Paper Cuts

Let’s All Go Through the Wide Open Gate of Mount Holyoke College to Our Wednesday Roundup

Joshua Cohen on Paper Cuts! This is very exciting. Weirdly, his book wasn’t reviewed on Sunday–I’m holding out for this coming weekend, though.

This is really interesting. Thanks to Rachel Fershleiser for passing it along.

Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens. For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.

from Jeremy Schmall- the Crimethinc. guide to what to do when you are stopped by a cop.

Zizek Zizeks on the Iceland volcano.

Nathaniel Rich on Ray Bradbury at Slate.

Tao Lin interviewed on Chuck Palahniuk’s The Cult, a website I did not know existed and now am kind of wigged out by. They’ve got their own whole universe over there, apparently, with a writing workshop and tee shirts. Live and let live, I guess. Oh also, if you’re in the city, homeboy’s in an art show on Friday.

Last thing: this month’s Harper’s is fantastic. Readings opens with a commencement speech Barry Hannah gave at Bennington in 2002. Also includes an excerpt from Padgett Powell’s “Manifesto,” the long wild piece that was published in Little Star #1, and a collection of slang terms for methamphetamine. Why not? I don’t know if people realize this, but a subscription to Harper’s costs $16.97. Seriously. That’s it. Newsstand price per issue is $6.95. So basically, if there are decent odds that you might buy an issue of Harper’s three times over the course of a calendar year, you might as well just sign up and have it all the time.

Roundup / 18 Comments
May 19th, 2010 / 1:12 pm

The Whole Thing About Poetry

At the Juniper Festival a few weeks ago there was a panel about The Future of Poetry. The panelists were Evie Shockley, Cathy Park Hong, Heather Christle and Rebecca Wolfe. It was good, cutting edge, perhaps too polite but definitely the sort of thing that is supposed to happen at panels.

Rebecca Wolff said poetry doesn’t matter and it sucks that poets, who are smart and engaged people, are wasting their lives on something cloistered and anonymous (my words) when they should become civil servants, business people, people who can make a difference. Essentially, the world is missing the poet’s perspective in areas where they are needed.

I could be paraphrasing this in an unacceptable way, just so you know. But that was the gist. READ MORE >

Behind the Scenes & Craft Notes / 54 Comments
May 12th, 2010 / 11:43 am

There’s a nice reading log of Ander Monson’s Vanishing Point up at the NYTimes book blog, Paper Cuts. It asks about the future of the book, where the book is a, uh, book.

Creative Nonfiction via Blog

Creative Nonfiction is putting together an anthology of blog posts from the past six months that give body to the form as form. They are looking for nominations for inclusion. Here is more info & how:

Recently, the NY Times’ Paper Cuts blog ran an interesting piece about whether or not a blog could rise to the level of literature (http://tiny.cc/thr48). Their answer, ultimately, was no, but the editors at Creative Nonfiction (www.creativenonfiction.org) are trying to remove this “less-than” tag many ascribe to the form. For the past three years we’ve been featuring blog posts in our publications, and we are currently seeking narrative blog posts to reprint in our next issue (#39: Summer Reading; forthcoming July 2010).

What we’re looking for:  Vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell. Posts must be able to stand alone, 2000 words or fewer, and posted between November 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010. Deadline for nominations is 12 pm EST, Monday, April 26, 2010.

To nominate a blog post or for more info, go here: http://www.creativenonfiction.org/blog/blog_nomination.html

Glad someone is doing this. Help them make it hard.

Uncategorized / 38 Comments
April 22nd, 2010 / 2:23 pm

I’ve written a short piece for Paper Cuts: Literary Mourning–Thoughts on Barry Hannah.