A Quick Technical Note for the Weekend

Posted by Tobias Carroll

Posting will be light this weekend, as we’re in the process of moving Vol.1 to a new host. The changes should be transparent, and there won’t be any need to update your bookmarks or feed reader settings. Indexing and Sunday Stories will return next weekend.

The only significant change is this: if you subscribe to our posts via email, you will need to resubscribe to our new mailing list next week.

Thanks for reading. See you on Monday.

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Afternoon Bites: Stephen Fry, Geoff Dyer on criticism, the Month of Letters challenge, and more

“It seems to me that now there could be a real incentive to write negatively. I would be wary if this were to serve as any sort of inducement to write witty and damning phrases. The key thing is the sensitivity of the response and the accuracy of the judgment.” At The Guardian, Geoff Dyer and Anna Baddely discuss criticism. (via MobyLives)

• Stephen Fry is interviewed on the Bat Segundo Show.

• Mary Robinette Kowal on her Month of Letters challenge: “The things that I am writing are things that I expect will still be relevant in a week.”

• At Slate, Curtis Sittenfeld interviews Emily Danforth.

• Kate Zambreno, who’ll be reading next Monday at Franklin Park, is interviewed at The L Magazine.

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The Week In Reviews: Jay-Z at Carnegie Hall, the journalism of Charles Dickens, Edward St Aubyn’s prose, and more

A weekly appreciation for the art of the review.

Afternoon Bites: Hanksy Speaks! Chabon on comics! Straub on Walhberg! and more.

“…Feather and Conn are not Stan and Jack; their fates, their experiences, their biographies, and their personalities are quite different. Jack Kirby died in 1994, still idolized by fans, surrounded by his loving family, as far from the embittered loneliness of Mort Feather as you can be. And Stan Lee is still going strong, a potent creative force who seems to bear up under the tribulations and triumphs of a long and interesting life with the élan for which he has always been famous.” Michael Chabon is interviewed at The New Yorker‘s Book Bench.

• Maura Johnston on Mark Lanegan’s recent Bowery Ballroom show.

• Emma Straub talks about the reissue of her collection Other People We Married, and also Donnie Wahlberg.

• “I have the craziest and the most delusional belief that there is far more to language than we’ve even discovered.” Ben Marcus, interviewed by Joe Winkler.

• Dan Wickett talks about some of his most anticipated books for 2012.

• At The Awl, EA Hanks interviews the artist known as Hanksy.

• Garth Ennis has written a children’s book.

• C.P. Heiser talks to record collector Murray Gershenz.

• Kate Zambreno’s Heroines has a cover.

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Coming Soon to a Lower East Side Near You*

Posted by Tobias Carroll

This post serves as your gentle reminder that on Thursday, we’ll be presenting our “Stories from the Lower East Side” reading at RAC at 9 Clinton Street.

The Lower East Side has been the source of some of our favorite art and music; the home to legendary music venues past and present; the site of social protests, economic upheaval, cheap pizza, and expensive cocktails. It is also the muse for Vol.1’s first event in Manhattan: a night of fiction and nonfiction inspired by this ever-shifting landscape. Four of our favorite writers — including two alumni of our Sunday Story Series — will read work informed by the Lower East Side. Join us on February 9th at RAC, (9 Clinton Street), beginning at 7 PM. Bios follow; Facebook RSVP here.

Afternoon Bites: Chris Andrews on translation, Hot Lit Mags, James Sturm on Jack Kirby, and more

Tom Roberge looks at 13 different ways of interacting with Anne Carson’s Nox.

• Via The Towering Irrelevance, an interview with translator Chris Andrews.

• The readers of HTML Giant offer their take on today’s hottest lit mag.

• Susie Deford is interviewed at The Rumpus on self-publishing.

• James Sturm on The Avengers, Marvel Comics, and Jack Kirby.

• WORD’s book group interviewed Among Others author Jo Walton. (Here’s our take on Among Others.)

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Notes on Quentin Rowan, Yeti, and Bits of Spy Novels

Posted by Tobias Carroll

Yeti editor Mike McGonigal recently set up a blog, including a page with some information on upcoming Yeti books. One of them? Quentin Rowan’s Never Say Goodbye.

Right about now would probably be a good time to link to Edward Champion’s coverage of the plagiarism in Rowan’s spy novel Assassin of Secrets (written under the name QR Markham); there’s also a piece on Rowan in this week’s New Yorker.

On his site, McGonigal has this to say about the upcoming book: “I decided to publish it because I think it’s a really good book, and that it turns out Mr. Rowan really is a strong writer. Too bad it took all this craziness for him to finally write.” The reception for this book should be an interesting one…

Reviewed: “Sister Stop Breathing” by Chiara Barzini

Review by Tobias Carroll

Sister Stop Breathing
by Chiara Barzini
Calimari Press; 92 p.

Chiara Barzini’s collection Sister Stop Breathing isn’t a lengthy collection, but its range of emotions and tones can be exhausting. Though these stories are, for the most part, brief, the shifts from realism to surrealism, from the American Southwest to urban Italy, can be dizzying. Like the collages that complement some of the stories, the full scope of the organization here can seem dense at first. What emerges is primarily rewarding, transporting the reader to a strange space between known qualities.

Afternoon Bites: William S. Burroughs in pop culture, “Angelmaker” gets a trailer , 90s hardcore and Skrillex, and more

“I spent a lot of time at Abbey Road Books waiting for movies to start, and on one occasion made a special trip for an event: a book signing featuring Rich Hall of Not Necessarily the News and Sniglets fame. I believe this was in the summer of 1986.” At The Millions, Bryan Charles remembers Abbey Road Books.

• At Flavorwire, Emily Temple gathers a list of pop culture references to William S. Burroughs.

• Daphne Carr looks at the legacy of 90s hardcore via a Skrillex show.

• Nick Harkaway’s Angelmaker has an excellent-looking trailer.

• Jason Santa Maria looks at some recent examples of excellent web typography.

• If you’re in Los Angeles later this month, Percival Everett and Steve Erickson will be conversing at Central Library on the 16th.

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Whoever Wrote the Father John Misty Bio Had Us In Mind

Posted by Tobias Carroll

So: later on this year, Sub Pop will be releasing Fear Fun, the debut album from an artist called Father John Misty. That’s the latest project from one J. Tillman, who’s released several solo albums, and has also spent time in an obscure folk-rock outfit called Fleet Foxes.

From looking at the bio, it’s worth noting the literary types mentioned: the names of Richard Brautigan, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Bukowski are invoked alongside those of Arthur Russell and Harry Nilsson. All of which seems like catnip designed to lure in lit-bloggers such as ourselves. And…evidently, it worked.

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