Clik here to view.
From Potter to Tartt to Ferrante
“What was The Goldfinch of last year?” A friend and editor of mine asked me this over email as he prepared an overview of the year’s publishing trends. I tried to think of if there was one. I wrote...
View ArticleAgainst Wunderkinds
I. “Don’t be a child prodigy,” my uncle said, knowing I was in danger of becoming a child prodigy. “They typically have short careers.” This felt like too little too late, because by the time he said...
View ArticleBeyond Gay Marriage
This morning, no matter the ruling the Supreme Court returns with on marriage equality, few calls to action are as necessary as the one in Michelangelo Signorile’s new book, It’s Not Over: Getting...
View ArticleIn Defense of the Present Tense
In 2010, the novelist Philip Hensher complained that half of that year’s Man Booker nominees were novels written in the present tense. He insulted the choice, dismissing it as only fashionable. Hensher...
View ArticlePeter Carey: Punk Rock Novelist
This year, Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program marks its 25th anniversary. In celebration, they’ve asked some of their favorite writers to take a fresh look at a few of the works...
View ArticleNom de Vie: Literary Social Media in the Age of Ferrante
The London Review of Books Bookshop blog has the entirety of a letter Elena Ferrante sent her press when they were preparing to publish her first novel. After an introductory paragraph, in which she...
View ArticleOn Buying Books from the Dead
In the last year I was a visiting writer at Amherst College, I found I needed some of Freud’s work on dreams, jokes and memory for a class I was teaching on comics and the graphic novel. I discovered a...
View ArticleThe Tournament of Literary Sex Writing: Philip Roth vs. James Salter
ERA III: Lolita and Everything After PHILIP ROTH VS. JAMES SALTER Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth Finally it is The Monkey who sets our lust in motion. She moves across to Lina, above whom she...
View ArticleFirst Dance: Alexander Chee on Hearing Prince for the First Time
I first discovered Prince in the fall of 1983, when my friend Stacey came walking into our theater classroom in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and put down her boombox proudly, telling us we had to listen to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Waters: “I think I am weirdly politically correct”
Not quite two years ago, John Waters, the legendary filmmaker, writer and self-described “filth elder,” had a viral moment (of the good kind)—his 2015 Rhode Island School of Design commencement speech,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
From Potter to Tartt to Ferrante
“What was The Goldfinch of last year?” A friend and editor of mine asked me this over email as he prepared an overview of the year’s publishing trends. I tried to think of if there was one. I wrote...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Against Wunderkinds
I. “Don’t be a child prodigy,” my uncle said, knowing I was in danger of becoming a child prodigy. “They typically have short careers.” This felt like too little too late, because by the time he said...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Beyond Gay Marriage
This morning, no matter the ruling the Supreme Court returns with on marriage equality, few calls to action are as necessary as the one in Michelangelo Signorile’s new book, It’s Not Over: Getting...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In Defense of the Present Tense
In 2010, the novelist Philip Hensher complained that half of that year’s Man Booker nominees were novels written in the present tense. He insulted the choice, dismissing it as only fashionable. Hensher...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Peter Carey: Punk Rock Novelist
This year, Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program marks its 25th anniversary. In celebration, they’ve asked some of their favorite writers to take a fresh look at a few of the works...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nom de Vie: Literary Social Media in the Age of Ferrante
The London Review of Books Bookshop blog has the entirety of a letter Elena Ferrante sent her press when they were preparing to publish her first novel. After an introductory paragraph, in which she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
On Buying Books from the Dead
In the last year I was a visiting writer at Amherst College, I found I needed some of Freud’s work on dreams, jokes and memory for a class I was teaching on comics and the graphic novel. I discovered a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Tournament of Literary Sex Writing: Philip Roth vs. James Salter
ERA III: Lolita and Everything After PHILIP ROTH VS. JAMES SALTER Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth Finally it is The Monkey who sets our lust in motion. She moves across to Lina, above whom she...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First Dance: Alexander Chee on Hearing Prince for the First Time
I first discovered Prince in the fall of 1983, when my friend Stacey came walking into our theater classroom in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and put down her boombox proudly, telling us we had to listen to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Waters: “I think I am weirdly politically correct”
Not quite two years ago, John Waters, the legendary filmmaker, writer and self-described “filth elder,” had a viral moment (of the good kind)—his 2015 Rhode Island School of Design commencement speech,...
View Article