Initially I found yesterday’s announcement of Philip Gourevitch’s hiring as editor of the Paris Review to be odd. I know him best for his journalism in the New Yorker and his much praised works of non-fiction, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families and A Cold Case, but he didn’t seem to have the proper pedigree to head a magazine that is so prominent in its championing of short fiction. However, a look at the press release accompanying the announcement reveals that “Gourevitch holds an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Columbia University, and has published a number of short stories in literary quarterlies. He worked as cultural editor of the Forward in the early nineties, before turning to writing full time,” which would indicate that he does indeed have experience both as a writer of fiction and an editor. Beyond that, perhaps from his experience with the New Yorker, Gourevitch may have inkling of what it takes to make an unabashedly highbrow publication both a critical and financial success. Many were dismayed, or at least apprehensive, when former editor Brigid Hughes was forced out, but I think that Gourevitch’s appointment should leave Paris Review devotees cautiously optimistic. For more details and background on Gourevitch, visit Galley Cat.
Gourevitch and the Paris Review
Breaking the Mold: Can Jeff Bezos Save the Washington Post?
Whatever you may think of Jeff Bezos and other tech innovators who broke the pre-Internet business model, the fact is the old model is broken – and who better to fix it than the man who helped break it in the first place?
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Proving a Villain: The Search for Richard III
The modern world swooned last month when the bones found under a parking lot in Leicester, England were confirmed to be those of Richard III. Richard’s apologists hope that his newfound celebrity will encourage us all to submit our old Shakespearean prejudices to a round of honest fact-checking.
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The Camaraderie of the Underrated: JC Gabel Relaunches The Chicagoan
Chicago! We’ve got this great chef, and an amazing architect, and these cool music guys, and really good coffee!
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Copyrights Wake: SOPA, James Joyce, and the Future of Intellectual Property
SOPA would have expanded the arsenal of cease-and-desist tactics that the entertainment industry has been deploying ineffectively for the last 15 years, starting with the crackdowns on file-sharers. Copyright holders would have been able to create an embargo against websites allegedly violating their copyrights by compelling payment processors and ad networks to suspend their services, with very little recourse for contesting the accusation.
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Orhan Pamuk’s Unlikely New Role
Turkish media’s attempts to trivialize dissidents by focusing on their private lives has a touch of the News of the World scandal about it.
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Race and American Poetry: Dove v. Vendler
We can, should, and will continue to argue about artistic quality, but we should do so while remembering that poetry can only live in the minds of living readers, and that its value comes out of their encounters with individual poems, which are, thank god, incredibly various (both the poems and the encounters.)
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The Disappointment Author: Lethem v. Wood
The latest example of a writer stepping into the ring to defend his work against a rapacious critic: award-winning author Jonathan Lethem v. award-winning critic James Wood, literary heavyweight bout par excellence.
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Dispatch from Turkey: Plagiarism Charges Levied at Award-Winning Author
Elif Şafak, who writes in both Turkish and English, has enjoyed huge popular success globally for her novels. She was the winner of the Union of Turkish Writers prize for The Gaze, and she is a frequent presence on the Turkish best-seller list. She has appeared on NPR and written for the New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. In May, Şafak shared a stage with Jonathan Franzen and Salman Rushdie as a PEN presenter. In short, she's a big deal (and in Turkey, a huge deal).
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