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February 10, 2020
Shorties (Gish Jen on Her New Novel, An Interview with Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, and more)
The Los Angeles Times profiled author Gish Jen and her novel The Resisters.
Jen relished the freedom of imagining the future — freedom from reality and freedom from anger. “If you try to write about our present moment, you might get caught in outrage. By setting ‘The Resisters’ farther in the future, I was able to make it less driven by reaction. I could focus on what it might mean to live in a world resulting from the consequences of our present decisions. Ironically, I’m better able to describe the human experience.”
This Must Be the Gig interviewed the Lower Dens' Jana Hunter.
Ziggy Marley discussed Bob Marley's legacy at Weekend Edition.
Rolling Stone shared a history of Bob Marley in photos to celebrate the musician's 75th birthday.
History remembered the 1957 graphic novel, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, that helped spark the civil rights movement.
All Songs Considered and Paste recapped the week's best new albums.
CBC Books recommended spring's best Canadian comics.
The Current interviewed Michael Stipe.
FreshWater interviewed Derf Backderf about his forthcoming graphic novel Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio.
When you sit down to write a book, you have to decide what it's about. And I decided to focus specifically on those four and show it through their eyes and their experiences. Because I wanted it to be personal, and I wanted it to be emotional, especially when you get to know these kids, know their hopes, dreams, fears, how they spend their days, and then they're cut down. I mean, it really packs a wallop at the end. So that was my intention. It could have very easily been an 800-page book, it's a very long, complex story, but I couldn't do that. So I narrowed the focus down as much as I could. It's still 250 pages. It's substantial.
Musician and sound artist Katie Gately discussed her favorite albums at The Quietus.
BBC News profiled author Chukwuemeka Ike, who passed away last month.
While the literary themes of the time were focused on the conflict that existed between the West and Africa, he was one of the earliest writers to capture the tide of the emerging cosmopolitan Nigeria.
The Guardian interviewed members of the Drive-By Truckers.
Candice Carty-Williams talked to the Guardian about her novel Queenie.
I’ve always been someone who spots what is fair and what is not and I really operate on fairness. When I was growing up I would always recognise something unfair and think: “How can I change that?” When I worked at 4th Estate I thought this whole industry was quite staid. Queenie is part of the same thing – I wanted to bring forth that representation.
Stream two new solomon songs.
The Philadelphia Inquirer recommended spring's best books.
Stream a new song by Lady Lamb.
The New York Times remembered author Roger Kahn.
Stream a new Phantogram song.
The Carol Shields Prize will award 150,000 Canadian dollars to a woman or non-binary novelist.
Stream a new Bill Baird song.
Clare Beams discussed her debut novel The Illness Lesson with The Rumpus.
I have a longstanding and abiding love of schools as settings for fiction. There’s something about the self-contained nature of a classroom, and the extremity and nakedness of the power dynamics inside it, that concentrates drama in a way I find irresistible. I have so many vivid, visceral memories of being a student—of what it feels like to be part of a larger organism, the class, over which you as an individual have only so much power. When I began teaching and became part of a community of teachers, I found the work gave me all kinds of new ideas about ways of controlling a room—controlling people, really, both in groups and individually—and what the effects of these various kinds of control might be. All of that certainly came into play as I crafted the school that is the backdrop of this novel. A school seemed the perfect setting for containing and magnifying the kinds of contradictions that most interested me.
Stream a new Alicia Clara song.
Vogue editors shared their Fashion Month reading.
Stream a previously unreleased David Bowie song.
Roxane Gay shared her favorite books of 2019.
Napalm Death covered Sonic Youth's "White Kross."
The Guardian interviewed author Pettina Gappah about her novel Out of Darkness.
I’m interested in goodness. I will write about dark things – injustice, a collapsed Zimbabwe – but I want goodness to shine through; the idea that beautiful things can happen out of horrible situations. The Book of Memory was about different kinds of love – and so is this book. It’s about loyalty, commitment, love – and all of those things are related to goodness. What it takes to be a good servant is something I’m fascinated by – I love The Remains of the Day. I am by nature a servant – a lawyer who advises people. For me it’s important to help someone shine, to use my skills to help them be the best they can
Zadie Smith on the art of Kara Walker.
Literary Hub interviewed author Lidia Yuknavitch.
Latina authors shared the books that changed their lives at Remezcla.
also at Largehearted Boy:
previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics and graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
weekly music release lists
