Another day, another literary scandal. Such is BookX in 2024. Buckle up, for today brings news of an especially strange case of dissembling, involving a fantasy author writing under a few different racial identities and a handful of pseudonyms. I’m sorry in advance if you were using your brain today for other things. The trouble […]
I met Allie Tanner in November of 2016 at the Brooklyn reading series Franklin Park. The first words she ever said to me were “Are you okay?” (I was. I used to call the raffle at Franklin Park, and felt that microphones were for cowards, so I did not use them.) We’ve been together for […]
Smart robots have populated fiction for generations, but now with artificial intelligence exploding around us, we’re seeing more titles than ever that grapple with this technology. In the following novels and stories, authors delve into personal relationships between humans and A.I. consciousnesses that may or may not inhabit bodies. Themes of loneliness, love, personhood, and […]
Rachel Syme Staff writer You’re reading the Goings On newsletter, a guide to what we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week. Sign up to receive it in your in-box. So far, 2024 has been light on blockbuster films—most studios wait to release their juggernauts until late spring, so as not to distract from Oscars […]
“A Saint Reading,” circa 1470Credit…Bartolomeo Vivarini Hold your breath/Make a wish/Count to three/Come with me and you’ll be/In a world of pure imagination. Instead of touring a surreal chocolate manufacturer today, we’re wishing ourselves to someplace much realer and saltier, which is … Italy! I was fortunate enough to travel to lovely Parma last month […]
Photo by Louis Reed on Unsplash For me, the term “mad scientist” brings to mind images of bubbling beakers filled with neon liquids; elongated, menacing silhouettes; and of course (Pinky and) the Brain. There is a long history of stories from Frankenstein and The Island of Dr. Moreau all the way to Rick and Morty […]
The inspiration for Cassandra In Reverse came—as art sometimes does—from heartbreak, or something quite like it. A short but intense relationship that unravelled so quickly, and so unexpectedly, I was left reeling. What had gone wrong? Was it my fault? What could I have done differently? Caught in a familiar, never-ending thought-loop, I spent months […]
Writer Claire Hopple discusses kindness, the problem with complaining about your creative work, and mental fireworks. Writing , Process , Inspiration From a conversation with Shy Watson Highlights on Download as a PDF Your novella and stories collection, Echo Chamber has moments that remind me of Garielle Lutz . Is she an inspiration of yours? […]
It’s that spooky frisson that makes you, for a split second, want to throw your book across the room. Or chuckle. Or flail, blindly, for the familiar barrier between storyworld and readerworld—you know, your world. There’s nothing as electric as an experimental flourish executed well, and metafiction (defined, loosely, as fiction which draws attention to […]
We’re in the realm of myth and magic today, with a novel based on the great epic Beowulf and a novella inspired by a Japanese folk tale. Both books have covers that are among the most beautiful of the season. (Calumet Editions) “Sister of Grendel”: by Susan Thurston (Calumet Editions, $18.99 paperback). I want to […]
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