Jump to navigation Skip to content
Don Share has been named editor of Poetry; Hector Tobar reports new details have arisen concerning the 1975 assassination of Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton; Macmillan CEO John Sargent's candid thoughts about the DOJ lawsuit; and other news.
Even writers, who work with this stuff all day, can benefit from a quick reminder: In this recent episode of the weekly show Mental Floss, host John Green looks at thirty-eight common spelling and grammar errors such as "stationery vs. stationary," "good vs. well" and "loose vs. lose."
Spend a few moments looking around your kitchen, office, or bedroom, and gather any found objects (not including books, magazines, or journals) that contain text: post-it notes, receipts, a piece of mail, the packaging of food or household products. Freewrite for fifteen minutes, recording as many words and phrases from the objects as you can, and taking note of any connections, associations, or themes that may arise. Then write an essay about what you find.
The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) has announced the creation of the John Leonard Award, a new prize honoring a first book of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, biography, criticism, or autobiography. The recipient of the award—who will be selected by the NBCC’s member critics and editors—will be announced at the annual NBCC awards ceremony in early 2014.
The new award is named in honor of John Leonard, a literary critic and former editor of the New York Times Book Review. A founding member of the NBCC, Leonard (1939–2008) was known not only for his criticism of books, film, and television, but also for his encouragement of young critics and the attention he paid to debut writers. “One of the first American critics to write on Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Leonard shared his enthusiasms with a wide reading audience,” the NBCC reported in a press release. “In creating the John Leonard Award, the NBCC recognizes his commitment to nurturing new authors.”
Founded in 1974, the National Book Critics Circle Awards are given annually "to honor outstanding writing and to foster a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature." The awards are open to any book in English, including translations, published in the United States in the previous year. Poet D.A. Powell and fiction writer Ben Fountain received the 2012 awards. The John Leonard Award will be the first award selected directly by the NBCC’s membership—which is comprised of nearly five hundred book critics, editors, and authors nationwide—rather than by its board of directors.
Jessica Grose gleans advice from Janet Malcolm's new book, Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers; Macmillan is launching a new nonfiction division headed by Bob Miller; Nichole Bernier gathers tips for reading on stage from several authors, including J. Courtney Sullivan, Cheryl Strayed, and Alexander Chee; and other news.
Ira Glass, Calvin Trillin, and others are featured in this trailer for Rakoff's posthumous book, Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, a novel in verse forthcoming in July from Doubleday. One of the best and funniest essayists of our time, Rakoff died of cancer on August 9, 2012. He was forty-seven years old.
"As a reader, I have a favorite canon of ranters that runs from Dostoevsky to Thomas Bernard to the Philip Roth of Sabbath's Theater," says novelist Claire Messud in a profile by Michael Washburn in the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. "I love a ranter." Read some of the work of the authors Messud mentions and write a rant of your own.
BookExpo America is this week in New York City, and e-books take center stage; You Are One of Them author Elliott Holt discusses a favorite Chekhov story; the Atlantic explores why Sylvia Plath commands the public imagination; and other news.
The poet and environmental activist talks about Thoreau's concept of "wildness" in this clip from "Even Though the Whole World Is Burning," a documentary-in-progress directed by Stefan Schaefer and produced by Williams Cole.
In honor of the centennial anniversary of the birth of May Swenson, on May 28, read some poems by this award-winning poet (consult the Academy of American Poets website for a bibliography), then write a poem with her work in mind. Remember, this is a poet who, four months before her death on December 28, 1989, wrote, "The best poetry has its roots in the subconscious to a great degree. Youth, naivety, reliance on instinct more than learning and method, a sense of freedom and play, even trust in randomness, is necessary to the making of a poem."
