Ramona Ausubel discussed her novel The Last Animal with The Cut.
That was why I wrote the book: to be able to look at the changing planet in a serious way and in a way that felt like there was a thread of light. It’s not exactly hope because nothing about the planet looks better at the end of the book. Pressing those two truths together — that things can be really bleak and scary and that we can love each other so much as our complicated, imperfect, growing selves — feels like the place where hope is, without pretending like any of the hard stuff is any less hard.
Literary Hub also interviewed Ausubel.
Electric Literature shared a new essay by Ausubel.
Stream an AI-generated “lost” Oasis album.
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Depeche Mode covered Scott Walker’s “Sundown.”
Amber Tamblyn interviewed poet Rachel McKibbens.
Amber Tamblyn: How does a poem come to you? What is the first seed of it, and how does it plant itself in you?
Rachel McKibbens: Most often, a poem starts manifesting after a word combo gets stuck in my brain. I’m a sucker for sound texture; my ear is always waiting to hear an interesting sonic pattern. I’ll lift a word from a nearby stranger’s conversation then build from there. I use a lot of assonance and consonance in my work. Slant rhyme and meter. I’ll begin with a couple words that carry a fun musicality, like “lovesick witch,” then build an entire poem around them. The rest of the writing process is me figuring out the tone of the poem based on that image and then mapping a way to get to it.
The Guardian profiled Natalie Merchant.
Stream a new song by Everything But the Girl.
Book Riot and Literary Hub recommended the week’s best new books.
Joshua Abrams talked to NPR Music about his band, National Information Society.
Anna Metcalfe discussed her debut novel Chrysalis with Electric Literature.
Bandcamp Daily profiled doom metal clarinetist Jeremiah Cymerman.
Call Cymerman a heavy metal clarinetist; he’s likely the only one there is. Though more experimental subgenres of metal have occasionally made room for woodwinds—usually squealing saxophones—Cymerman’s playing shows how well the clarinet, in imaginative hands, is suited for music that uses dark sounds and atmospheres as both a means and an end. His centered, clear, strong tone outlines and traverses the far-reaching landscapes that Bloodmist produces.
Shondaland recommended books for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Dirty Projectors and Björk shared an unreleased live version of “On and Ever Onward.”
The International Booker Prize has announced its shortlist.
Highway 81 Revisited interviewed the Fruit Bats’ Eric Johnson.
Stream a new song by Oxbow.
Talk Easy interviewed author Margo Jefferson.
Stream a track from Sufjan Stevens’ forthcoming ballet score.
Stream two new songs by the Japanese House.
Stream a new song by Temple of Angels.
Stream a new song by bar italia.
Stream a new song by Joanna Sternberg.