On August 2nd, I tweeted my condolences to VQR when I learned about the suicide of their Managing Editor, Kevin Morrissey. But now, as more information has been revealed by the Chronicle of Higher Education, it appears that Morrissey had been making complaints to HR about bullying in the workplace by his boss, Ted Genoways. Genoways […]
Remember How Publishers Complained About Kindle's Text-To-Voice-Reading? Well, Apple's iBooks can do the same thing, but there hasn't been nearly as big of an uproar. As David Pogue writes in the New York Times: "Now swipe down the page with two fingers to make the iPhone start reading the book to you, out loud, with a […]
Michel Houellebecq has a new novel coming out in France in September, a month in which apparently 2/3 of new novels are published in France (!). No ETA for the English translation or even an English title (in French, La carte et le territoire, which translates to Map and Territory), but the Independent reports that the […]
Many people have complained that e-readers don’t advertise your taste in books like traditional books do, but a handmade Kindle case might give your fellow subway/bus passenger a general sense of your aesthetics. With a bit of ingenuity, I imagine these could even be reshaped to fit the iPad. Not that the iPad needs any dressing […]
When I was up in Vancouver last week, the city was plastered with signs advertising Douglas Coupland. Except the word attached to his name — Roots — wasn’t a book I was familiar with. Didn’t he just publish Generation A? (another go around at defining a generation, piggybacking on Generation X). But then I figured out […]
BookFox is going to be on a summer break for the next two weeks, since I’m going on some writing retreats. Please visit some of the links in the adjacent columns for your literary fix. Much literary love, Fox
Mentor: A Memoir, by Tom Grimes, is a tribute to a great teacher and writer, an inside dish on Iowa/agents/deals, an anatomy of a mental breakdown, and a tour-de-force through the famous: Marilynne (never Robinson), Mailer (never Norman), Charlie (Charles D’Ambrosio), and Frank (Conroy). It’s such a mesmerizing book I read it in one sitting. […]
There’s a controversy over Dostoevsky murals in a Moscow subway, because some people think they are too depressing and could attract the suicidal. Unfortunately, I read about twenty articles and none of them actually provided the photos, which you would think would be a primary goal of journalism — actually enabling readers to make their […]
The July/August issue of Poets and Writers highlights Ploughshares’ recent move to online submission, but neglects to mention that they started charging $3 for this submission type. I would think that would be pertinent information, especially considering that Ploughshares waives the fee for subscribers, which is an excellent addendum that I haven’t seen in the […]
This is a shake-up — David Ulin, the books section editor at the LA Times, is shifting to a book reviewing role. (And the dark hues and shadows of the photo seem rather noirish, don't you think?) I'm glad that he'll get more chances to write, since his occasional essays are always a delight. And I'm sure […]
