Interviews Photo by Diane Picchiottino / Unsplash That Famous Abyss (Wunderkammer, 2020) is a book of exclusive interviews with Enrique Vila-Matas by cultural journalist Anna María Iglesia, covering such themes as why write, the places of literature, the art of disappearing, and the poetics of failure. The result is a text that is equally reflective as it is biographical and intimate, filled with the great names of literature and art alongside personal anecdotes and memories of the author. The following exchange appears in chapter 1, “Why Write?” Anna María Iglesia: Why do you write? Enrique Vila-Matas: Do I need to tell the truth? Iglesia: Of course not. In fact, this is not a biography. Vila-Matas: Much better, then. Iglesia: A few years ago, when asked this same question by a journalist, you answered: “In some remote time, some ancestor made that first loop. We are nothing but their imitators, a link in the uninterrupted chain of tradition. So the one who needs to be asked as to why I write is that ancestor; ask him why he wanted to move beyond that knot.”[i] Vila-Matas: Well, I imagine that finding that ancestor will prove impossible for you. I see it like someone who spoke in the name of God. As far as I can go, I think, is to try to speak in the language of poetry, that language without name. Look, in reality, I’ve spent my whole life unaware of why I write, to the degree that, when my parents died, I discovered in... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-29 21:46:44 UTC ]
In the mood for bite-sized entertainment? Essays about nature and outstanding short stories make for deep but quick listening this month. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-11-24 20:14:50 UTC ]
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“The Office of Historical Corrections,” an extraordinary new collection of fiction, examines alienation and the phantasmagoria of racial performance. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2020-11-21 16:01:38 UTC ]
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Short stories are a complex form, one that author and professor Danielle Evans continues to show herself adept in. The ever-shifting opportunities of short fiction are evident in Evans’s work, from her debut collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self to her latest, The Office of... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-20 12:00:00 UTC ]
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This morning, Publishers Marketplace reported that two-time Booker Prize winner and historical fiction supremo Hilary Mantel has a new short story collection on the horizon. Learning to Talk, which will be released by Holt at some point next year, is billed as “a collection of loosely... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-18 18:07:12 UTC ]
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In a ceremony streamed live on Facebook, Souvankham Thammavongsa was awarded the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her collection of short stories 'How to Pronounce Knife.' It comes with a C$100,000 prize. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-10 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Intern’s Picks Andrzej Sapkowski The Last Wish Trans. Danusia Stok Sword of Destiny Trans. David French Orbit “And our destiny. It isn’t a fairy story, it’s real life. Lousy, evil, onerous . . . not sparing anyone, neither witchers, nor queens” (Sword... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-11-04 14:28:19 UTC ]
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Cultural Cross Sections From the town of Kaikoura on the South Island / Photo by the author New Zealand may be best known to many as Middle Earth (and that’s not a bad rep to have), but the country has much more than just the snowcapped Pass of... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-11-03 17:25:10 UTC ]
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Since its publication in 1990, Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a linked collection of semi-autobiographical short stories about the Vietnam War, has become a modern classic—in fact, its title story is the most frequently anthologized piece of short fiction in the last three decades, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-03 15:27:57 UTC ]
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We asked for your favorite short stories and got a long list! Here are 53 of the most outstanding short stories our readers have read. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-11-02 11:31:00 UTC ]
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Welcome to the virtual book launch of Tiny Nightmares: Very Short Tales of Horror, brought to you by The Antibody Reading Series in collaboration with WORD Bookstore (buy from the bookstore here). Tonight’s guests include editors Lincoln Michel and Nadxieli Nieto, along with contributors Meg... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-10-29 23:30:17 UTC ]
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Speak to us, oh lovers of short fiction: what are the most outstanding short stories you've read? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-27 10:31:00 UTC ]
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These short stories by Black authors include some of the best Black short stories published, for middle graders, YA readers, and adults. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-10-16 10:37:00 UTC ]
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The longing for connection, for belonging, is woven throughout a dozen short stories in Caroline Kim’s superlative debut collection. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-10-13 22:35:50 UTC ]
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The longing for connection, for belonging, is woven throughout a dozen short stories in Caroline Kim’s superlative debut collection. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-10-13 22:35:50 UTC ]
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The longing for connection, for belonging, is woven throughout a dozen short stories in Caroline Kim’s superlative debut collection. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-10-13 22:35:50 UTC ]
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“You think you’ve known someone for a long time,” a character in one of Jenny Bhatt’s short stories says of her Indian colleague shortly after he’s shot dead by a white man in a bar. “Maybe he never really took to us. Never really became one of us.” Turn by turn, each of his white […] The post... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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What lengths will we go to in order to belong? To be part of something exclusive? To be part of a sisterhood or brotherhood? That’s the searing question that authors Benjamin Nugent and Genevieve Sly Crane try to answer in their books about college Greek life. Nugent’s Fraternity, a collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-10-02 11:00:00 UTC ]
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From The New Yorker’s archive: short stories by Zadie Smith, Jennifer Egan, and Stephen King. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2020-08-30 10:00:00 UTC ]
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The Little Mermaid sacrifices her tail for a human soul. The Navajo Changing Woman grows old and is reborn with the seasons. The nymph Daphne becomes a tree to escape lovesick Apollo. Women transform because we are hungry. We transform because we’re restless, and because we’re dangerous. Women... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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From The New Yorker’s archive: short stories by Zadie Smith, Jennifer Egan, and Stephen King. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2020-08-16 10:00:00 UTC ]
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