Hiding the Body: My Susan Sontag Story, by John Weir

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 ]
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Understanding American Entrepreneurship: Spotlight on Howard Wolk and John Landry

With Launchpad Republic, the authors make a strong case for the importance of American entrepreneurship. (Sponsored) Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

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Carolina De Robertis has won the 2022 John Dos Passos Prize.

On Wednesday, the 41st John Dos Passos Prize was awarded to Uruguayan American writer Carolina De Robertis (The President and the Frog; Cantoras; The Gods of Tango) by Longwood University. The Dos Passos Prize is the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university, and every year... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-26 14:54:21 UTC ]
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Prince Harry told his story in his own words. But what happens now?

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‘Let the fun begin!’ Why did romance writer Susan Meachen fake her own death? | Arwa Mahdawi

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[ The Guardian | 2023-01-11 07:00:12 UTC ]
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PW’s Most-Read Comics Stories of 2022

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Protests won't stop Drag Queen Story Time, bookstore owner says

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Beneath Its Pink Cover, ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ Offers a Story About Power

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