-- George Packer writes about Depression literature and journalism, comparing the 1930s to our era now. Above, an unemployment line in Kansas City -- the kind of jarring manifestation of hard times that is less present in our public space these days, despite similar economic hardship; Packer discusses how this influences the different ways we're telling stories now. Appalachia, Detroit, Edmund Wilson, James Agee, and Occupy all discussed in the piece. The article is behind a New Yorker subscription wall, but if you can access it, it's a must read. Locals, ask me if you want to borrow my print copy.
-- Not a joke: "NASA seeks poets."
-- The exhumation of Pablo Neruda: The Boston Review on the investigation into whether or not the great poet was assassinated in Chile by Pinochet's gang. Early tests confirm that Neruda had advanced cancer when he died.
-- "The Interestings," indeed. Two great writers in conversation at Bookforum: Roxane Gay and Meg Wolitzer.
-- "In praise of Janet Malcolm's prickly career."
-- Spare Rib, the radical British feminist magazine, is relaunching this month.
-- 164 years later, the error on Anne Bronte's gravestone is corrected.
-- "Beautiful, natural, free." Haruki Murakimi -- the writer who is also a marathoner -- writes in the New Yorker about what happened in Boston.
-- In central Michigan, bikers become advocates for children's literature.
-- Library of America has updated its all-time bestselling titles. I'm surprised by #1, pleased by #4 and #14, delighted by #10, and chagrined that only one female writer is in the top fifteen. LoA says that the bestsellers stay pretty consistent, though they did see a surge on Ulysses S. Grant's writing. It also posts its top-selling backlist titles -- a more literary list, and an eclectic one. Still only one female writer though. The same one.
-- Navajo Nation names its first poet laureate.
-- Caroline Kennedy on the fun of memorizing poetry.
-- transcript is "Europe's online review of international writing." This month's theme? Armenia. "Ask any Armenian to tell you about his or her country's literature, and nine times out of ten you'll get the very beginning of the story, the creation of the Armenian alphabet in the 5th century..."
-- Writer Aminatta Forna's books "reflect a fascination with 'joining the dots to see how a country implodes,'" according to The Guardian.
-- Come create in Detroit this summer. Part of what you'll get in return? "Bicycles" and "occasional eggs from our chickens."
-- There is a single surviving letter written by Willa Cather to Edith Lewis. And it's full of mysteries.
-- Literally.
-- What's going on at Granta?
-- The House of Orwell falls.
-- World Without Borders focuses on North Korean Defectors this month. "In compiling our September 2003 issue, we discovered North Korean writers can publish only propaganda, and are restricted to official outlets. As this opaque nation becomes more visible, and threatening, on the international stage, we turn for insight to the only writers free to tell the truth: defectors."
-- Old and new media in Cairo: The death of Egypt Independent. Via Chris M.
-- The United States is ranked 26th in the world for press freedom. Politics and corruption are the most dangerous beats for journalists worldwide.
-- "Marx after Marxism."
-- "That introduction is better than the book." James Salter, interviewed in Guernica.
-- The tragedy of Cooper Union: a radical education model is succumbing.
-- See also: how humanities don't fit into the "elite universities" model -- forcing a choice.
-- "When the Earth Moved." Fascinating article on how the environmental movement (de)volved since 1970.
-- Writer Etgar Keret lives in the world's thinnest house in Warsaw (1.52m at its widest).
-- "Nice Poem: I'll Take It." Sandra Beasley, on the feeling of being a plagiarized poet.
-- Interesting backstory in the New York Review of Books on how Wikipedia took all the female novelists out of the "American novelists" category.
-- Kurt Vonnegut writes to John F. Kennedy, offering to volunteer for his campaign.
-- Where is the fight for high-speed and affordable, or free, internet?
-- "How not to report on a transgender victim."
-- As late as 1978, Aaron Copeland posited that there might be something innate to women that made them incapable of writing ambituous classical music. Alex Ross writes about "evening the score."
-- The alternative Mama's Day card.
-- Out of the Critical Mass movement comes bike parties. "The secret? More joy."
--Actually, Jason Collins isn't the first openly gay man in a major sport. The one who was -- true story -- also invented the high-five.
-- See also: Brittney Griner and the quiet queering of sports. I wish I'd written the article on this.
-- "The Silence of Science."
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