Author: Bookfox

  • The Nobel Prize for Literature image of tag icon

    The Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday, October 11th. The best roundup of likely candidates is at the Literary Saloon, as per usual. M.A. Orthofer runs down a list of contenders, offering pros, cons, and long shots. My predictions would go in the direction of the African writer Ngugi wa Thiong’o or […]

    October 9, 2012

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  • The Ultimate Guide To Writing Better Than You Normally Do image of tag icon

    Not too serious writing advice from McSweeney’s: (this is #1 out of 10) Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your buy cheap meds pages as daily workouts. Think […]

    September 20, 2012

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  • How to Talk to Your Creative Writing Professor about your Work image of tag icon

    How to Talk to Your Creative Writing Professor about your Work (thanks, Tod Goldberg)

    September 19, 2012

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  • Salman Rushdie’s “Joseph Anton” image of tag icon

    Salman Rushdie on his new book “Joseph Anton,” which is a memoir in the third person about his time living underneath the fatwa:  

    September 18, 2012

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  • The Race of Art image of tag icon

    Imagine if I was in a race with a famous cyclist. Let’s say this cyclist is named Lance Armstrong. If the recent drug charges bother you, let’s call him Jan Ullrich or Eddy Merckx or Séan Kelly. The identity of the cyclist doesn’t matter, just that he’s renown for cycling. I am not a cyclist. I bike. Occasionally. […]

    September 17, 2012

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  • Book Art image of tag icon

    I love this book art so much (by Korean-born, London-based artist Jukhee Kwon).

    September 13, 2012

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  • Book Burning Party image of tag icon

    September 13, 2012

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  • The Space of 9/11 image of tag icon

    A lengthy if not especially scientific survey of my Facebook friends today found that most of them who posted about 9/11 focused on their location during the tragedy. They told their perspective on the situation always through the lens of space: I was at the doctor’s office when … I was in class when … I was […]

    September 11, 2012

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  • Chris Adrian’s “Grand Rounds” in Granta 120 image of tag icon

    Granta’s latest theme is “Medicine.” Who better to write about medicine than a practicing pediatrician and a man named to the New Yorker “20 under 40” list? Chris Adrian kicks off the latest issue with “Grand Rounds,” a story unlike his other fiction. It’s a transcript of a speech given to other doctors, so it’s […]

    September 3, 2012

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  • Deborah Eisenberg Teaches Us to Use Adverbs Wickedly Well image of tag icon

    Many writers have a longstanding embargo against adverbs. Too often this is analogous to the U.S./Cuba embargo: originally made for some worthwhile purpose, but as the years pass, that purpose seems less and less meaningful and more and more antiquated. Mark Twain called the overabundance of adverbs an “adverb plague”: “I am dead to adverbs; they […]

    September 1, 2012

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