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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Panel Mania: 'Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History'

A 12-page excerpt of the new graphic adaptation of historian C.L.R. James’s 1934 play about the Haitian Revolution by Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-09-20 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Match These Famous Spaceships to Their Stories

A great spaceship can make a science fiction story soar. See if you can guess which stories these famous spaceships belong to. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-09-05 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Claire Keegan: ‘I can’t explain my work. I just write stories’

The much-acclaimed Irish author of Small Things Like These on her quietly devastating new story and why George Saunders wouldn’t read it aloud for a podcastClaire Keegan’s five books to date run to just 700 pages and some 140,000 words. “I love to see prose being written economically,” she tells... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
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A Trans Woman’s Shapeshifting Love Story

Aurora Mattia’s debut novel The Fifth Wound is a fantastical journey through the formulation of one trans woman’s truth. Mattia’s own recapitulation as protagonist Aurora aka @silicone_angel bridges the gap between ancient Greece, Covid-era Brooklyn, and the rolling fields of Iowa searching to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-09-01 11:00:00 UTC ]
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This course examines the dark realities behind your favorite children's stories

A lecturer in English literature gets her students to examine children’s books through the lens of race, class and sexuality. Continue reading at The Conversation

[ The Conversation | 2023-08-29 12:24:41 UTC ]
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Can Short Stories Boost Financial Literacy?

The Principal Foundation and the Center for Fiction are teaming up with French independent publisher Short Édition on a short story contest meant to entice readers to consider the almighty dollar through “the universal art form of storytelling.” Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-08-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Back from Behind Like Patrick Mahomes: A Reading List of Comeback Stories

At halftime of this year’s Super Bowl, the marquee game of the NFL season, the Kansas City Chiefs trailed the Philadelphia Eagles 24-14 in Glendale, Arizona. What transpired next was the latest remarkable comeback in the career of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, one of the most compelling... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-24 09:55:25 UTC ]
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What are Story Windows?

Story windows are something you can find at libraries and are similar to story walks, but what are they? One writer explores. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2023-08-18 10:33:00 UTC ]
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Is Jamel Brinkley the best short-story writer of his generation?

The short stories in Jamel Brinkley's second collection, 'Witness,' don't just reveal stories of violence, gentrification and racism — they put you inside them. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-08-01 13:00:50 UTC ]
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Journalist called News Corp ‘tabloid bottom feeders’ after it queried ABC’s Heston Russell stories, court hears

Defamation trial hears Mark Willacy criticised ‘Murdoch’s people’ in email to confidential source after Daily Telegraph questioned reports on ex-commandoFollow our Australia news live blog for the latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe ABC... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-08-01 05:44:11 UTC ]
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Will These Stories Ever Be the Same? A Korean Translator’s Misgivings, by Ha-yun Jung

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[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-31 22:32:27 UTC ]
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Finding a Good Story in Every Corner: A Conversation with José Eduardo Agualusa, by Anderson Tepper

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[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-24 20:01:34 UTC ]
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Stories Are All about Taking up Space: A Conversation with Ekemini Pius, by Darlington Chibueze Anuonye

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[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-20 20:08:39 UTC ]
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Finding Her #ownvoice: A Conversation with Ivy Ngeow, by Susan Blumberg-Kason

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[ World Literature Today | 2023-07-18 20:46:55 UTC ]
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See the cover for Mary Rechner’s new collection of short stories, Marrying Friends.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-11 15:00:43 UTC ]
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A rare Maurice Sendak story will be published next year.

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-22 13:53:52 UTC ]
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Netflix’s ‘3 Body Problem’ first look confirms January 2024 premiere

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[ Engadget | 2023-06-17 21:39:27 UTC ]
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Ashleigh Nugent: ‘Black stories were always about London’

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[ The Guardian | 2023-06-17 17:00:19 UTC ]
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Sharing Their Stories: Close-Up on 'Journeying in China'

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Nathaniel Rich Reads His Story Hidden Bayou

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[ Literrary Hub | 2023-06-12 08:51:53 UTC ]
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