Inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction, Genre Apocalypse, and More
Rod McKuen has died; poems for cash; Minnesota’s moment; and other news.
Yours Is the Earth
"If you can dream—and not make dreams your master / If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim." This short film features Rudyard Kipling's poem "If," read by Tom O'Bedlam and filmed by Stephen Lister.
Colleen McCullough Has Died, Voltaire Book a Bestseller in France, and More
Thomas Merton celebrations; translating “The Red Wheelbarrow”; Egyptian poet facing prison; and other news.
Helen Macdonald
"My fascination with birds goes back so long.... When I was about five or six, I think I used to try and sleep with my hands behind my back like wings." Helen Macdonald discusses her memoir, H is For Hawk (Jonathan Cape, 2014), which received the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction, and won the 2014 Costa Book Award this week.
Messing With Your Favorites
The recent announcement that the shell of Cadbury’s crème egg will no longer be made with their signature dairy milk chocolate has been met with great dismay by those who count the confection among their favorite treats. Has one of your favorite treats undergone a similar alteration? Maybe your local pizza place changed up their classic marinara sauce, or the coffee shop where you get your daily latte now uses a sweeter brand of soy milk. Write about why this alteration had an effect on your life and what you did to overcome the change.
Helen Macdonald Wins Costa Prize, the Jaipur Literature Festival, and More
Roethke’s influence; fiction and attention; readers decide what to publish; and other news.
Ned Beauman
The London native and youngest writer on Granta's list of the best young British novelists in 2013, reads from his latest novel, Glow (Knopf, 2015). The Bookshop Band performs a song inspired by Beauman's book called "We Are the Foxes."
Cervantes’s Casket, Charles Simic on Mark Strand, and More
Poetry and medicine; writers released from Eritrean prison; the evolving library industry; and other news.
The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac
Sharma Shields introduces and reads from her novel The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac from the woods of Spokane, Washington. The book was released today by Henry Holt.
Snowtastrophe
This week, the Northeast was pummeled by a sizable winter storm that accumulated many ominous names. This week, write a poem about an imaginary, absurdly catastrophic blizzard. You can call it whatever you like, but here are some suggestions to help guide you: "snowmageddon," "snowzilla," and the bone-chilling "snownado." What is special about this storm, giving it the potential to be the storm of the century?
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