Author: Bookfox

  • Roberto Bolano’s 2666 image of tag icon

    I’m rereading Roberto Bolano’s 2666, and I love this passage so much I’m going to share it with you: “It was raining in the quadrangle, and the quadrangular sky looked like the grimace of a robot or a god made in our own likeness. The oblique drops of rain slid down the blades of grass […]

    May 20, 2013

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  • “Making a Literary Life” image of tag icon

    This is from “Making a Literary Life,” by Carolyn See: “Your ego is a big, messy, undisciplined, anxiety-ridden dog. It barks and whines and pees on the floor and sheds all over the furniture and takes nips at passing strangers and goes crazy when it see another dog that might be bigger or smarter or […]

    May 16, 2013

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  • How To Give Up A Novel image of tag icon

    Spend four hours reading your novel. Feel abjectly depressed about its suckitude. Wrestle with 1) the feeling that you should give it up 2) the feeling that you have nothing else going for you. Mope around the house. Frown at your twins. Rethink your life and career. Consider being a house husband and nothing else. […]

    May 14, 2013

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  • Walden, a Video Game about Henry David Thoreau image of tag icon

    If you’ve ever wanted to play a first-person game based on Thoreau’s Walden, here’s your chance. The teaser below shows some clips from the game where you try to live like Thoreau:

    April 30, 2013

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  • Should I Go To Grad School? image of tag icon

    From an article by Joshua Rothman in The New Yorker about whether or not to go to Graduate School: Last week, one of my college friends, who now manages vast sums at a hedge fund, visited me. He’s the most rational person I know, so I asked him how he would go about deciding whether to […]

    April 27, 2013

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  • Interview with Peter Levine, author of “The Appearance of a Hero” image of tag icon

    Peter Levine recently published “The Appearance of a Hero,” a collection of linked short stories revolving around the central character of Tom Mahoney. In an unusual move, none of the stories are told from Tom’s perspective, but only from the perspective of those surrounding him. It’s really a fantastic collection — alternating between tender and […]

    April 22, 2013

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  • 33 Mistakes You Can Make While Attempting To Write A Short Story image of tag icon

    Trying to cram a novella into the space of a short story Knowing that you’ve tried to cram a novella into the space of a short story space yet refusing to write the novella Writing five, non-overlapping drafts without reaching a workable story Reading “Heart of Darkness” eight times while writing this story before realizing […]

    April 1, 2013

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  • Publishers of Short Story Collections image of tag icon

    I’ve added a new page for short story collection publishers in the right sidebar. This isn’t meant as a substitute for the legwork necessary to determine where to send your collection — the best research is to check the publisher of your favorite collections — but hopefully it might help some people at the beginning […]

    March 14, 2013

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  • Garrett Calcaterra on E-books and E-publishing image of tag icon

    Garrett Calcaterra is a fantastic editor and writer. I should know: I’ve been in a writing group with him for the last five years. I’ve got a lot of respect for him because he works harder than anyone else I know, both at writing literary fiction and fantasy/speculative fiction, not to mention all the editing he […]

    March 7, 2013

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  • A Guide to Interpreting Literary Journal Submission Guidelines image of tag icon

    Free Online Submission Interpretation: We really like you and respect you. There are diamonds in the slush pile and we want to find them. It’s virtually free for us to accept online submissions so we won’t charge you on some trumped up charge. We get undergrads and MFA students to wade through all the slush […]

    February 25, 2013

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