Treehouse

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

People seem to be making a fuss over this interview with Claire Messud about the main character of her novel The Woman Upstairs. Apparently the question about whether Messud would befriend her character is not the kind of question one might ask a male writer, or so that seems to be the complaint. That’s not why I’m linking it. I’m linking it for this: “If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble. We read to find life, in all its possibilities.” I wouldn’t go so far as to say I know why everyone reads, but there’s something there.

Attack of the Copy Editor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.Vigilantes for grammatical justice.

The Atlantic asks “What’s in a name?” and tries to find their answers from NPR’s reporters.

In The Rumpus, Elissa Bassist offers her take on the “American Woman Novelist,” at least as far as Wikipedia is concerned.

Fiction recommendation comes from The Collagist this week. It’s called “A Humiliation of Sparrows” by Michael Stewart.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

The New Yorker has some recommendations for this month’s upcoming book releases. It’s like beach reads for book nerds.

Stephen Soderbergh and a Twitter novella. Insert an audible sigh and of course he is here, please.

This is not really book related at all, but the story caught my eye and it is written down. It counts. Cannibalism in Jamestown? For shame, early settlers.

Old-timey librarians looking awesome, which is just how they do.

Writing advice in the form of somewhat obscure, possibly out-of-context quotes from the likes of Vonnegut, Hemingway, Bradbury, Steinbeck, and others.

Fiction recommendation this week comes from wigleaf: Bess Winter’s “How Do You Deal With the Horribly Cruel Things People Have Said to You Throughout Your Life?” It’s a story about people made out of walnuts. Favorite line? “Also, tiny hats.”

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

George Jones died yesterday. Ian Crouch remembers him in a short and sweet piece for The New Yorker. Since “He Stopped Loving Her Today” tribute videos will be much easier to find, I’ll only link to the song he mentions at the end.

Electric Lit is brilliantly capitalizing on the author sext trend that isn’t so much a trend as a wild marketing idea Sam Pink had with Rontel. If you missed those shenanigans, here’s a NSFW – I’m serious, don’t read it at work, unless you work in porn – transcript of the sexts Sam Pink sent.

Check out Ted Weesner’s list of writerly “don’ts” documented in The Review Review and then proceed not to abide by them.

My fiction recommendation this week is Paul Pelkin’s “Bread and Butter” in Spry.

And my final poetry recommendation (for National Poetry Month, not forever) is “The Journey” by Mary Oliver. If I’m going to send you off with something, it might as well be something great.

“This Week in Words” is one year old today! Celebrate!

Real quick: poem this week for National Poetry Month is Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.”

In the interest of literary brotherhood, I’m turning it over this week to Rikki Lux of Superstition Review to promote their latest issue and the party celebrating it. If you’re in Arizona, hit this party up, y’all.

Superstition Review, the online literary magazine at Arizona State University, is pleased to announce the launch of their 11th issue on Thursday, April 25th. A launch party to celebrate the occasion will take place at the Mesa Arts Center on Thursday, April 25th from 6 to 8pm.

The launch party will feature presentations by s[r]’s section editors discussing their favorite art, fiction, interviews, nonfiction, and poetry featured in issue 11, as well as a reading by issue 11 contributor Cynthia Hogue. Guests will have free access to the museum and to the exhibition “Creature Man Nature” by Arizona artists Monica Aissa Martinez, Carolyn Lavendar, and Mary Shindell, who are past contributors to Superstition Review.

The event will be catered by local vegan and vegetarian restaurant The Pomegranate Café, whose owner Cassie Tolman was the Poetry Editor for Issue 1 of Superstition Review. The menu includes:

RAW! Tacos Vivos
RAW! Arizona Rolls
RAW! Rainbow Wraps
Local Hummus Plate with a variety of fresh veggies and dips (baby carrots, snap peas, radishes, golden flax crackers, macadamia basil pesto, cilantro jalapeno hummus, sunflower ranch…)
Seasonal Bruschetta
Seasonal Fruit Tray with berries, melons & edible flowers
Assorted Pastry Tray
Beverages: Hibiscus Cooler & Seasonal Lemonade or Pomegranate Green Iced Tea

Since Superstition Review’s founding by ASU professor Patricia C. Murphy in 2008, s[r] has gained national attention, featuring work from over 500 contributors including: Aaron Michael Morales, Anthony Doerr, Barbara Hamby, Barbara Kingsolver, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Billy Collins, Bob Hicok, Chase Twichell, Cynthia Hogue, Dan Chaon, Daniel Orozco, Dara Wier, David Baker, David Hamilton, David St. John, Deborah Bogen, Denise Duhamel, Dick Allen, Dinty W. Moore, Eric Weiner, Erin McGraw, Ewing Campbell, Floyd Skloot, Frances Lefkewiz, H. Lee Barnes, and many more. All content is free to read and is available at superstitionreview.com.

Superstition Review hopes to see a large turnout at the launch party. All members of the literary and arts community are encouraged to attend.

Read about Superstition Review on their website and visit their blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts for more upcoming news about Issue 11’s launch.

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

In case you missed it – and if you don’t have Twitter, missing it wouldn’t be too hard to do – the American Society of Magazine Editors announced this year’s finalists for the National Magazine Awards. There are an overwhelming number of categories, so take a look around.

Here are some literary rumors for you to offer in conversation at parties. Something like this: “Oh, you drink almond milk? I heard Dave Eggers bathes in it. Apparently there’s video.” Try to do it with a straight face or you’ll never get the word out.

Somewhat related, the Barnes & Noble Book Blog is boasting a hypothetical dating profile for Jack Kerouac.

There’s this thing called The World Through Picture Books Project in which librarians select ten of their country’s favorite children’s books (based on a pre-arranged criteria). Thirty countries participated in the first selection, and results came out last year. For the US, Where the Wild Things Are tops the list, surprising no one; also listed are Goodnight Moon and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? among others. It’s enough to make me miss being a kid. (Access the whole list at the bottom of the page. It’s the PDF named “Catalogue.”)

As promised, here’s another poem I love in honor of National Poetry Month: Robert Frost’s “On Looking Up By Chance at the Constellations.”

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

Film critic Roger Ebert died this week. To keep it literary, here is Ebert’s sci-fi story “The Thinking Molecules of Titan” in its original, unedited form.

Also in The New Yorker, Roxana Robinson discusses writing her first full-length book review for The New York Times and the resultant telephone call from Anatole Broyard.

It’s April and you know what that means: National Poetry Month! So two things –

First, while we’re on the topic of The New York Times, senior software architect Jacob Harris created a haiku-hunting algorithm that scans the front page of The Times and creates haikus from eligible sentences. And before you ask – yes, there is a Tumblr for this.

Second, in honor of NPM, I’ll end each TWIW this month with one of my favorite poems. This week, you get “cats and you and me” by Charles Bukowski. Spoiler alert: it’s about cats…but not.

compiled by Rachel Bondurant

For The Millions, Emily St. John Mandel considers this age of social media and early 20th century writers who might have fared well with a Twitter account.

Goodreads is coming to your Kindle.

I don’t give poetry nearly as much love and attention that it deserves here. To make up for that, have at this list of first poems by famous authors.

In Electric Lit’s Recommended Reading, Etgar Keret writes a story for his buddy Todd… for all our buddies “Todd.”

And for those celebrating this weekend, don’t think I forgot about you. Chas Gillespie and McSweeney’s bring you fine holiday fun.