Tomorrow, I’ll be on Talk of the Nation with Don George, editor of the Lonely Planet humor anthology By the Seat of My Pants, and other contributors to the anthology. I’ll be talking about my essay, “Blackout in Ushuaia.” The show airs from noon to 12:40 Pacific time on NPR. The San Francisco station [...]
Michael Brown to Start Emergency Planning Consulting BusinessYes, I’m a fiction writer, but no, I didn’t make this up. I mean, this is way too out there to be a convincing fiction. I’ve been trying to find something to compare this to. It ain’t easy, but here’s a try. Former FEMA director Michael Brown starting [...]
The Millions points to a cool new independent press out of Seattle, Clear Cut Press, notable for its pocket-sized tomes with detachable covers. The press’s debut title is the anthology The Clear Cut Future, which includes fiction, memoir, poetry, polemical essays, lyrical research, archival texts, photography, painting, and other arts from Clear Cut authors.
For the [...]
Read Ron Silliman on Aaron Shurin’s new collection of poems, Involuntary Lyrics, just out from Omnidawn Press:
Do you know that experience where you sit down with a new CD & understand within its first few bars that your whole idea of music needs to change? That was how I felt reading this first poem, entitled [...]
In what novel of Eastern European origin does the narrator find inspiration in an old book shelved in a friend’s house, a book which conjures the likes of Johnny St. Cyr, Tixie Smith, Bud Freeman, and Bix Beiderbecke?
Here’s Lauren Baratz-Logsted on a book that’s been causing quite a stir on planet Earth lately:
The Planets, Dava Sobel. Whence Dava Sobel’s obsession with the planets? Whence mine? OK, I can’t speak for her, but I know where mine comes from: it comes from the fact that, last holiday season, my daughter and I assembled [...]
Today Kevin Smokler & I will be at Book Passage to talk about Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times. I’ll also be reading a little something. It’s at 1:00, which means you’ll have time to grab a sandwich at the little in-store cafe or sip a latte in the sun at one of the [...]
“I’ll tell you the God’s honest truth.” His right hand suddenly ordered divine retribution to stand by. “I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West–all dead now…”
“What part of the Middle West?” I inquired casually.
“San Francisco.”
“I see.”
Kudos to Vince Donovan, who correctly identified Gatsby as the character who refers to our [...]
Yesterday was the litworld equivalent of Osars night–the National Book Awards. No real surprises. I mean, I suppose William T. Vollman wasn’t entirely expected to walk away with the fiction award for Europe Central, but once you’ve been nominated, you’re only a stone’s throw from winning.
Hey, no takers on that litquiz? Here’s a clue. The [...]
What fictional character refers to San Francisco as the midwest?
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