Silvia Moreno-Garcia talked to Shondaland about her new novel Silver Nitrate.
Stream a new song by Lydia Loveless.
eBooks on sale for $1.99 today:
City Primeval by Elmore Leonard
Face It by Debbie Harry
eBooks on sale for $2.99 today:
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
eBooks on sale for $3.99 today:
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
eBook on sale for $4.99 today:
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
This week’s Largehearted Boy newsletter shared an anniversary playlist (of songs from the past year) as well as the usual links, likes, and weekly recap.
Stream a new song by the XX’s Romy.
Colson Whitehead discussed his new novel Crook Manifesto with Fresh Air.
Jaimie Branch and Jason Ajemian covered the Meat Puppets’ “Comin’ Down.”
Jennifer Fliss recommended books about identity and gender by Jewish women and nonbinary writers at Electric Literature.
Crass’s Penny Rimbaud discussed the band’s early ’80s compilations with Bandcamp Daily.
Electric Literature interviewed author Erica Berry.
Stream two new songs by Ruth Garbus.
Kirkus recommended 2023’s best graphic novels (so far).
Sturgill Simpson covered Larry Gatlin’s “All The Gold In California.”
Electric Literature shared a story from Alexandra Chang’s collection Tombkeeping.
Stream a new song by Adulkt Life.
First Draft interviewed author Alice Elliott Dark.
I think most fiction makes some sort of an argument, it could be called the central theme, which I think is from the reader point of view. But I think from the writer point of view, you’re making a case, you know, you’re making a case for people are good, or people are evil, or money is neutral, or else it’s something that can be really destructive. You’re making an argument about your worldview through the book.
Aquarium Drunkard interviewed Sexmob’s Steven Bernstein.
Oldster interviewed author Elissa Altman.
Stream a new song by James Murphy, Lol Tolhurst, Budgie, and Jacknife Lee.
Cynthia Ozick talked to the New Yorker about her story in this week’s issue.
Dave Gahan covered The Gun Club’s “Mother of Earth.”
Ann Beattie discussed her story collection Onlookers with Literary Hub.
I wouldn’t say this is a conventionally linked collection of stories. They’re variations on a theme. You’re right that there are a geographic and thematic component, but there’s not any one real link. Traditionally, in novels-in-stories, people will have the same characters come up in story after story, and there’s some sort of trajectory. But I think this one dances around a bit more than those types of books—I wasn’t really going for that same sense of accumulation. The actual significance of recurring images, like the Confederate statues, actually vary story to story. There are common elements, but it’s meant to be more of a theme than about characters.
Ruth Madievsky discussed her debut novel with The Millions.
I’ve always been a big reader, and I’ve always written for fun. In college, I was really lucky to fall in with a group of friends who were writing seriously, who were sending out work for publication, who were performing at open mic nights with real rigor. And it made me realize that this was something I could do, that it wasn’t just these extremes of either you publish bestselling novels and make millions of dollars, or you are a total failure.