Earlier today, the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Robert Allen Zimmerman, a folk singer who performs under the name Bob Dylan. The Swedish Academy cited Dylan for “having created new poetic expressions […]
Tag: Literature
The Strawberry Criterion: Go Set A Watchman
More than half a century separates the publication of Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee’s intriguingly flawed second novel, from the release of To Kill a Mockingbird, its beloved predecessor, in July, 1960, and it will likely take an […]
Leave Jonathan Franzen Alone
The first sentence of “Father Away,” Jonathan Franzen’s essay about spreading the ashes of David Foster Wallace off the coast of Masafuera, ingeniously ends with the word “lobsters.” Over the course of seven clauses, Franzen semantically ferries […]
An EXCLUSIVE Excerpt from Jonathan Franzen’s New Novel “Purity”
If the beautiful, perfect heart in the chest of Philip Roth ever stops beating, which it shouldn’t, Jonathan Franzen will become the greatest living American novelist. When news broke yesterday that Mr. Franzen’s new novel, Purity, […]
READ MY NOVEL NOW: Chill or Fraud? Chapter Two
For reasons previously iterated, I will be serializing my novel, Chill or Fraud?, in its entirety on this blog. You can read the latest version of the novel’s second chapter, “Gentrified Brooklyn,” by clicking the words below […]
My Howard Zinn Highlight Reel
The incalculable importance of Howard Zinn’s The People’s History of the United States cannot be expressed in words, so this sentence ends here. Anyone who has read the book should understand, anyone who hasn’t should read it […]
My Chipotle Cup Flash Fiction
In an effort to promote the reading of literary fiction, ubiquitous burrito purveyor Chipotle Mexican Grill has started superimposing little short stories on its fountain soda cups. The campaign has attracted some of the “biggest” […]
baby pictures of famous dictators 