Books
Friday, February 3, 2012
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Adam Gopnik
Posted by Mark Asch on Fri, Feb 3, 2012 at 12:33 PM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
I suppose Alain de Boton’s sympathetic description: that I sought (and sometimes managed) to see worlds in a grain of sand. With the alarming proviso that, as the years roll by, such an author must be ever more desperately seeking grains of sand to see worlds in.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Art / Books Brooklyn Artists Building Brownstone-Shaped Lending Library in Cobble Hill Park
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Brooklyn-based artist Leon Reid IV—he of "Tourist-in-Chief" and proposed public sculptures of a giant squirrel in a park and a giant spider in the Brooklyn Bridge's suspension cables—has teamed up with Brooklyn-based documentary producer Julia Marchesi (The City Dark) to create the "100 Story House," a five-and-a-half feet tall miniature brownstone that they plan to build, install in Cobble Hill Park and fill with books to be borrowed and exchanged by anyone and everyone. The pair just launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project. I asked Reid about the projects' origins, and its more practical concerns, like where the books will come from and what the Department of Parks—which Reid has had problems with in the past—thinks of it.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Books / News Announcing 2012's Literary Upstart: The Search for Pocket Fiction
Posted by Mark Asch on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 2:30 PM
As of today, we’re pleased to consider submissions of your previously unpublished short stories of 1,500 words or fewer, via an email to literaryupstart [at] thelmagazine [dot] com. Complete details here.
This spring, semi-finalists (12-15 in total) will be invited to read said stories at one of our three seminfinal readings, at some bar someplace, in front of a live, lively audience, and a panel of judges comprised of members in good standing of New York City’s exalted literary community; after issuing their critiques, the judges will pick the winners who’ll advance to the final, where the readers will vie for a cash prize and publication in our annual Summer fiction Issue.
Plus! Booze specials! Trivia! Stage banter that’s barely been reworded since 2005! Watch this space over the next month, as we announce more about the competition, including dates, venues, judges, submission deadlines, and surprises (surprises!). We look forward to seeing you at the readings. Or I do, anyway.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Books / Music From Lethem to Burroughs: 6 Authors Who've Moonlighted as Lyricists
Posted by Tobias Carroll on Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 9:46 AM
Last week’s release of an album from spielgusher, the long-in-the-works collaboration between rock critic/novelist Richard Meltzer and punk icon Mike Watt, got us thinking about other writers who have crossed over into the realm of lyricists. The names that follow make a varied list, and that isn’t even touching the way certain lines have blurred, whether it’s Jay-Z drawing acclaim for his collected lyrics, Gerard Way writing a surreal take on superheroes, or the likes of Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, and Gil Scott-Heron being acclaimed writers before they made their mark on music. (One could also write about musicians whose lyrics take their cues from works of fiction, from the myriad artists (Earth, Lucero’s Ben Nichols) looking towards Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian to Mos Def’s citation of Victor LaValle’s The Ecstatic as an influence on his album of the same name, but that's a list for another day.)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Shalom Auslander
Posted by Mark Asch on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 10:06 AM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
One paper referred to me in a postive review as a prophet and in a negative review, just a week later, as an apostate. I have to admit I kind of like that.
What have you read/watched/listened to/looked at/ate recently that will permanently change our readers' lives for the better?
Nothing. They're fucked. To be honest, this is the worst part of the whole writing gig, having to come up with answers to ludicrous interview questions. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered, tremendously so, but that doesn’t mean I can’t look at it all and wonder if I shouldn’t blow my head off.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Alex Gilvarry
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Jan 11, 2012 at 10:38 AM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
“It sounds like Zoolander.” When I finished my novel, I did notice that it shared some similarities to the Ben Stiller movie Zoolander. Both send up the fashion industry in New York, poke fun at beautiful people, and dabble in terrorist-related activities. So the statement is accurate, but I think my hero directly addresses the severity of indefinite detention, or imprisonment without due process, where as Derek Zoolander was just really really good looking.
Friday, January 6, 2012
Books Lethem Bad Mouths Brooklyn Again
Posted by Henry Stewart on Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 2:34 PM
In a piece published in the San Francisco Gate earlier this week, Lethem looks back on Brooklyn, concluding, "it's been made blander, a little more accessible, and it's taken over the world." Right, like it totally sold out! Not like when Lethem was here, back when it was cool.
Follow Henry Stewart on Twitter @henrycstewart
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Gary Lutz
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 4:12 PM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
Maybe that it must have been written with great but aimless care.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Books Paul Auster Eavesdrops on You in La Bagel Delight
Posted by Henry Stewart on Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:38 AM
There's a little place I go to to buy sandwiches to take to my little work room in the neighborhood, and I talked about it in The Brooklyn Follies, a novel from six or seven years ago. There is a place called La Bagel Delight. It's a real place... the great thing about this place is everybody goes in there, and I just love to listen to the conversations.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Books / Media What Ever Happened to the New Yorker's Winter Fiction Issue?
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 1:57 PM
Yeah, I just got my copy of the New Yorker's annual "World Changers" issue, a holiday tradition since 2009, when, as David Remnick explained at the time, it was decided that far-flung correspondence and profiles of innovators not included in the "Innovators" issue could draw two dozen more ad pages from bigger luxury brands.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Nelly Reifler
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 8:55 AM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
Suzan Sherman reviewed See Through for Bookforum, and she said that in my stories, sex is always a healing act, or one that brings about a kind of change. I hadn’t thought about it before, but she was completely right. So if you like to have a lot of sex scenes, but don’t want them to be particularly sexy, I’m your writer!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Books / Talks and Readings Young Writers Upstaged Old Masters at Franklin Park
Posted by Henry Stewart on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 1:55 PM
Monday, November 14, 2011
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: God
Posted by Mark Asch on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 1:51 PM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it? (No blurbs please.)
"Anyone who actually believed in God or the apparently archaic concept of blasphemy wouldn't be so eager to take the Lord's name in vain with such gleeful abandon." -Brent Bozell, Founder and President of the Media Research Center. I know thou said "no blurbs," but that is a good one.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Jim Shepard
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 9:48 AM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
Daniel Handler over the years has said a lot of really nice things that I would like to believe are accurate, most having to do with the way my stuff is simultaneously smart and fun to read.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Books Fakespeare, with Arthur Phillips
Posted by Marissa Gaines on Fri, Nov 4, 2011 at 10:44 AM
Phillips began by starting, “This story begins in my childhood.” The novel’s protagonist and narrator just so happens to be a novelist named Arthur Phillips, and has numerous similarities with the author himself—but the character is fake… right?
Phillips read two passages from the first part of the text, the books extended “Introduction.” Both involved the importance of Shakespeare in Arthur’s life, beginning in childhood and continuing through his discovery of what might be a lost Shakespeare play, The Tragedy of Arthur, which is featured, in its entirety, in the book’s second half of the book. Phillips claimed it was not a real work by W.S., but also suggested that he could be sued for saying the wrong thing, and stupefied the audience by hinting that unnamed professors had authenticated the 1597 date on the manuscript.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Books / News Rent Reduction Keeps St. Mark's Bookshop Open (for now)
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 11:26 AM
The deal will cut the monthly rent from $20,000 to $17,500 for the next year, along with debt forgiveness, and, most intriguingly, "student help with revising the store’s business plan" going forward.
Cooper Union Students! We have written extensively, hear at the L, about how independent bookstores have been able to thrive by making themselves integral parts of neighborhood cultural life, through read-a-thons and events—what the manager of Greenlight has called "community space we offer for human-scale connection over literature."
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Books Talking to the Editors of New Lit Mag The Coffin Factory About Publishing Dead Nobel Laureates
Posted by Mark Asch on Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 12:06 PM
Why “The Coffin Factory”? What does the name connote?
Though there is reasoning behind what Joyce Carol Oates calls “the most incongruous title,” we think it’s far more interesting to hear what other people think, as everyone has different associations. Pablo Medina thought there was an unusual karmic connection between himself and the magazine because he lives in a converted carriage factory where hearses were once made. Edith Grossman asked us if The Coffin Factory is where The Exquisite Corpse now rests. One professor thought the title came from a line in a Dickens story, where a boy sleeps in a coffin factory. People have suggested literary allusions to Gogol, Faulkner, or Poe, none of whom we were thinking about when we came up with the name, but connections we appreciate. What do you think The Coffin Factory means?
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Books At WORD's Haruki Murakami Read-a-Thon
Posted by Courtney Allison on Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 11:08 AM
"There is something community-building about people reading to other fans, and the Brooklyn literary scene is such a community,” said Jenn Northington, event manager at WORD, noting that there were many familiar faces in the crowd. “So they make it easy.”
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Books / Talks and Readings Colson Whitehead's Zombie Autobiography
Posted by Henry Stewart on Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 1:08 PM
After graduation, he snagged a job at the Voice, which he said has changed since, though one thing has remained constant: "whenever you were there was its heyday; whenever you left, it was downhill." He started out writing about television, branching out with more assignments until he was confident enough to start writing fiction.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Books The L Mag Questionnaire for Writer Types: Bassey Etim
Posted by Mark Asch on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:37 AM
For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?
That it is "driving." I am not one of those people who enjoys when an author spends half a novel describing the drapes.
