The current issue (#66) of Tin House features a short piece by me on George Eliot's phenomenally strange novella The Lifted Veil, as well as fiction by Dorothy Allison and Helen Phillips, poetry by Sharon Olds and Cornelius Eady, and a provocative essay on gender in writing and publishing entitled "Pandering," by Claire Vaye Watkins. And much more! For now, the piece can be read online here (note: you have to scroll down to the section Lost & Found and select the piece).
The Talk of Their Town
The Sunday, December 6 edition of The New York Times Book Review carries my review of two New Yorker-related books: Reporting Always, by Lillian Ross, and Cast of Characters, by Thomas Vinciguerra. Read it here.
Knausgaard's Triumph
I've got a new piece in the Fall 2015 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review on Karl Ove Knausgaard. While it seems as if hundreds of thousands of words have already been written about this author, I felt that certain things had not been said. Even those who love his work often throw around words like "boring" and "narcissistic" to describe it; I argue Nay. I also take on what seems to me the too-easy charge that if a woman had written the same six volumes, they would not have become an international sensation.
Zone
Probably my first and last published translation ever: Apollinaire's "Zone" a poem (really an event!) I've long loved. In The Brooklyn Rail's monthly "In Translation" feature.
Teaching Fellowships
I've learned I've been awarded teaching fellowships at both the 2015 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and the 2015 Wesleyan Writers Conference. I'm eagerly looking forward to both conferences and to getting to know the fellows, faculties, and contributors at each.
Oh, Flavorwire!
Oh, Flavorwire! You named The Virgins one of the 50 Greatest Summer Reads of All Time!
Robin Black Essay
Novelist and short-story writer Robin Black (If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This; Life Drawing) has penned a provocative piece for The New York Times in which she argues that literary prizes should not so often be age-based (i.e., geared to the young). I was tickled to find myself mentioned there, along with Edith Pearlman and Rachel Cantor (nice company!), for being a writer who only "emerged" after the age of forty. I would add my own opinion that both writers and the literary community could benefit from more prestigious prizes being given for novels that are not first novels. (For instance, PEN has no general award for "later" fiction, only debuts.)