AltWeeklies Wire
TCU Professor's Memoir: Happy, Poetic, But Slightnew
Titled after his college nickname, Alex Lemon's Happy is another in a slew of memoirs in the vein of Boy Meets Obstacle, Boy Overcomes Obstacle, Boy Finds Redemption. Typically in such books, a self-destructive young man is thrown into exigent circumstances that force him to confront the selfish asshole in the mirror.
Fort Worth Weekly |
Anthony Mariani |
01-25-2010 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Alex Lemon, Happy
Jamie Iredell Bends His Prose Poems Into a Novelistic Arcnew
The narrator of Jamie Iredell's Prose. Poems. A Novel. is named Larry, but no one ever calls him that. His co-worker Sharon calls him a "fucking son of a bitch" – a more fitting moniker despite its lack of brevity.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
01-19-2010 |
Fiction
Amy Bloom's (Mostly) New Stories Look for What Matters Mostnew
Amy Bloom's new collection is a revelation of the emotional violence and loss within friendship and complicated love. Many writers would do well to heed Bloom, who can compound the very essence of a relationship in a single phrase.
New Haven Advocate |
Nora Nahid Khan |
01-19-2010 |
Fiction
Greensboro Writer Riffs on New Phish Biographynew
First assigned to cover the band for Rolling Stone in 1995, Parke Puterbaugh became both fan and occasional band publicist, which granted him the access to observe Phish at their peak and through their drug-addled nadir.
INDY Week |
Rob Mitchum |
01-14-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Joshua Ferris’ Second Novel Has Legs and Knows How to Use Themnew
Whereas Illinois native Joshua Ferris, author of the award-winning debut novel Then We Came to the End, voluntarily relocated to New York, the protagonist of his thoughtful and unsettling second novel, The Unnamed, finds that a force beyond his control governs his physical movement.
New York Press |
Rayyan Al-Shawaf |
01-14-2010 |
Fiction
Philip Caputo Uses the Border as His Inspiration in 'Crossers'new
When writer Philip Caputo first came to Patagonia in 1996, he wasn't looking for the Arizona-Mexico borderlands to become a canvas for his fiction. The borderlands have a way of taking whatever part of you is given over to creativity and setting it on fire. The result, 2 1/2 years in the making, is his latest novel, Crossers.
Tucson Weekly |
Leo W. Banks |
01-13-2010 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Accessibility's Rainbow: Thomas Pynchon's 'Inherent Vice'new
A mere three years after the infamously reclusive author released Against the Day, a 1,000-plus-page world’s fair of themes, characters and pastiched genres, Pynchon may have thrown us his strangest curveball yet by delivering a novel that is accessible, readable, and relatively short: that is, rather un-Pynchonesque.
Tags: Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
Where Can I Find Comic Books?new
I went to four stores in one week, and in every single one, overgrown boys stood gloomily talking about girls—their problems with, their fantasies about. I also saw things strange and beautiful, thought-provoking and challenging and perhaps even the opposite of cliché.
San Diego CityBeat |
Clea Hantman |
01-13-2010 |
Books
Jayne Anne Phillips Summons Faulkner in 'Lark & Termite'new
On July 26, 1950, Corp. Robert Leavitt is leading a frenzied retreat in rural Korea. On July 26, 1959, his orphaned son Termite is sitting under a tree in West Virginia waiting for a rainstorm. Inside the house, Termite's half-sister Lark is baking him a birthday cake.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
01-12-2010 |
Fiction
Anthology Looks Back at the Year in Atlanta Artnew
FORM: artistic independence, an annual publication now in its second year, selects submissions from artists who live within 100 miles of Atlanta and binds them together in a big, hardbound book. Williams-England, a nonprofit design firm based out of WonderRoot Studio, has done an admirable job designing the volume.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
01-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Neil Gaiman Still Writes in the Shadow of His Masterpiecenew
Neil Gaiman's output equals only the tiniest fraction of the Disney corporate empire but he's a staggeringly prolific and eclectic creator. In the past 15 years, he's shifted his creative focus away from comics to other forms, including novels, kid-friendly picture books and high-profile screenplays.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
01-12-2010 |
Fiction
Tags: The Graveyard Book, neil gaiman
'Love at the Pub' Pours on the Praise for Decatur’s Brick Store Pubnew
There's something sweet in the task Mary Jane Mahan sets out to accomplish with Love at the Pub: An Insider's Guide to Craftsmanship, Conversation and Community at the Brick Store Pub. Mahan takes a small business – Decatur's Brick Store Pub – and turns it into a mythological realm.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Besha Rodell |
01-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Love at the Pub, Mary Jane Mahan
A Biography of Ayn Rand Examines Her Intellectual Legacynew
Jennifer Burns had access to Rand’s journals, letters and private papers. She’s put that access to good use in Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, a vivid, intellectual portrait of the woman born as Alisa Rosenbaum in 1905.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Wyatt Williams |
01-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
Ten Years of Pulitzer Prize Winners, And What They Say About Usnew
We are a nation of many religions and races, but we're only recently comfortable with that (and sometimes, not so much). We are serious and sober and value hard work, but we also like comic books. At the end of the day, all we'd like to do is go home and have a slice of pie.
Weekly Alibi |
Erin Adair-Hodges |
01-12-2010 |
Books
Christian Siriano Talks About Success, Style, the Industry, and Ferocitynew
Prior to evolving into the gravity-defying-coif-sporting, catchphrase-spouting enfant terrible who walked away with Project Runway's fourth season title, Christian Siriano was a self-described "little fairy white kid walking around in giant FUBU jerseys" in Annapolis.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
01-12-2010 |
Nonfiction
