In Person
May 15, 2012
Confessions of a Literary Jingoist 8
by Elizabeth Minkel
It’s an age-old complaint, but things don’t really seem to be changing. You can seek out literature from just about anywhere — and now it’s easier than any previous point in history — but it’s a hell of a lot harder to bring it into the conversation.
May 8, 2012
Out of Reach: Notes from the David Foster Wallace Symposium 10
by A-J Aronstein
I guess this is to say that the symposium had its share of characters one might expect to find in a David Foster Wallace novel.
April 26, 2012
If It’s Free, Take It: 2012 World Book Night 4
by Edan Lepucki
It was going to be just me, a box of books, and Pico Boulevard. I was kind of scared.
March 26, 2012
The Lost Manuscript to A Confederacy of Dunces 9
by Cory MacLauchlin
I had nearly given up on the original manuscript of Confederacy of Dunces until a year ago when I interviewed Lynda Martin, the sister of John Kennedy Toole’s best friend in high school. “The manuscript?” she said in a soft southern accent. “Yes, well I have it in my closet here at home.”
March 2, 2012
Not Your Mother’s Book Club: The Oil Barons Society of Texas 11
by Deji Olukotun
In a South Texas parlor room, 10 men eagerly hold shots of bourbon in their hands. Together they raise their glasses and down the whiskey in one go. This is the Oil Barons Society, an exclusive, men-only book club in San Antonio.
March 1, 2012
The Language of Another World: A New Yorker in Munich 14
by Abigail Rasminsky
With language out of reach, it’s hard not to feel as if I’m in a dream, or that I’ve crossed over to another world.