Jump to navigation Skip to content
David Foster Wallace studies grows in the academe; Trent Reznor to score Stieg Larsson film adaptation; British Library releases literary artifacts app; the Story Prize short list is announced; and other news.
Write an erasure poem: Rip out one or two pages from a magazine or newspaper. Read through them, underlining words and phrases that appeal to you and that relate to each other. Using a marker or Wite-Out, begin to delete the words around those you underlined, leaving words and phrases that you might want to use. Keep deleting the extra language, working to construct poetic lines with the words you’ve chosen to keep.
The folks at the independent Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, put together this tongue-in-cheek video to introduce the fictional television station HBTV—the store's new YouTube channel featuring clips of staff members recommending books.
Poems on the Underground celebrates twenty-five years; the ubiquitous trend of changing nouns into verbs; Canada's Key Porter Books goes out of business; Barnes & Noble has its best holiday sales season since 1997; and other news.
Half in Love: Surving the Legacy of Suicide by Linda Gray Sexton, the daughter of poet Anne Sexton, was published last week by Counterpoint. In this clip, which was produced shortly after the publication of Diane Middlebrook's 1991 biography of the poet, Anne Sexton reads her work and appears in home movies taken before her death in 1974.
The Center for Fiction is currently accepting applications for a new grant and residency program designed for emerging fiction writers who reside in the five boroughs of New York City. Housed in a 1930s-era building in midtown Manhattan, the organization is offering eight fellowship awards of three thousand dollars each and one year of time to write in its writing studio (beginning on May 15) to non-student writers who have not published and are not under contract to publish a book.
In the studio, accessible seven days a week at all hours, each writing fellow is afforded a desk with the requisite outlets, Wi-Fi capability, and access to a wireless printer, as well as a locker. Writers can also make use of a reference library, lounge area, and kitchenette. The fellows will also be offered a mentorship with a freelance editor, a chance to participate in two readings, and free admission to the center's events and lectures.
Applications, which must be e-mailed, are due on January 31 and should contain a resumé, a work sample of up to ten thousand words, and proof of residency. Full guidelines are posted on the Center for Fiction Web site.
Scotland seeks a new poet laureate; James Franco is set to direct film adaptations of two major literary works; benefit readings for Dean Young and Charles Bock; Borders faces certain bankruptcy or a merger with Barnes & Noble, according to one financial expert; and other news.
The book trailer for The Memory Palace, Mira Bartók's memoir about growing up with a mother who suffered from schizophrenia, features music and paintings by the author. The Memory Palace will be published next week by Free Press.
"You're the spitting image of your father," I was told, and I loved him, not her. A chip off the old block, the acorn. He took me to work with him on Saturdays at the Baker Brush Company, bought sandwiches for the sour smelling bums in Soho, before it was Soho. He took his daughter to lunch with pride; a big shot to his little shot. The spitting image of my father, I wanted to be like him, seemingly in charge, decisive, willing to spend money; attractive, a big shot who tipped his hat.
Waterstone's announces twenty store closures in the U.K.; Snooki's novel released today; e-books outsell their print counterparts on the USA Today best-seller list; Nancy Pearl is named Librarian of the Year; and other news.
