Today’s “browser” brings you a number of recent items from The New York Times:
In last Sunday’s magazine, Wyatt Mason profiled poet Frederick Seidel.
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Also in the magazine: this q & a with Joyce Carol Oates.
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And from the book review: a column on book advances.
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And from the daily editions this week: an Amos Oz profile.
Arisa White, Tea Party magazine’s features editor, wrote in earlier this week and asked me to point you all to Tea Party‘s current call for submissions for an issue to be published in June which will be themed “The Free Issue.” Submission deadline is March 20, 2009. You’ll find all the details here. (Tea Party pays honoraria of $10-$50.)
Over on my other blog, I’ve written a few words about Josh Lambert’s superb new book, American Jewish Fiction (Jewish Publication Society, 2009).
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The new Poets & Writers contest blog presents an interview with Cynthia Lowen, a frequent competition winner.
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Practicing writer Mardi Link explores “the allure of true crime” in this essay for Publishers Weekly
In case you haven’t heard by now, the literary world lost one of its giants this week: John Updike passed away.
I have to confess I haven’t read as much Updike as I probably should have by this point in life, though reading through the tributes I’ve been inspired to go back and read some of the big books I’ve missed (Rabbit and Bech, that means you). I’m also going to be sure to read his very last book, which will be out later this year (it’s a collection of short stories).
As usual, the Literary Saloon has rounded up some of the coverage. Take some time to read at least a few of the pieces about this major American author. What I don’t yet see listed there, but recommend heartily, is this article in the Boston Globe, and the video at NYTimes.com.
You know what happens when you revisit the site of a good friend who writes? You are even more impressed with your friend’s grasp of writing (and other matters), and you feel even luckier that this person is your friend. That’s what happened to me a few days ago when I checked in with my pal (from a shared Iowa Summer Writing Festival workshop more than a decade ago), Natalie Wexler.
Natalie, an essayist and an historical novelist, has posted an archive of excellent original columns on her site. The pieces stretch back to August 2007, and are sure to interest anyone interested in the following topics: self-publishing; the early history of the Supreme Court (one of Natalie’s particular fields of expertise and a subject central to her novel, A More Obedient Wife); writing about “bit players in history”; researching one’s historical fiction; and much more.
And to hear even more about/from Natalie, read our own archived interview from 2007.