Apologies for the infrequency of posting recently. I just moved this last weekend (don’t worry, I’m still in the Los Angeles area, though not five minutes from Skylight Books, whimper, whimper) and I don’t have internet yet. My new local coffee shop is lending out some free bandwidth for this message, but posting will be […]
Carolyn Kellogg has joined the team of Jacket Copy, the LA Times book blog, where she adds to the insight of David L. Ulin and others. Check out her post comparing One Story to Ninth Letter, both great (and relatively new) journals. The LA Times also has a photo gallery of various books and bookshelves […]
So Alain Robbe-Grillet, the king of the French new novel, died on Monday at the age of 85. I find it just a little funny that back in October I wrote a piece linked to by The Guardian about Robbe-Grillet’s new novel, “Un Roman Sentimental.” The title: “And I Thought He Was Dead.” So now […]
Habitus has a new (never before translated) interview with one of my favorite short story writers of all time: Jorge Luis Borges. The Literary Saloon points out that there’s a new collection of One Minute Stories (titled More One Minute Stories — brilliant, eh?) by Örkeny Istvan, for those of you interested in Flash Fiction […]
Over at Pinky’s Paperhaus, Carolyn Kellogg had the good fortune to receive quite a lengthy comment (actually, about six comments) from Raymond Carver’s first wife, Maryann Burk Carver, clarifying and arguing on several points. Quite a interesting read.
Sorry for the slow posting here this week — I’ve been swamped with other writing projects. Hope at least that the links from Monday kept everyone busy. As for today, go over to The Short Review, which is, as its name suggests, concerned only with short story collections, and also the host of my review […]
I’ve been enjoying an advance copy of Jhumpa Lahiri’s new collection of short fiction, Unaccustomed Earth. These stories don’t significantly diverge from her previous fiction, either in theme or tone or style, but they still are moving renditions of Indian immigrants torn between being American and being Indian. Of these eight stories, only three (so […]
I decided to read Tessa Hadley’s collection Sunstroke and other Stories mainly because it had been nominated for the Short Story Prize. Hadley’s a Welsh writer that writes short stories of manners, usually with female protagonists, and always concerned about interpersonal interactions in domestic environments. Most of the stories in this collection share a theme […]
Have a very Merry Christmas, everyone. I’ll pop back in after the holidays sometime to post again, but for now, I leave you with the reading below. I’ve been hearing a lot about Will Self’s infamous walks over the past few months, and now NY Times finally has a review of his book, Psychogeography. What […]
Literary blogs come and go with some frequency and few lament their passing, but The Return of the Reluctant is one that will be missed. Edward Champion has announced he’s hanging up his spurs. Many thanks to Ed for his tireless cruising about the internet and blogosphere providing quips and tips on the eclectic drugs […]
