The L.A. Times wades into the Newbery Medal debate.
Heavyweight writers line up to protest the detention of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The Week looks at the best non-fiction of the year.
Entertainment Weekly counts down the five worst books of the year.
Salon asks not only if the publishing industry can recover, but whether literature itself can survive.
A congratulatory review of a book called, SIX-LEGGED SOLDIERS: USING INSECTS AS WEAPON OF WAR, is likely to get the printing costs covered, at the very least.
An artist explains herself in ANNIE LEOBOVITZ AT WORK.
Twice in one feature I find a title that will likely sell with or without praise. Brock Clarke’s novel, AN ARSONIST’S GUIDE TO WRITERS’ HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND, sounds like good fun.
The Economist’s praise of a debut spy thriller, THE MAZE OF CADIZ, will be a nice holiday present for author Aly Monroe.
From Author Magazine:
Literary Kicks’ Bill Ectric interviews Jeff VanderMeer, “The hardest working man in Fantasy”.
On strange things tucked away in books.
Financial Times’ Anna Metcalfe presents a Q&A with Amélie Nothomb.
Can you unravel the mystery of the authorship of a newly-discovered short story? The answer is here, but don’t look without at least taking a shot.
Adrian Mitchell remembered.
Philosophy teacher, Dennis Dutton, explores why we do it in THE ART INSTINCT.
An organized effort at mocking the Brittanica’s Great Books of the Western World series, A GREAT IDEA AT THE TIME sounds hampered by its own snideness.
KNITTED LACE OF ESTONIA, by Nancy Bush, is of specialist knowledge to be sure, but no knowing is useless.
And REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, by Richard Yates, is Monsters & Critic’s pick for December.
To a Stranger
by Walt Whitman
(1819-1892)
Passing Stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours
only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take
of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake
at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
Former Harcourt publisher André Bernard offers a year-end report on the state of publishing.
Horace “American writers are ignorant” Engdahl steps down as secretary of Nobel Literature Prize academy.
The Examiner continues its series on its 10 favorite books of 2008.
Author and publisher Jane Daniel tells her side of the ‘Misha’ hoax.
R.I.P. Adrian Mitchell
Victor Fleming, of ‘Gone With The Wind’ and ‘The Wizard of Oz’ fame, gets biographied after a head-scratchingly long time in, VICTOR FLEMING: AN AMERICAN MOVIE MASTER, by Michael Sragow.
The New York Times has a mixed bag of paperbacks on review.
Kate Reardon’s left some TOP TIPS FOR GIRLS.
Technology bends the course for protagonists and antagonists in TECHNO-NOIR, a collection of short stories, edited by Eva Batonne and Jeffrey Marks.
From the Metacafe description:
The #1 bestselling novelist in the UK now makes her U.S. debut with a hardhitting story that combines the brutality and deep family ties of The Sopranos with an unparalleled look at the underbelly of London’s gang land.
Scumbag Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich tries to take cover in Kipling; NPR recounts other invocations of “If” by shady characters.
Tabatha Southey, writing for the Globe and Mail, launches a deliciously wicked attack on O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”.
Graywolf ready to pounce on post-inaugural poetry sales.
The Guardian presents a new (and beautifully illustrated) Christmas poem by Carol Ann Duffy.
Times Online rolls out their “Books alternative awards” for 2008. My favorite category: “The Oedipal Sales Boost of the Year prize for publicly antagonising your mother enough to see your book through the credit crunch”.
The Voyage
(Karl Shapiro)
The ship of my body has danced in the dance of the storm
And pierced to the center the heavy embrace of the tide;
It has plunged to the bottomless trough with the knife of its form
And leapt with the prow of its motion elate from the bride.
And now in the dawn I am salt with the taste of the wave,
Which lies with itself and suspires, her beauty alseep,
And I peer at the fishes with jaws that devour and rave
And hunt in her dream for the wrack of our hands in the deep.
But the wind is the odor of love that awakes in the sun
The stream of our voyage that lies on the belt of the seas,
And I gather and breathe in the rays of the darkness undone,
And drift in her silence of morning and sail at my ease,
Where sponges and rubbery seaweeds and flowers of hair
Uprooted abound in the water and choke in the air.
(Read more of Karl Shapiro’s poetry here)
Editor’s note: ‘Midnight Poetry’ is a showcase for work by poets across the spectrum—from the pantheon of literary giants to contemporary, underground and new voices.
If you would like to submit your work for consideration, please see our Submission Guidelines.
“It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? For the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop.”
- Vita Sackville-West
.
.
Who doesn’t love dogs working heroically? PAWS TO PROTECT, by Sharon Sakson celebrates canine diligence.
AWARD WINNING AUSTRALIAN WRITING 2008 has something for everyone.
If you could have a listen inside everyone’s head, would you know the story better? Yes, says The San Fransisco Chronicle, at least of Sylvia Brownrigg’s, THE DELIVERY ROOM.
The Atlantic shares a look at some new releases for December.
Author (authormagazine.org) interviews Dennis Lehane:
The New Yorker runs a bizarre anti-poetry screed that simultaneously shits on contemporary American poetry and the potential for it to be a part of the national dialogue.
The Seattle Times weighs in with its top books of the year.
The New Yorker presents a compelling slideshow of imagery and excerpts from some of the year’s best short fiction.
Poetry and prostitution: closer than ever.
The L.A. Times runs down the latest book news and even includes a mention of our Midnight Poetry series.
R.I.P. Francisco Casavella
When a Cello is Played
(Kevin Craig)
the strings,
when they sing,
command the bow
to sleep
the slithered dream.
the body,
like the arc
of a dove’s grey belly,
catches your breath,
hints at a Botticelli
between your thighs,
that voluptuous curve
sublime.
its f-holes seductive,
slick esses to
entrance the eye,
a vibrato rush
and desire
to caress the strings
while they sing.
a glissando quavers
through the silence,
holds for a spell
and your breath
is willingly
taken away.
(Read more of Kevin Craig’s poetry here)
Editor’s note: ‘Midnight Poetry’ is a showcase for work by poets across the spectrum—from the pantheon of literary giants to contemporary, underground and new voices.
If you would like to submit your work for consideration, please see our Submission Guidelines.
“The work never matches the dream of perfection the artist has to start with.”
- William Faulkner
.
.
American masculinity is up for examination in Michael Taylor’s, A NEW CONVSERSATION WITH MEN.
Conspiracy theorists, rev your engines! Robert K. Wilcox is on the case of an infamous and ill-timed car crash with TARGET: PATTON.
Some people are liking it, but not Patty Rhule in USA Today. She takes a bite out of Maria Semple’s, THIS ONE IS MINE.
‘Til death do us part’ doesn’t mean what it used to. Don’t be cynical, I meant we live longer. SEPTEMBER SONGS shares a kind look at what that means for loving relationships.
Bad Religion vocalist Greg Graffin discusses his upcoming book Anarchy Evolution:
2009 Man Booker Prize judging panel announced.
Prospect dissects the culture of literary prizes as “important mechanism for ensuring literature’s future as a public art” in ‘The art of prize-fighting’.
Poetry to return to the Presidential Inauguration as Elizabeth Alexander will read for Obama’s ceremony.
Children’s book authors and illustrators join forces with indie booksellers for a day of solidarity.
The Village Voice lets its writers compile a list of the best books of 2008.
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