Essay “Literature was a vast minefield occupied by enemies,” Roberto Bolaño, who enjoyed accruing enemies in the pantheon of Latin American letters, writes in the short story “Meeting with Enrique Lihn” (New Yorker, December 22, 2008): except for a few classic authors (just a few), and every day I had to walk through that minefield, where any false move could be fatal, with only the poems of Archilochus to guide me. It’s like that for all young writers. There comes a time when you have no support, not even from friends, forget about mentors, and there’s no one to give you a hand; publication, prizes, and grants are reserved for the others, the ones who said “Yes, sir,” over and over, or those who praised the literary mandarins, a never-ending horde distinguished only by their aptitude for discipline and punishment—nothing escapes them and they forgive nothing. Aptitude for discipline and punishment Bolaño himself had aplenty, too. And in spite of his precarious health, he had stamina. At a young age, he had made up his mind he would die. Who cared if he annoyed others? His mission, as is clear from The Savage Detectives (1998), was to upend that tradition, to take it by the neck and expose its platitudes. What is the use of sacred cows if not to be desecrated? Indeed, every tradition needs an enfant terrible, maybe more than one. When was the last time a rabble-rouser came along in Latin American literature? As Bolaño put it in... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-28 21:05:10 UTC ]
Today's edition of Daily Deals is sponsored by The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan Mallery.`The Boardwalk Bookshop by Susan... Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-06-02 15:17:24 UTC ]
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Some days after Barry’s death on December 25, 2020, I pulled every book of his I owned from the shelves around my apartment and stacked them on a corner of my desk. Then I walked down the hill to the used bookshop in the small Oregon town where I live and found several books of […] Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2022-05-31 16:36:03 UTC ]
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Power beaming sounds like science fiction - but one day it may be as common as receiving a text. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2022-05-28 02:26:01 UTC ]
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Rethinking old myths and accepted narratives comes with risks, but the results can be thrilling. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-05-27 20:30:15 UTC ]
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‘The Nine Billion Names of God’ is a short story by the British-born science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008). It was first published in the 1953 anthology Star Science Fiction Stories #1, before being collected in Clarke’s The Other Side of the Sky. A short tale about religion,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-05-16 14:00:02 UTC ]
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Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the most acclaimed living science fiction writers, is done with deep space narratives. His focus now is on solving real problems — like climate change. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-05-11 09:00:20 UTC ]
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Susanna Clarke’s ‘Piranesi’ is one great book that’s hard to categorize. What hard-to-classify novels do you enjoy? Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2022-05-07 12:00:25 UTC ]
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The warnings about political violence in Stephen Marche's latest book are like something out of science fiction. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-05-06 16:00:00 UTC ]
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In her new science fiction book ‘The Memory Librarian,’ the artist and Afrofuturist icon creates an apocalyptic—and hopeful—vision of the future. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2022-04-26 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Book Reviews Photo by Daniel on Unsplash Readers will naturally and, perhaps, unfortunately, wish to make connections between Sayaka Murata’s (b. 1979) newest novel, Earthlings, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Grove Press, 2021), and her... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-04-19 20:44:40 UTC ]
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L.A. transplant Stanley Rose's short-lived 1930s bookstore and boozy backroom became a literary haven for Chandler, Fante, Faulkner, West and many more. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-14 13:00:44 UTC ]
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Science fiction has a lot to say about where we'll be concerning things like technology, but what does it have to say about our food? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-04-13 10:34:00 UTC ]
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Shelf Talkers is a new series at Lit Hub where booksellers from independent bookstores around the country share their favorite reads of the moment. Here are recommendations from the staff at The Bookshop, a store in East Nashville, Tennessee, founded in 2016. * Kyle Lucia Wu, Win Me Something... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-04-11 08:51:17 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble finally has a direct answer to Amazon's purchase of Audible. The bookseller has launched a B&N Audiobooks service in the US that lets you either buy recordings or pay $15 per month for a subscription that offers one recurring monthly credit. You'll have access to more than... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-04-07 16:21:47 UTC ]
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The Hugo Award is the biggest science fiction award in the literary world, and it has just announced its 2022 finalists. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-04-07 16:12:38 UTC ]
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If you love science fiction and fantasy books, you need to have these new releases on your radar. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-04-05 10:34:00 UTC ]
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These new science fiction and fantasy novels feature Icelandic horses, memory removal and romance in the multiverse. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-04-04 09:23:07 UTC ]
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For more than a century, popular science fiction has promised us a future filled with robotics and AI technologies. In 2022, many of those dreams are being realized — computers recognize us on sight and cars can drive themselves, we’re building intelligent exoskeletons that multiply our strength... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-31 17:00:38 UTC ]
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Halo’s TV adaptation doesn't waste any time differentiating itself from the popular game franchise. We open in a rebel village bar, where patrons are discussing the evil UNSC (United Nations Space Command) and boogey-man like Spartans. It could easily be a scene from Firefly, the short-lived... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-03-25 17:17:05 UTC ]
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'Lessons from the Edge' by Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, debuts and #6 on our hardcover nonfiction list. Plus a pair of science fiction titles land on our hardcover fiction list, and comedian Seth Meyers makes his picture book debut. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-03-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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