Notable Articles
July 7, 2011
The Year of Wonders 44
by Alex Shakar
It was midday on a Monday in early August of the year 2000 and the bidding on my first novel had reached six figures, then paused for people to track down more cash. I was 32. I’d never made over $12,000 in a year.
July 5, 2011
Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2011 Book Preview 45
by Editor
At 7,500 words strong and encompassing 66 titles, this is the only second-half of 2011 book preview you will ever need.
June 24, 2011
Six Egyptian Writers You Don’t Know But You Should 13
by Pauls Toutonghi
More writers from Egypt made the longlist for the $50,000, 2011 International Arabic Prize for Fiction (IPAF) than writers from any other country. And now it was Egypt’s Arab Spring. Where was the work of these men and women, work that was a catalyst for the ongoing social transformation of the largest nation in the Middle East?
June 16, 2011
On the Desire to Be Well-Read: A Review of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction 20
by Timothy Aubry
The advice of many aesthetes turns the reader’s capacity for pleasure into just another test of his cultural status—and the effect of this kind of sly pressure is to make it more difficult to distinguish what we enjoy from what we think we ought to enjoy.
May 31, 2011
Kindle-Proof Your Book in Seven Easy Steps! 28
by Garth Risk Hallberg
For the Luddite writer who wants to put her royalties where her mouth is, I offer the choicest trade secrets…plus a Top 10 list of eBook-resistant texts.
May 16, 2011
The Stockholm Syndrome Theory of Long Novels 107
by Mark O'Connell
…and some other observations of doubtful critical merit.