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The power of prose: Understanding the impact novels have on our society
November is National Novel-Writing Month (often abbreviated as NaNoWriMo), which encourages individuals around the world to write 50,000-word novels, regardless of their backgrounds or experience. Whether you’re a fan of television and movies based on science fiction, adventures, comedy or another genre, there’s a strong chance you’ve seen at least one film or series inspired…
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What to Do When You Hate Your Own Book Club Pick
Born into a family of readers, P.N. gained a love reading as a sort of herd mentality. This love of reading has remained a life long passion, resulting in an English Degree from The University of Houston in Houston, Texas. She normally reads three to four books at any given time, in the futile Sisyphean…
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How to Kill a Literary Genre
The Novelist:A Novelby jordan castro soft skull, 208 pages, $24 Jordan Castro’s The Novelist: A Novel describes a morning during which an unnamed writer struggles to resume work on an autobiographical novel. He can’t stop himself from checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or his email; his progress is further impeded by anxiety, self-doubt, and the sheer…
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Is the Campus Novel Dead?
Stephanie Land didn’t know about office hours. She saw them listed on every syllabus during her undergraduate years at the University of Montana, but she didn’t know they were dedicated blocks of time where students could develop mentorships with their instructors, ask for clarity about curriculum, or inquire about scholarships and recommendation letters. She understood…
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Briefly Noted Book Reviews
Books Briefly Noted Save this storySave this story Save this storySave this story A Shining, by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls (Transit). In this spare tale of disorientation and longing, by the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, a man gets stranded on a back road in a forest…
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When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars
Essay When Your Own Book Gets Caught Up in the Censorship Wars Illustration by Nicholas Konrad / The New Yorker; Source photographs from Getty Save this storySave this story Save this storySave this story At first, the invitation seemed thrilling. In June, a staff member at Christian Brothers University, in Memphis, Tennessee, reached out to…
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The Forgotten Giant of Yiddish Fiction
Books The Forgotten Giant of Yiddish Fiction Though his younger brother Isaac Bashevis Singer eventually eclipsed him, Israel Joshua Singer excelled at showing characters buffeted by the tides of history. By Adam Kirsch November 27, 2023 Isaac Bashevis Singer’s older brother wrote an entirely different kind of fiction, founded on realism and a commitment to…
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Teju Cole on Open-Ended Stories
This Week in Fiction Teju Cole on Open-Ended Stories Illustration by The New Yorker; Source photograph by Donavon Smallwood Save this storySave this story Save this storySave this story “Incoming” is a collection of short pieces, written separately, which we assembled with the idea that they were thematically linked and would resonate together. Can you…
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How to Kill a Literary Genre
The Novelist:A Novelby jordan castro soft skull, 208 pages, $24 Jordan Castro’s The Novelist: A Novel describes a morning during which an unnamed writer struggles to resume work on an autobiographical novel. He can’t stop himself from checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or his email; his progress is further impeded by anxiety, self-doubt, and the sheer…
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National book prize winners announced
The winners of the 2023 national book prize have been announced. Loranne Vella won the novels section with her book Marta Marta, Rita Saliba the short stories section with the book Tbajja’ tax-Xemx u Stejjer Oħra għad-Dell. The poetry section was won by Murad Shubert with Imbagħad il-Qiegħ and the drama section by Lon Kirkop with…
