Much ink has been spilled on the problem of diversity and inclusion in corporate publishing, a systemic failing that can be pretty easily traced to money, or the lack of it. It costs a lot to live in New York Read more >
He did! On this very date, in 1849, outside the Astor Place Opera House in New York City, 22 people died after two actors—one American, and one British—clashed over poor reviews, paranoia, and booing. Blame the War of 1812 or Read more >
This morning, I spent some time researching whether Greg Kinnear is actually really Christian or just does those movies for the money (it seems like it’s for the money, though he does hope there’s golf in heaven!). This important research Chicken Soup book for every soul in the universe?">Read more >
In what can only be described as an act of inspired casting, the truly brilliant Kristin Scott Thomas will be joining Lily James and Armie Hammer in Ben Wheatley’s upcoming adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic masterpiece Rebecca—as all-time classic Rebecca.">Read more >
My personal form of astrology is to anxiously trawl Publishers Marketplace every week. No, wait, hear me out: it’s how I can tell the only future that matters: which books I will be reading a year and a half from now. Read more >
Minneapolis-St. Paul is a particularly bookish conurbation, which will now be all the more so with the arrival of Wordplay, “Minnesota’s largest celebration of readers, writers, and great books.” This weekend’s inaugural festival will feature the likes of Stephen King, Read more >
Apparently, when Philip Roth died, he bequeathed his very nice Eames chair to Blake Bailey, his official biographer, also well known for his biographies of John Cheever and Richard Yates. “He practically lived in that chair during his last five Read more >
Today, in Samantha Leach’s profile of Danielle Steel in Glamour, I learned that Danielle Steel has written 179 books. I learned that she has a sign in her office that reads “There are no miracles. There is only discipline.” I Read more >
As a person forced to look at Twitter as part of my job, I have heard a lot about Sally Rooney in the past. . . I want to say, two thousand years? So when her name was trending once Read more >
Tony Schwartz, who ghostwrote The Art of the Deal and helped build President Donald Trump’s false reputation as a savvy businessman, has now spent about three years making it extremely clear that he never wanted any of this. Now, that The Art of the Deal wants it taken out of print">Read more >
Our office can’t stop laughing at this: writer John Hornor Jacobs tweeted Wednesday morning that a parody cover he designed for The Bell Jar had appeared on a Kindle edition of the book, flagged by Aidan Hanratty (using the Twitter Bell Jar cover end up on a real ebook?">Read more >
It’s Thomas Pynchon’s 82nd birthday! For those of you who maybe got to page 20 of Gravity’s Rainbow and gave up, I am here to help. Thomas Pynchon is terrific but you have to walk through the savannah before wading Read more >
Only a few months before Maurice Sendak’s death seven years ago, Stephen Colbert visited his home to interview him for the Colbert Report (remember when it was hilarious to pretend to be a conservative?). In the clip, Colbert asks Sendak about Read more >
You’ve only got five more days to catch Grief is The Thing With Feathers, the Cillian Murphy-starring stage adaptation of Max Porter’s devastating 2016 novella (which tells the story of a poetry scholar, adrift after his wife’s sudden death, who, together with Read more >
Per Romper, Ann Patchett, notable writer of novels and memoirs for grown people, has written a children’s book called Lambslide. Although I am not a child, or even a person with a child, there are many things I like about Lambslide and its cover is cuter than it has any right to be.">Read more >
Yesterday we published a chapter from Nam Le’s short critical look at the oeuvre of Australian writer David Malouf, which is part of the Writers on Writers series. The excerpt in question was titled “What is an Australian National Literature Read more >
In 1985, the legendary Angela Carter sat down for an interview with Lisa Appignanesi. In the video below, they discuss Freud, work, politics, The Bloody Chamber, motherhood, and de Sade, among other things—including Carter’s socialism, which she argues works in Read more >
If you pay any attention to literary Twitter you’ve likely seen writers gently pleading with anyone who will listen to please don’t tag me on reviews, especially negative ones, which makes a lot of sense. Personally, I hate criticism, which Read more >
When Filmstruck announced, back in October 2018, that it would be shutting down, cinephiles everywhere were heartbroken: where would we go to experience the greatest collection of art-house and independent cinema from the comfort of our own homes? But just Read more >
Every week, a new crop of great new books hit the shelves. If we could read them all, we would, but since time is finite and so is the human capacity for page-turning, here are a few of the ones Read more >
