Electric Literature shared a story from Rebecca Turkewitz’s collection Here in the Night.
Zachary Lipez recommended unsung power pop songs from all eras at Bandcamp Daily.
eBook on sale for $1.99 today:
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
eBooks on sale for $2.99 today:
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
The Last Holiday by Gil Scott-Heron
A Widow for One Year by John Irving
eBook on sale for $3.99 today:
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan
Stream a new song by Bonnie “Prince” Billy.
Salman Rushdie, William Boyd, A.O. Scott, and Ian McEwan remembered Martin Amis.
PopMatters reconsidered Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City album on its 10th anniversary.
The Oxford American shared new fiction by Jeffery Renard Allen.
Lydia Loveless & Jason Hawk Harris covered Rilo Kiley’s “Portions for Foxes.”
The New York Times listed the best books of the year so far.
Our Culture interviewed Mega Bog’s Erin Birgy.
I feel like the most important, somatic, physical thing that I can do is finding a way to play with the shell that you’re caged within and dancing. [laughs] When I was two years old, I wanted to be a dancer, and eventually, I wanted to be a choreographer. I always had this dance imprint for some reason, because it made me feel so excited.
The Creative Independent interviewed writer and critic Rayne Fisher-Quann.
The biggest positive for working in mainstream media is having an editor and the structure of deadlines. That’s something a lot of writers hate when they’re in the moment. But I think that there is something unimaginably valuable about someone saying, “You have to get this in at this time, no matter what.” For me, that has looked like me pulling an all-nighter and turning in something shitty. But I’ve learned there is value in having a deadline that motivates you to write 1,000 words.
Stream a new song by Johanna Samuels.
Reema Patel recommended books that bring Mumbai to life at Electric Literature.
Aquarium Drunkard shared a collection of Yo La Tengo deep cuts.
Kirkus profiled author Samantha Irby.
The Quietus discussed Memorials’ debut album with Verity Susman and Matthew Simms.
David James Keaton talked to Vol. 1 Brooklyn about his novel Head Cleaner.
I’d agree that at its core this is essentially a workplace novel. And the fact that the workplace was a video store—where walking back and forth from one end of the store to the other all day is its own sort of literal “genre-hopping”—meant that the other aspects of the novel sort of attached themselves to this gooey center as it chugged along? Kinda like a snowball rolling down the sticky floor of a movie theater. It certainly owes a lot to Stewart O’Nan’s workplace novella, Last Night at the Lobster, which for former retail or food-service workers is a stressful comfort read of the highest order (not a contradiction!)
The OTHERPPL podcast interviewed author Anne Elizabeth Moore.
D. Foy interviewed author Matthew Binder at Literary Hub.
Kimberly Mack discussed her 33 1/3 book on Living Colour’s Time’s Up album with Okayplayer.
First Draft interviewed author Curtis Sittenfeld.
Michele Mari talked to the New Yorker about his story in this week’s issue.