How Literature Saved My Life
David Shields’s books have the power to change the way you approach all art. What separates us is not what happens to us. Pretty much the same things happen to most of us: birth, love, bad driver’s license photos, death. What separates us is how each of us thinks about what happens to us. That’s what I ...
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Riffle, Part II
So, a couple months back, I posted a long look at Riffle, the new “Pinterest for Books.” The other day, after blowing up on Bookish I went back into Riffle and played around a bit, adding some books I’ve read in recent months, and making a few lists—all with the goal of increasing my ...
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Revenge
One of the most pleasant surprises of the literary world in the past few years, at least in my opinion, is the success that Japanese author Yoko Ogawa has seen in the United States. Her breakout, modest hit The Housekeeper and the Professor received national attention and, more anecdotally, was a top-selling book for years ...
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Open Letter Love from the West Coast, Part II
I’m not even going to bother setting this one up—just read the opening of this review by Gregory Leon Miller from the San Francisco Chronicle: Quim Monz籀 might just be the best writer you’ve never heard of. One could say he’s Catalan’s best-known writer – in fact, the publicity ...
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Open Letter Love from the West Coast, Part I
A couple weeks ago, we released Zachary Karabashliev’s 18% Gray, which looks like this: and should not be confused with Anne Tenino’s 18% Gray and looks like this: Anyway, Zack’s book, which was the co-winner of the 2012 Contemporary Bulgarian Writers Contest (sponsored by the ever-wonderful ...
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ALTA Travel Fellowships
Just found this on Arabic Literature (in English): The American Literary Translators Association is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2013 ALTA Travel Fellowship Awards.1 Each year, four to six fellowships in the amount of $1,000 are awarded to beginning (unpublished or minimally ...
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Bookish: What it Isn't [Weekly Rant #1]
OK, so first off, for anyone who saw my little Facebook hissy fit last night about Bookish, I apologize. I may have overstated things a bit (yeah, I know that totally doesn’t sound like me), and jumped the gun a bit on some of my insults. That said, and before I get more fully into the Bookish conundrum, a few of the ...
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