“If we want to be true to the experience of desire…we must be able to imagine, and tolerate, an entirely different form of selfhood: one that is open to the risks of rapture.” Duly decadent review Ellen Wayland-Smith of Becca Rothfeld’s new book The Millions. themillions.com/2024/05/becca-…

Charlotte Mandell frank wynne 🏳️‍🌈 OMG I love Mathias Énard so much. Here's my take on an earlier book. themillions.com/2018/04/obsess… The Millions

I wrote about Becca Rothfeld’s book “All Things Are Too Small” and I’d love it if you’d give it a read!

'Is Salman Rushdie an artist or a symbol? Can he be one but not the other? Or perhaps it’s an all-or-nothing affair and he is both or else neither.'
themillions.com/2024/05/sharp-…

'Auster spoke in a rolling purr that was equal parts seduction and lament. His voice sounded like cognac poured over stones instead of ice.'
Paul Auster’s Voice The Millions themillions.com/2024/05/paul-a…

'If we want to be true to the experience of desire—whether for the beauty of art or the beauty of the beloved—we must be able to imagine, and tolerate, an entirely different form of selfhood: one that is open to the risks of rapture.' themillions.com/2024/05/becca-…

I wrote about Elias Canetti's The Book Against Death, the eternal conflict between death and literature and Austrian intellectual history for The Millions themillions.com/2024/05/elias-…

'Canetti’s writing against death is a rebellion against the Holocaust and two world wars, but it is also a rebellion against Austrian intellectual life.' A phenomenal and wide-ranging piece on the new Canetti from World Spirit On Unemployment Benefits in The Millions! themillions.com/2024/05/elias-…

Not long before Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize, we published this fantastic little primer on her work by Ben Dolnick. themillions.com/2012/07/a-begi…

I loved chatting with Lilly Dancyger over at The Millions about her new book First Love: Essays on Friendship

Against 'Latin American Literature' | @the_millions buff.ly/3ynZXru

'Writing is hard. It’s always going to be hard [...] no piece of advice or class or craft book is ever going to change that.'

I’m in The Millions today, talking to Elizabeth Endicott about what writers owe to ppl in our lives, & the truth about writing advice… bit.ly/4agDkCN

'I do think that we, as writers, owe things to the people in our lives that we care about. We do have a responsibility to them to be mindful and respectful and considerate in what we disclose to the public.' themillions.com/2024/05/lilly-…

'When a writer dies there is some consolation in the record that he or she has left behind.'

Michael O'Donnell reflects on Paul Auster. themillions.com/2024/05/paul-a…

Sad to hear about Steve Albini - I met him about 20 years ago because he was a huge baseball fan, to the point that he sponsored a men's team on the north side of Chicago. I wrote about the park where they played and talked to Albini about baseball here themillions.com/2009/02/baseba…

#FromTheArchive 'Bring back those full-page portraits that pronounced 'I wrote a book, dammit.'' themillions.com/2017/03/bring-…

“Writing and reading, like immigration, can allow us to become someone else. This is easy to see when we practice or enjoy literary translation, but even more so when we read or write in languages other than our own.” Happy pub day Nicolás Medina Mora!

Nicolás Medina Mora woke up this
morning and chose violence. You should read his novel. Everything he writes is excellent.

Aaaand just in case you haven't gotten enough of me for today, here's a short rant I wrote for The Millions, where I argue against 'Latin American Literature'. themillions.com/2024/05/agains…

'Why do we insist on speaking of 'Latin American culture' as if the half-billion human beings who populate the region had anything in common beyond an accident of geography?'

Nicolás Medina Mora rethinks the categorization of Latin American literature.
themillions.com/2024/05/agains…