSK... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-14 16:39:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Clap When You Land,” the latest novel from the National Book Award winner, delves into the split lives that many immigrants experience. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-05-04 09:00:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News and Events Top Row (left to right): Jonathan Auxier, Monica Brown, Tanita S. Davis. Middle row: Adib Khorram, Sonia Patel, Randy Ribay. Bottom row: Cynthia Weill, Tanaya Winder, Janet Wong. World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-04-14 19:33:34 UTC ]
More news stories like this
THESE TIMES: Lit Hub editor Jonny Diamond on literary community in a time of global pandemic • Ysabelle Cheung on trying to write in Hong Kong during the rise of the novel coronavirus • Italian editor Sara Reggiani on life in lock-down • How to support your local bookstores during the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-21 11:30:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this
THESE TIMES: How to support your local bookstores during the coronavirus pandemic · What China’s literary community is reading during the pandemic · The first lines of 10 classic novels rewritten for social distancing · Can’t decide what to read? Tell us your favorites and we’ll recommend a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-17 10:30:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
I had a fight with my mother the other day. In the past we had argued on many things but never politics, because we’d seldom talked about it. The video call, which started with her asking me about the outbreak in the US, ended up opening my eyes to the chasm between me and the […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-17 08:49:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
We are at the beginning of a frightening and difficult time in America. Though we glimpse—in the overflowing hospitals of Milan, the shuttered plazas of Madrid—that which may come to pass, it is impossible to know just how hard hit the United States will be by the novel coronavirus. This nation... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-16 14:00:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Today feels like one of the bad days. But as your mother always told you, silver linings hang out in the strangest of places. The brilliant Tressie McMillan Cottom, Associate Professor of Sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University, whose most recent book Thick was shortlisted for the National... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-05 18:42:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
In 2013, I corresponded with David Ferry by phone to conduct a wide-ranging interview on his poetry, translations, and literary life. He had just won the National Book Award for Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations and was still at work on Virgil’s Aeneid which he published in 2018. Today,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-03-05 09:48:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The National Book Award winner thought she was done writing. Lucky for us, she was wrong. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2020-03-02 18:09:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Author Myron Levoy, whose acclaimed YA novel ‘Alan and Naomi’ was a National Book Award finalist, has died at age 89. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-27 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Veronica Esposito Ottilie Mulzet is the principal English-language translator of Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, winner of numerous international honors. Together, they received the 2019 National Book Award in Translation for Mulzet’s... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-02-20 14:05:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s an exciting year for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes! This will be its 40th year of celebrating the literary community. The Times announced their 2019 Book Prize finalists today; the winners will be announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 17th. Additionally, bestselling crime... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-19 17:41:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Apeirogon,” the latest novel from the National Book Award winner, delves into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the eyes of two grieving fathers. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-17 13:14:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Apeirogon,” the latest novel from the National Book Award winner, will be released next week by Random House. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-02-17 11:01:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this
DANEZ SMITH’S LATEST poetry collection, Homie, is actually not titled Homie at all. As the National Book Award finalist confirms point-blank in a note on the title: “this book was titled homie because I don’t want non-black people to say my nig out loud. This book is really titled my nig.”... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-02-13 18:00:06 UTC ]
More news stories like this