Resist Tyranny, Read Dangerously

When I got to an age where I could read the same books as my mom, she started passing them along to me after she had finished. One of the books she gave me was Reading Lolita in Tehran by New York Times best-selling author Azar Nafisi, a book that I remember not only for […] The post Resist Tyranny, Read Dangerously appeared first on Electric Literature. Continue reading at 'Electric Literature'

[ Electric Literature | 2022-03-08 12:00:00 UTC ]

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By Telling New Stories, We Build a New Future

In order to fit more texts into my Asian American literature course, I sometimes assign the play adaptation of Jessica Hagedorn’s novel Dogeaters. The novel is canonized within Asian American literature and features an imagined version of the Philippines made from film and radio tropes, found... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-17 11:00:54 UTC ]
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The Back Story Behind ‘Transcendent Kingdom’: Yaa Gyasi Is a Solid Friend

Loyalty spurred the best-selling author to visit a neuroscientist’s lab. What she saw there inspired her next narrator. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-09-17 09:00:05 UTC ]
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A Scientist Tries to Understand Her Family Problems Through Mice

Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel Homegoing told the story of two branches of a Ghanaian family, one descended from a woman who marries a white slave trader and whose line stays in Ghana, another descended from her half-sister who is captured and sent to America in bondage. Gyasi’s second novel... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-09-11 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Numerous Poetic Facts About Swine

Pigs They are born in a flood of magma. They claw their way to the center of the earth. They don’t know what a blouse is, and they don’t care. There are seventeen constellations named for their kin. They coordinate all the Monday briefings. When they read the wrong books, they return them to... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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10 Short Stories About Women’s Transformations

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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“Breasts and Eggs” Grapples with the Weird Mess of Women’s Bodies

Though you’ve probably only learned Mieko Kawakami’s name recently, with the release of Breasts and Eggs from renowned indie press Europa Editions, she’s been a well-known figure in the Japanese literary world for several years. Haruki Murakami called her his favorite young novelist, and the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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9 New Translated Books by Women

August is Women in Translation month, dedicated to works of literature originally written by women in languages other than English. As we explained in our 2018 version of this list, such works make up a tiny percentage of the books published in the United States each year, though with increased... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-26 11:00:00 UTC ]
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A Novel About Rebelling Against Toxic Positivity

Janet, the acerbic narrator of Lucie Britsch’s debut novel Sad Janet, is a resister. She’s sad—has been for most of her life—and doesn’t want to take the pills that big pharma, her mother, and the culture at-large is pushing on her to “fix” her. She’s content with sadness, and she’s not into the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-26 11:00:00 UTC ]
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7 Books About Being Young and Messy in New York

My memoir is not unique. But only in the sense that my story unfolds with New York City as the backdrop, where so many other stories have unfolded and will continue to unfold long after I’m gone. That’s the beauty of this multilayered city: it unravels you, and no one’s unraveling is alike. Yes,... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-25 11:00:12 UTC ]
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It’s Time for Disabled Writers to Tell Their Own Stories

Alice Wong’s work as an activist, podcaster, writer, qualitative researcher, and editor is on full display in her new anthology Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century. Her new anthology is an extension of the projects she’s become known when it comes to always... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-19 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Delicate Balancing Act of Black Women’s Memoir

As Crown Publishing predicted, readers eagerly anticipated Michelle Obama’s Becoming. Autobiography and memoir are best selling categories because virtually everyone enjoys learning about the private life of public figures. In this case, many were curious about the woman who seemed to rise above... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-12 11:00:00 UTC ]
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An Unconventional Love Story, Told In Trinidadian Dialect

Ingrid Persaud made the grandest of debuts in the literary world by winning the BBC Short Story Award in 2018 with “The Sweet Sop,” the first short story she ever wrote. After this extremely auspicious beginning, the Trinidad-born writer, whose resume includes stints in legal academia and art... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-08-04 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Stephenie Meyer Is Telling Edward’s Story, Even if It Makes Her Anxious

The best-selling author talks about her latest book, “Midnight Sun,” which retells “Twilight” from the vampire’s perspective. Why now? “Because I finished it,” she says. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-08-03 09:00:19 UTC ]
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A Queer Memoir About Navigating Toxic Masculinity

I met David Adjmi at a fancy writing residency. The kind of place where you work all day alone and then eat dinner together, have a drink in the parlor afterwards. I remember a night when someone suggested watching a movie. As people were perusing the house copy of the criterion collection... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-31 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Emma Straub on the Future of Indie Bookstores

Emma Straub is a New York Times bestselling author and owner of the beloved independent bookstore, Books Are Magic in Brooklyn. Her latest novel, All Adults Here, explores the complexity of love for your family, the love for yourself, and for the town you grew up in.  The story revolves around... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-30 11:00:00 UTC ]
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It’s Time to Radically Rethink Online Book Events

Before the stay-at-home orders came down in Baltimore, the last thing I did in person was participate in a panel conversation about—ironically—“art and the apocalypse.” In retrospect, we should have cancelled, but the threat in Maryland still felt surreal; those were the days when it seemed like... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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This mundane task taught me the most powerful productivity hack

Podcast host and best-selling author Pat Flynn explains three reasons why a common productivity practice actually doesn’t work. Years ago, when my wife, April, and I were getting married, we decided to DIY our wedding invitations to cut down on cost. What I didn’t know at the time was that this... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2020-07-23 05:00:48 UTC ]
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Ann and Jeff VanderMeer on Fantasy’s Influence on Today’s Literature

At Electric Literature, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer take a look at fantasy’s impact on comtemporary pop culture, in their introduction to the new collection, The Big Book of Modern Fantasy. “Fantasy becomes something of use to a writer to make a political or social statement,” they write. “It’s not... Continue reading at The Millions

[ The Millions | 2020-07-20 20:30:05 UTC ]
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Learn to Write Fiction

It’s time to stop talking about writing and write. The best-selling author of “Prep” and “Rodham” offers a plan. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-07-18 14:00:06 UTC ]
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How Fantasy Literature Helped Create the 21st Century

The following is the introduction to The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, to be published by Vintage Books on July 21, 2020. Introduction copyright (c) 2020 by VanderMeer Creative, Inc. Fantasy is a broad and various category that on the one hand can feature... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-07-16 11:00:00 UTC ]
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