May/June 2006

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's new book,You Must Set Forth at Dawn, is a memoir—his fourth, in fact. But more than the story of one man's life, this memoir is the story of a nation.

Features

One Man, One Nation: A Profile of Wole Soyinka

by Trent Masiki
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The Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning poet, fiction writer, and memoirist looks back again with his third memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn.

Expect the Unexpected: A Profile of David Mitchell

by Jessica Murphy
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The British novelist returns to a more traditional style in his fourth book, Black Swan Green.

The Weschler Connection: A Profile of Lawrence Weschler

by Doug Diesenhaus
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With a wandering mind and an obsessive index of notes, the nonfiction of writer Lawrence Weschler defies classification.

News and Trends

More to the Story: A.M. Homes

by Staff

For this inaugural installment of More to the Story—an occasional feature in which we ask authors to list the movies, music, artwork, and books that inspired them during the course of writing their new books—we asked A.M. Homes about her fifth novel,This Book Will Save Your Life, which was published by Viking last month.

The Law of Diminishing Readership

by Joseph Bednarik

As marketing director of Copper Canyon Press, the thirty-four-year-old independent publisher of poetry in Port Townsend, Washington, I am required to read a lot. While most of the titles on my reading list are poetry collections, I recently read two nonfiction texts that got me thinking about the "economics" of creative writing.

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Q&A: Scott Hoffman's Reasons to Rep

by Kevin Larimer

At the end of Folio Literary Management's second month in operation, Scott Hoffman, who represents writers of fiction and nonfiction and receives between two hundred and five hundred queries a week, spoke about the role of agents in today's publishing marketplace.

Literary MagNet

by Kevin Larimer

Literary MagNet chronicles the start-ups and closures, successes and failures, anniversaries and accolades, changes of editorship and special issues—in short, the news and trends—of literary magazines in America. This issue's MagNet features One Less Magazine, the Women's Review of Books, Cream City Review, Global City Review, Bat City Review, Backwards City Review, and Poetry.

Small Press Points

by Kevin Larimer

Small Press Points highlights the happenings of the small press players. This issue features Seven Stories Press, Impassio Press, and BOA Editions, Ltd.

The Literature of Lies

by Joe Woodward

Sadly, recent revelations are forcing readers—confronted by a brand-new band of literary scallywags, hucksters, and hoaxers—to reconsider the veracity of the story as well as that of the storyteller.

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The Practical Writer

Inside Publishing: The Business of Bookselling

by Caitlin O'Neil
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The final installment in a three-part series on publishing focuses on bookselling.

The X Files: Confessions of a Cranky Lit-Mag Editor

by Peter Selgin
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The editor of the literary journal Alimentum offers his unique take on the submissions process.

The Literary Life

The Art of Reading Joan Didion: Who We Are, Who We Used to Be

by Drew Limsky
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Joan Didion's creative nonfiction essays feature writing that is taut, precise, and emotionally honest.

Imperative: Why Truth Matters in Memoirs

by Aaron Hamburger
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A fiction writer explores the importance of "truth" in memoir.

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