The Old Man and the Sea
Check out German designer Marcel Schindler's stop-motion adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, set to the song "Sail" by Awolnation, that uniquely captures Santiago's epic struggle with the giant marlin.
Ken Auletta on E-Book Pricing, America’s Greatest Self-Published Novelist, and More
Ken Auletta discusses how the e-book pricing war may alter the future of publishing; the New York Times looks at the book market in France, where independent book stores are thriving, and price-fixing reigns; the Millions profiles "America’s greatest self-published novelist," New Jersey public defender Sergio De La Pava; and other news.
The Center for Fiction Holds Story Contest
New York City's Center for Fiction, which annually honors writers with its Flaherty Dunnan First Novel Prize and the Clifton Fadiman Medal, is accepting entries for a new short story contest. One story will be selected to be published in the Literarian, the center's journal, and the winning author will receive one thousand dollars.
For the inaugural competition, stories of up to five thousand words may be submitted via e-mail by July 2. A fifteen dollar entry fee is payable via the center's online store.
The current issue of the Literarian features a story-as-slideshow by Roberta Allen, an essay by memoirist and fiction writer Esmeralda Santiago, a fiction translation from the Spanish of Raúl Ortega Alfonso excerpted from the Barcelona Review, and recommended reading from author Dan Chaon alongside stories by emerging writers. The magazine is accessible for free on the Center for Fiction website.
In the video below, featured in the latest issue of the Literarian, Joyce Carol Oates discusses the dream that gave life to her novel Mudwoman, published this past March by Ecco.
Anna Karenina
Joe Wright and Tom Stoppard's adaptation of the Tolstoy classic, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, and Aaron Johnson, will be released in November.
Flash Nonfiction
Write a nonfiction piece of no more than 500 words. It could be anything from a single scene to a complete micro essay—either way, try to utilize the same techniques and structure that you would for a full-length piece. For inspiration, check out Brevity, an online journal dedicated to the art of flash nonfiction.
Remembering Erica Kennedy, Defining Self-Plagiarism, and More
Best-selling author Alice Walker has refused an offer to publish a new Israeli edition of The Color Purple; Laura Miller explains why a filmed adaptation of the erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey may not be a bad idea; the Wall Street Journal details the battle for proper grammar at the the workplace; and other news.
The Adventure of the Space Traveler
In this video for Electric Literature's free fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, Sarah Bodil animates a sentence from "The Adventure of the Space Traveler" by Seth Fried, who was featured in last year's First Fiction Annual for this debut story collection, The Great Frustration.
Almost Ordinary
Write a story in which the protagonist is "perfectly ordinary" (however you choose to define "ordinary") in every way except for one obvious trait. Follow how this one trait sets in motion the story’s central conflict or turn.
Mary McCarthy and Edmund Wilson, Djuna Barnes in Brooklyn, and More
The New Yorker unravels the history of the early stories of Mary McCarthy, including “The Weeds,” which cast a spotlight on her troubled marriage to critic Edmund Wilson; Microsoft announced its eventual entry into the tablet market with new devices called Surface; NPR looks at the life and times of Nightwood author Djuna Barnes; and other news.
Listen Up
Choose one of your poems that needs revision. Give it to five friends and ask each of them to create an audio version of it by reading it into your telephone answering machine or recording themselves reading it and sending you the audio file. Listen to the five audio versions for places where the rhythm or musical qualities of the poem fall away or sound flat. Use these readings to revise the poem.
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