Five takeaways from Don DeLillo’s Guardian interview
Don DeLillo, possibly, probably, nearly ok definitely the greatest living male American writer gave a rare interview to the Guardian’s theatre critic Xan Brooks. The occasion for the interview was for another… Read more »
An Interview with BookCourt’s Zack Zook
The news hit hard earlier this week: BookCourt, a beloved Brooklyn indie bookstore that has for thirty-five years stared down the ravages of Amazon, gentrification, and other forces of darkness, will be closing its doors at the end of this month.… Read more »
It’s Booker time!
The Man Booker Prize 2016 longlist was announced yesterday at noon. The Booker “dozen” of thirteen novels was chosen from 155 submissions, published in the UK between 1 October 2015 and 30… Read more »
Pulitzer Prize Board: Respect our authority!
Last week, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced the winners of the 2015 prizes. The fiction award went to Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See—which was hailed in these… Read more »
The Bronx now has zero bookstores UPDATE: It has one bookstore again!
UPDATE: Barnes & Noble is not closing its Bronx store after all. As reported in the New York Times, the Bronx now has no bookstore. (No disrespect to The Lair—for purposes… Read more »
From Kafka to DeLillo: A small list of writers who rejected their own work
It’s not so surprising that admirers of a famous person’s work can become interested in that person’s personal life. Maybe they want to further explore what makes their favorite playwright… Read more »
David Cronenberg becomes novelist; other directors decide to pull a Cronenberg
Decades from now, you’ll probably be asked where you were the day David Cronenberg’s debut novel was published. Naturally, there will only be one right answer to this question: “reading… Read more »
Stanford Center for Ethics panel finds that reading literature makes you a better bully
From time to time, a group of philosophers or radio commentators or neuroscientists at loose ends will get together and discuss the question of whether or not reading literature makes… Read more »
Ten highlights from David Bowie’s reading list (set to David Bowie’s music)
David Bowie’s 100-book list is already getting extensive praise for its breadth, but in case you don’t have time to read them all here are a few select pairings for… Read more »
Fighting the blank page: how famous writers stopped procrastinating
Do you tell people you’re writing a novel? It might be better to go with something like, “I am trying to write a novel,” because if you are indeed tackling… Read more »