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 ]
Interviews The creative writing of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having sanctioned the passage of text from paper to digital support. But is it really true that the author’s cards have disappeared? And how do contemporary authors write... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-08 20:43:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Book Reviews Antoine-François-Jean Claudet, [Multiple Exposures of the Moon] (1846–52), daguerreotype, 2019.47, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, through Joyce and Robert Menschel / Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Queer... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-01 20:37:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A nonbinary teenager on their way home from an eating -disorder treatment center who tries to convince a stranger she is not a vampire, an aspiring fashion designer/dry-cleaning worker who develops an obsession with a customer, a community of people with Hansen’s disease that welcome and attempt... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-01-27 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Independent press Scratch Books, "dedicated to the art of the short story", is to launch in London in March, kicking off with an event featuring authors including Irenosen Okojie and Sarah Hall. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2022-01-24 22:49:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Want to be a fly on our bookshelf? These are the novels, short stories, essays and cookbooks that writers and editors are reading this year. Continue reading at The Huffington Post
[ The Huffington Post | 2022-01-24 10:45:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Death is a common theme in literature, and many of the finest writers of short fiction have explored the fear, event, and aftermath of death using the short-story form. Below, we select and introduce ten of the very best classic short stories which have death as their theme, ranging from […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-01-19 15:00:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Deadline has reported that Jessica Chastain, through her cutely named production company Freckle Films, has beaten out several others to the TV rights to Jessamine Chan’s The School for Good Mothers. The School for Good Mothers, published this week by Simon & Schuster, is Chan’s debut novel;... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-01-05 16:49:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Exploring the diversity of The Atlantic’s original fiction: Your weekly guide to the best in books Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2021-12-31 15:24:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The stories of the US short-story writer O. Henry, real name William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), are characterised by their irony and by their surprise endings, which became something of a signature of a good O. Henry short story. However, another word that is often used to describe O. Henry’s... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-12-31 15:00:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Spanning dreamy teenagers to furious parents, violence to kindness, each of the ten short stories in Five Tuesdays in Winter is rendered with Lily King’s signature longing and wit. We are all learning to carry our grief, this collection argues, yet still hoping to scrape together a few more... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-12-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The best stories by the American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) are written in spare, clear prose, using short sentences and plain dialogue. This is a trademark feature of Hemingway’s style in his short stories and novels. But what are Hemingway’s very best stories? He wrote dozens of short... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-12-15 15:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Novelists and short-story writers have created some classic narratives about man’s best friend, the dog. But what are the very best stories and novels about dogs? Where should we begin in assessing the classic, canonical literature that features dogs? From Homer’s Odyssey onwards – where the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-12-03 15:00:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this
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... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-29 21:46:44 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Inspired by another Rioter's bookish rituals, I'm trying my own. I wake up earlier than usual to enjoy a slow morning reading short stories. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-11-18 11:36:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s astonishing debut novel, The House of Rust, winner of the inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize, arrived in October as if on a magical wave, imbued with an assortment of creatures—human and animal, real and... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-11-15 21:42:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Take a kaleidoscope, peer inside its lens and turn the dial: the jeweled-mosaic pattern within deforms and reforms anew. Asako Serizawa mirrored her debut short story collection Inheritors after this complex design. Out of chronological sequence, the thirteen short stories locate twelve related... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-11-11 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
These free short stories by your favorite authors will entice and enchant you with bookkeeping aliens, ant writing, and sentient drones. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-11-10 11:34:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The 2021 shortlists have been revealed for the Staunch Prize’s unpublished flash fiction and short stories without violence to women, while the original book prize is on hold until 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-01 12:22:21 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Under new leadership experienced in TV and film, Condé Nast’s entertainment arm is working more closely with its publications to develop articles and short stories into shows and movies. The post How Agnes Chu and Helen Estabrook are breaking Condé Nast Entertainment further into Hollywood... Continue reading at Digiday
[ Digiday | 2021-10-26 04:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
What are the best places to begin exploring the wonderful world of science fiction? Some of the classic novels of the genre, from Frank Herbert’s Dune to Asimov’s Foundation series (which eventually stretched to seven volumes), might appear daunting because of their sheer size and scope. Below,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2021-10-20 14:00:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this