Denis Johnson: “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden”

Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Denis Johnson’s “The Largesse of the Sea Maiden” was originally published in the March 3, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor I think Denis Johnson is an exceptional writer, so I was excited … Read more

Twenty Short Pieces of Modern Korean Literature

The Literature Translation Institute of Korea has been actively working to showcase English translations of modern Korean literature. Last year, they collaborated with Dalkey Archive to bring out the first ten of a planned twenty-five book set of modern Korean literature “aim[ed] to introduce the intellectual and aesthetic diversity of contemporary Korean writing to English … Read more

Leigh Brackett: The Long Tomorrow

I have to admit that I didn’t know Leigh Brackett was a renowned science fiction author. I only knew her through her screenwriting credits. In 1946 she worked with William Faulkner on Howard Hawks’ film adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep. In 1959, she worked with Hawks again on his 1959 film Rio Bravo, one of my favorites. She returned to Raymond Chandler in … Read more

Dan Rhodes: Marry Me

Dan Rhodes’ Marry Me (2013), just out in the U.S. from Europa Editions, is a collection of around 80 short — very short — stories focused on, says Michael Dirda in his exciting review for The Washington Post (here), love, marriage, infidelity, divorce, and death. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, right? I actually do not have this … Read more

Bernard Malamud: The Natural

Later this month, The Library of America will publish the first two of what will be three volumes of Bernard Malamud’s work: Malamud: Novels and Stories of the 1940s & 50s and Malamud: Novels and Stories of the 1960s. Before these volumes arrived, I’d read only The Fixer (included in the second volume), and that was five years ago … Read more

Inaugural Folio Prize Shortlist

Today the inaugural Folio Prize shortlist was announced, and it’s filled with some interesting stuff: Red Doc>, by Anne Carson Schroder, by Amity Gaige Last Friends, by Jane Gardam Benediction, by Kent Haruf The Flame Throwers, by Rachel Kushner A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimer McBride A Naked Singularity, by Sergio De La … Read more

Karl Ove Knausgaard: “Come Together”

Click here to read the abstract of the story on The New Yorker webpage (this week’s story is available only for subscribers). Karl Ove Knausgaard’s “Come Together” (tr. from the Norwegian by Don Bartlett) was originally published in the February 17 & 24, 2014 issue of The New Yorker. Trevor Since this is merely an excerpt … Read more