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The 10 Most Recent Dispatches
- The Bat Segundo Show: Agnieszka Holland
- The Bat Segundo Show: Stephen Fry
- The Bat Segundo Show: Deborah Scroggins
- Komen for the Cowards: Betraying Breast Cancer
- The Bat Segundo Show: Susan Cain
- Forgotten Writers: Dorothy Uhnak
- Dwight Garner’s Revisionist Ignorance: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Forgotten Writers: The Novels of John P. Marquand
- The Situation in American Waffles
- The Bat Segundo Show: Elliot Perlman
Modern Library Reading Challenge
On January 10, 2011, Managing Editor Edward Champion pledged to read the top 100 fiction books from #100 to #1. Read about his progress as he makes his way through the Modern Library canon!
84. The Death of the Heart (January 6, 2012)
85. Lord Jim (November 30, 2011)
86. Ragtime (October 30, 2011)
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (Bat Segundo interview with Murphy)
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (Bat Segundo interview with McClear)
Literary Magazines Archive
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Whither the Short Story?
Posted on October 15, 2007 | 13 CommentsLydia Jenkins has declared that the literary magazine is dead. Likewise, Jean Thompson recently opined that, due to the considerable commentary resulting from Stephen King’s distress call that the short... -
About Time
Posted on May 24, 2007 | No CommentsAnnalee reports that The Baffler has returned after a number of years in magazine limbo. Former contributor Joshua Glenn has various thoughts about the new issue. (via Underwire) -
It’s Certainly a Lot Better Than Attending a Banal Seminar for a Free Toaster
Posted on May 4, 2006 | 1 CommentGordon Van Gelder, editor of the excellent Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, is trying out an interesting new strategy. He’ll send you a free copy of the latest issue... -
Brigid Strikes Back
Posted on March 8, 2006 | 4 CommentsThe first issue of A Public Space, a new quarterly edited by yearlong Paris Review editor Brigid Hughes, is out, and the contents look quite appetizing. Rick Moody, fiction from... -
Richard Powers on Mozart’s Skull
Posted on January 22, 2006 | 4 CommentsAs regular readers may or may not know, we are mad about Richard Powers. I mean, we’re talking mad to the level of reading all of his books (two of... -
Wholphin, Eggers and Why I Can’t Believe
Posted on January 11, 2006 | 6 CommentsI picked up the January 2005 issue of The Believer, partly with the intention of seeing if the magazine was showing any signs of shedding its feel-good trappings (short answer:... -
Emerging Writers, Subscribing to Journals
Posted on January 9, 2006 | No CommentsThe inestimable Dan Wickett has set up an incredible situation. Pointing out that young writers often get their start with literary journals, Dan has set up a discount deal if... -
This Week in the New Yorker
Posted on November 30, 2005 | No CommentsA new story from Alice Munro. -
But He Doesn’t Look Anything Like Campbell Scott
Posted on November 29, 2005 | 2 CommentsHarper’s has named a new editor. His name is Roger D. Hodge. He is 38 and was once turned down as an intern, only to be called back later, eventually... -
Lapham Retires from Harper’s
Posted on November 15, 2005 | No CommentsThe Times reports that Lewis Lapham is retiring as editor of Harper’s. He’ll be retiring in the spring. Lapham’s been mum on naming a successor, but these are going to... -
Indisputable Evidence That the Anti-Snark Manifesto Was Just a Stunt
Posted on November 14, 2005 | 3 CommentsSnarkwatch: 404 File Not Found, a mere two years later. -
Men Who Read Magazines: Easily Bored or More Complicated?
Posted on October 31, 2005 | 1 CommentBusinessWeek reports that men aren’t reading magazines the way they used to. I’m going to suggest something radical: Could it be that men are more complicated than the current lad... -
Harper’s and the Realities of the Internet
Posted on September 29, 2005 | 10 CommentsWe’ve only just been released from the hospital and we’re spending a good deal of time adjusting to our unexpected euphoria. We have some things to say about Ben Marcus’s... -
Ruminator — It’s Here and Much Better than the Tuminator (Pictured Below)
Posted on March 30, 2005 | No CommentsLike the Rake, until we got the email, we had no idea the Ruminator existed. But there’s some good stuff, including an interview with Volker Schlondorff, a piece from Jhumpa... -
30 Second Roundup
Posted on November 15, 2004 | No CommentsJanuary magazine editor Linda Richards gets copy in the Vancouver Sun. (via Sarah) G.K. Chesterton: unfairly neglected? My short answer: yes and no. (via Mark) A George Eliot statue was... -
Paris Review Archive
Posted on November 10, 2004 | No CommentsSince none of us can wait, I just spoke with publicist James Meader. He confirmed that the 1950s section of The Paris Review online archive will be up on Monday,... -
New Granta
Posted on May 4, 2004 | No CommentsThe newest Granta has hit the stands. And with the emphasis on hidden histories, there looks like some juicy stuff to sift through. T.C. Boyle, J. Robert Lennon, Geoffrey Beattie,... -
Happy Season
Posted on May 3, 2004 | 1 CommentScott O’Connor writes in with news of The Happy Season, a collaborative poem/photography chronicle now in week two (and very much inspired by Fray, it would appear). -
StorySouth
Posted on February 27, 2004 | No CommentsMoorish Girl has the rundown on the StorySouth shortlist. Laila not only has links to all the stories, but she e-mailed all the authors and got every single one of... -
Anne Tyler: Unwavering Instigator of Irritation
Posted on January 27, 2004 | No CommentsMichiko on Joe Ezterhas: “As for the rest of this ridiculously padded, absurdly self-indulgent book, the reader can only cry: T.M.I.! Too Much Information! And: Get an editor A.S.A.P.!” What... -
The Twin East Coast Monthly
Posted on January 14, 2004 | No CommentsFor all of The Atlantic‘s candor, it still doesn’t explain why the current double issue would include not one, but two takes on high-profile translations (the former a swell introspective...