Tag: literature

The PEN America Literary Awards have been cancelled.

Following months of escalating protest over the organization’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, and the recent withdrawal of over a third of this year’s nominees, the 2024 PEN America Literary Awards have now officially been canceled. In the last hour, PEN America confirmed this cancellation in a press release published on the organization’s website: […]

A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Flowering of the Strange Orchid’ by H. G. Wells

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Little Shop of Horrors , the story is an unsettling tale about a parasitical species of plant which feeds upon the blood of a man who collects orchids. Perhaps a brief plot summary would be a wise place to begin. Summary ‘The Flowering of the Strange Orchid’ is about […]

The Empty Spotlight: On Nicolette Polek’s “Bitter Water Opera”

Bitter Water Opera by Nicolette Polek IN THE PENULTIMATE scene of The Red Shoes (1948), a spotlight strikes the stage. A man presents his hand to a closed door. It opens; there is nothing inside. He spins, and the spotlight spins with him. He leaps, pirouettes, and raises his arms, the spotlight following just beyond […]

IALA announces its 2024 annual grants for creative writing and translation

The Armenian Weekly The International Armenian Literary Alliance (IALA) is pleased to announce its three new annual grants for one writer and two translators whose works-in-progress show exceptional literary and creative ability. Applications open on September 1 until September 30, 2024, and winners will be announced in December 2024. The International Armenian Literary Alliance’s Creative […]

Contemporary Literary Novels Are Haunted by the Absence of Money

The following is the second of a six-part collaboration with Dirt about “The Myth of the Middle Class” writer. Check back here throughout the week for more on the increasingly difficult prospect of making a living as a full-time writer, or subscribe to Dirt to get the series in your inbox. _______________________ One of the […]

“Women! In! Peril!”

The following is the title story from Jessie Ren Marshall’s collection Women! In! Peril! . Marshall is a Japanese-American writer who holds an MFA in Fiction from NYU. Her work has appeared in The New York Times ‘ Modern Love column, Electric Literature, Triquarterly, The New England Review, The Gettysburg Review, Barrelhouse, The Common, ZYZZYVA, […]

Watching Pixels Die: Sony, HBO, and “The Last of Us”

WITH THE ARRIVAL of Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s Amazon Studios adaptation of Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout on April 10, the long-heralded convergence of prestige video games and prestige television finally seems fully underway. A version of this synthesis had long seemed inevitable. Despite decades of usually half-hearted attempts and the prevailing sense that Hollywood has […]

“We’re Never Alone”

Tobias Wolff at the Spring Revel in 2024. The Review was thrilled this year to honor Tobias Wolff with the Hadada Award , our annual prize for lifetime achievement in literature. At this year’s Spring Revel on April 2, Wolff spoke to a gathering of writers, artists, and friends. We are pleased to publish his […]

Against Journaling: Dennis Tang on the Joys of Not Writing It All Down

I remember being a small child, doing arithmetic at the kitchen table, but not what state I was in—Delaware, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, we moved all around. I remember the face of my middle school bully, but not his name. I remember falling desperately in love with a girl in my college Shakespeare lecture, but not what […]

Draw the Black Straw: On Jean Valentine’s “Light Me Down”

Light Me Down: The New and Collected Poems of Jean Valentine by Jean Valentine I MET JEAN on my own creative quest at 22. The summer after I graduated college, I went to the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, to take her weeklong workshop. My doubts about whether I was a “real” poet […]