From the Magazine
Pilot, Copilot, Writer by Manuel Gonzales
The Written Image: Cozy Classics
Jack and Holman Wang’s Cozy Classics introduces great novels to the youngest readers using keywords, handmade figurines, and carefully constructed settings and backdrops.
Safe as Houses by Marie-Helene Bertino
Goodbye to Algonquin's Oak Room, E. B. White Answers the ASPCA, and More
Melville House wonders when publishers will speak out about Amazon; New York City's Algonquin Hotel announced that when it reopens this spring after a renovation, the famed Oak Room will be gone; E. B. White answers a charge levied by the ASPCA; and more
Remembering Wislawa Szymborska and Dorothea Tanning, Paul Auster's War of Words, and More
Nobel prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska, as well as Surrealist artist and poet Dorothea Tanning, passed away yesterday in their respective countries; novelist Paul Auster has engaged in a war of words with Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey; Open Letters Monthly examines the hidden life of Virginia Woolf's institutionalized half-sister, Laura Makepeace Stephen; and other news.
Oprah Picks Short Story Collection by Uwem Akpan
For the first time, the world’s most influential reader has given her blessing to a short story collection. Oprah Winfrey—whose imprimatur virtually guarantees best-seller status—announced last Friday that the sixty-third selection for her eponymous book club is the debut Say You’re One of Them (Little, Brown, 2008) by Nigerian author and Jesuit priest Uwem Akpan.
Making the Case for National Short Story Month
With National Poetry Month officially wrapped up, Dan Wickett of the Emerging Writers Network has declared May “Short Story Month.” He plans to select three stories—one from a published collection, one from a print periodical, and one from an online journal—to read and blog about each day. If all goes well, Wickett will have covered just shy of one hundred pieces by month’s end.
Harper Perennial Builds Fifty-Two Stories Blog
Harper Perennial announced last Wednesday that it will offer a free short story every week throughout 2009. Each Sunday night the HarperCollins imprint will post a new short story on the blog Fifty-Two Stories. Eight stories, including "Wish Fulfillment" by Mary Gaitskill, "Burn Me Up" by Tom Piazza, and "Beauty Stolen From Another World" by Louise Erdrich, have already been published.
Chasing the Whale: A Profile of Junot Díaz
Eleven years after the publication of his best-selling debut story collection, Junot Díaz’s follow-up has finally arrived.