Keeping a Critical Eye on Brazil: A Conversation with Emilio Fraia, by Anderson Tepper

Interviews Emilio Fraia’s Sevastopol, out this summer from New Directions, is the sort of book that beguiles and dazzles in equal measure. Consisting of three disparate stories—of a mountain climber attempting to scale Mt. Everest, a mysterious loner who vanishes into the Brazilian countryside, and an avant-garde production set during the Crimean War—the book is an enigma: Is it a linked collection, a “novel-in-stories,” or something else entirely? Fluidly translated by Zoë Perry, the work came together over an extended period, with sections first published in Granta’s Best Young Brazilian Novelists issue in 2012 and the New Yorker in 2019. Fraia, who lives in São Paulo, spoke over email about Sevastopol, the shadowy realms of fiction, and the “Fora Bolsonaro” movement, among other things. Anderson Tepper: Emilio, before I ask you about the book, I want to know how things are in Brazil right now and what is happening with the pandemic. Emilio Fraia: So far, some 560,000 Brazilians have died, the direct result of Bolsonaro’s criminal conduct during the pandemic. He has made countless statements against the vaccine, against wearing masks, and in favor of ineffective drug therapies. At no point during this tragedy has the president uttered a single word of true grief for victims of the virus. And as if that weren’t enough, now his government is embroiled in a bribery scandal involving the purchase of overpriced vaccines, and every... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-09 20:31:30 UTC ]

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I Can’t Offer Up My Culture for Consumption

As I prepare for the paperback launch of my debut novel The Girls in Queens, I share with a group of writers and artists that I’m putting together a Book Club Kit. This has become a fairly common digital offering; a colorful PDF of brief insights from the author, a recipe or two related to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2023-07-25 11:12:00 UTC ]
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An annotated copy of Virginia Woolf’s difficult debut novel shows her evolution in action.

Virginia Woolf’s first novel, The Voyage Out, was published in the UK in 1915, after which she wanted to tweak some passages for the printing of the US edition. We know this thanks to the work of unsung hero Simon Cooper, a metadata officer at the University of Sydney, who found Woolf’s own copy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-07-24 17:39:46 UTC ]
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Married to the mob: the rise of the smartphone in fiction

They interrupt narrative and disrupt plot – no wonder novelists have been slow to warm to mobile phones. But a new generation is putting technology at the heart of their workWhat do you call a phone when it rings in a fictional world? “Mobile” and “cell” are old, “smartphone” is almost a... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-22 10:00:09 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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Finding Her #ownvoice: A Conversation with Ivy Ngeow, by Susan Blumberg-Kason

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Sarah Silverman and novelists sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for ingesting their books

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[ ABC News | 2023-07-12 22:32:35 UTC ]
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Sarah Silverman and novelists sue ChatGPT-maker OpenAI for ingesting their books

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RIP to one of the great horny novelists of the 20th century, Milan Kundera.

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The Morning After: The Amazon Prime Day deals worth your time and money

It’s back and here to ruin our savings and increase the gadgets in our homes. Yes, Amazon Prime Day isn’t entirely about headphones, tablets and wearables, but for Engadget staff… well, it feels like it is. Prime Day deals on tech are typically only matched by Black Friday and Cyber Monday... Continue reading at Engadget

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Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta over copyright infringement

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This L.A. pharmacist's debut novel is loaded with sex and drugs. Don't tell her boss

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Letting a Wild Ride Be a Wild Ride: A Conversation with Amy Spangler, by Ipek Sahinler & Iclal Vanwesenbeeck

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Why a librarian’s debut novel explores forgiving the unforgivable

Debut novelist Terah Shelton Harris used to believe some actions were unforgivable. Then her mind was changed by survivors of a church shooting and a friend who was sexually assaulted. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2023-07-05 15:56:20 UTC ]
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Searching for Intimacy in the Gig Economy

Kathleen Cheng is having a hell of a Saturn Return. The late-20s protagonist of Jenny Xie’s debut novel Holding Pattern has just been dumped by the man she thought she’d spend her life with. Unmoored and questioning, she drops out of her cognitive psychology graduate program on the East Coast... Continue reading at Electric Literature

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Bestselling authors Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay sue OpenAI over copyright infringement

Two bestselling novelists filed a suit against OpenAI, claiming the company used intellectual property to 'train' its artificial intelligence chatbot. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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Yomi Adegoke: ‘There’s something inherently cringe about writing fiction’

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French newspaper staff strike after ‘far-right personality’ made editor

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Robert Gottlieb obituary

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Tom Rachman's debut novel was a joyful triumph. In his fourth, cynicism seeps in

Tom Rachman's 'The Imposters,' about an aging novelist spinning alternate histories, bears faint echoes of his acclaimed debut, 'The Imperfectionists.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

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Authors leave Hungarian publisher in protest at sale to Orbán-linked college

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[ The Guardian | 2023-06-23 11:38:44 UTC ]
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