A Thing Meant to Be: The Work of a Book Editor
The vice president and editorial director of Riverhead Books on the art of editing.
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Genre: Creative Nonfiction
Blind Ambition: A Q&A With Gregory Pardlo
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet talks about his new book, Air Traffic: A Memoir or Ambition and Manhood in America.
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Anthony Ray Hinton
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“Reading really saved my life in a way that people probably will never be able to understand.” Anthony Ray Hinton, author of the memoir, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (St. Martin’s Press, 2018), speaks about starting the only known book club on death row and the power of reading.
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Emily Nemens Named Editor of Paris Review, Guggenheim Fellows Announced, and More
Leadership changes at Penguin Random House; Khadija Abdalla Bajaber wins inaugural Graywolf Press Africa Prize; an unconventional bookshop in a knitting factory; and other news.
In Search of Your Own Voice: A Q&A With Poet and Editor Quincy Troupe
The editor of Black Renaissance Noire on the importance of publishing new and emerging writers.
The Final Portrait
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In 1964, the memoirist, novelist, and biographer James Lord sat for a portrait for the artist Alberto Giacometti. The painting session was intended to take only a few hours, but lasted weeks and became the inspiration for Lord’s book A Giacometti Portrait (Doubleday, 1965). In this film adaptation of the book, The Final Portrait, written and directed by Stanley Tucci, Armie Hammer stars as Lord with Geoffrey Rush as Giacometti.
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Top British and Irish Novelists, Cowardice in Publishing, and More
Anelise Chen defines autofiction; Twitter accounts that impersonate writers; the most well-preserved section of the Iliad; and other news.
Exhibitionist
“One Life: Sylvia Plath,” an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., features a selection of the poet’s manuscripts, journals, clothing, and other personal objects, including a typewriter and even a lock of her hair, as well as numerous pieces of Plath’s artwork: collages, drawings, self-portraits, and photographs. The museum also incorporates other types of art and interdisciplinary projects into its Plath programming, such as “I Am Vertical,” a dance performed in December in the museum’s courtyard, created by choreographer-in-residence Dana Tai Soon Burgess and named after one of Plath’s poems. Envision how your own life and work as a writer might be presented in an art museum, and write a lyric essay about this hypothetical exhibit. What objects would be on display? Which e-mails or photographs would help tell your stories? Consider using different forms and conventions, such as lists and fragments.
Maya Angelou’s Ninetieth Birthday, Roxane Gay’s Pop-Up Magazine, and More
Joan Silber Wins PEN/Faulkner Award; Chinese government cracks down on Hong Kong booksellers; women on male authors describing women; and other news.
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
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“Literature is more of a community effort than most people realize.” Alexander Chee talks about how the essays came together for his first collection, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays (Mariner Books, 2018), with Rich Fahle of PBS Books at the 2018 AWP Annual Conference & Book Fair in Tampa.
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