Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, one of the only all-poetry book shops in the nation—nay, the world!—had its triumphant grand opening a weekend ago. The day was full of cheer, liquid cheer, fellowship, books and chapbooks, and some two dozen readings. Everyone went home happy and fulfilled.
But I missed that. This is not about that.
Jonathan Miles launched his second novel, Want Not, at Greenlight Bookstore last night with a reading and questions from the audience. He is also a journalist and his first novel, Dear American Airlines (2008), garnered praise.
Eleanor Catton, author of the The Luminaries and recipient of the 2013 Man Booker Prize winner read from her novel at Community Bookstore. The novel, set in in 1866 New Zealand during the second gold rush, follows a tight structure linked to the signs of the Zodiac. The story unfolds during twelve days throughout a year, each corresponding with the zodiac periods, while twelve characters, also linked to astrological symbols, find themselves caught in a murder mystery.
Two giants of modern British literature came together to discuss their differences and read from their recent novels. Will Self, who is also a literal giant, read from his latest novel, Umbrella and Martin Amis read from Lionel Asbo.
The Center for Fiction brought Gabriel Roth and Kristopher Jansma together for a discussion of coming of age stories. Both Jansma’s The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards and Roth’s The Unknowns feature protagonists in their twenties coming to terms with adulthood. Roth qualifies this point by saying of his protagonist that “he completely fails to come of age,” and in a way, his novel is about the failure to mature.
Everywhere one travels in literary circles—book launches, cocktail parties, the adjunct lounges at third-tier academic institutions—one hears the same lament: We have too many writers. Whether the cause is the invention of the word processor and the availability of self-publishing on demand, or the explosion of new MFA programs, or merely a culture steeped in […]
The Center for Fiction hosted a panel discussion focusing on process and craft inspired by Dani Shapiro’s new memoir, Still Writing. Along with Shapiro, the panel included Darin Strauss, author of the memoir Half a Life (September 2010) and novel More Than it Hurts (June 2008) and Adam Wilson, author of Flatscreen (February 2012) and a forthcoming collection of stories.
McNally Jackson Books served as the last stop on the American book tour for Romanian author Mircea Cărtărescu as he celebrated the release of the English translation of Blinding, a novel described as dream-memoir. He was joined by Joshua Cohen, author of Witz (2010) and Four New Messages (2012).
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