Category: Writing Life

BookFox turns the venerable age of five today. Five years, thousands of books, infinite fun. Thanks to all my faithful readers. I hope that the news and books covered here inspire your journey. Year One (thoughtful account of writing energy)    

In this quirky tribute to the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, Harper’s Magazine offers a forum called “King James, Revised,” which includes three poems (Paul Guest’s on Acts 26:28 is my favorite), one dramatic retelling (John Banville re-imagines 2 Samuel 18), two essays (Marilynne Robinson weighs in on 1 Corinthians 15:51-52) and a […]

The title I stole from Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote a polemic describing his idea of the literature of commitment, by which he meant that literature needs to be politically engaged. Let me tell you a story that offers a competing vision of literature. I was teaching a Borges short story, “The Gospel According to Mark,” […]

At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Mark McGurl, the author of "The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing," responds to critics who lament the originality of writing in the contemporary fiction:  But more broadly, I think what is going on in these indictments of the mediocrity of contemporary fiction is […]

Quiz Time: Out of these six novelists, how many can you identify? (Answers at the bottom of the post). All these images are taken from the literary card game Notable Novelists. Since I’m a board game and book aficionado, it was pleasant to combine my obsessions. The rules aren’t complex — it’s a souped up […]

BookFox normally sticks to short stories and literary novels, but every once in a while I break my self-imposed limitations and dabble in other genres. Czeslaw Milosz is a poet that can make me break my own rule. An Invisible Rope: Portraits of Czeslaw Milosz is a biography consisting of remembrances from thirty-two friends, colleagues and […]

Dear Writers who post resumes/bios with “Pushcart Nominated”: Stop. You’re embarrassing the literary community. You’re embarrassing yourself. Because let’s do the math: Duotrope has 3,500 active literary journals. Let’s assume half of those submit to the Pushcart Prize. So 1,800 journals each nominating 6 stories/poetry apiece = 10,800 nominations a year.  Multiplied by the past […]

Very depressed to hear that Jeanne Leiby, editor of the Southern Review and former editor of the Florida Review, has died in a car crash. She was far too young. AP has a few more details in this stub. Remarkably, her wikipedia page has already been updated to reflect the date of her passing. She had […]

Last week, Galleycat offered a list of things to do instead of getting an MFA. They were very sensible and proper and, well, dull. So I’d like to add a few of my own. You got to see the world. You have to experience what it’s like to have $1.20 in Rio after being ripped […]

The Los Angeles Review of Books is launching today, after many backroom deals, alcoholic drinks and diatribes on the robust yet underrepresented L.A. literary scene. I’m glad to finally see the project come to fruition, because I’ve been hearing rumors for years. It’s not the full site (which you can see a mock-up if you […]