The Scotsman runs a profile of Helen Oyeyemi, the twenty-year-old Nigerian writer who made a splash last year by signing a two-book deal with Bloomsbury. The obligatory Zadie Smith comparisons are made. Both authors are black and British, you see. Oyeyemi’s first novel, The Icarus Girl, has just been published in the U.K.
That’s it for me this week. The one and only Randa Jarrar takes over tomorrow and every Friday. I will be back on Monday with a major announcement, so please come back soon. Have a great weekend.
In the current issue of Word Riot, author Stephen Chbosky talks about attempts by a group of parents to have his book (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a coming of age story about a boy who can’t repress his emotions) banned from an elective course at a Milwaukee area high school. Despite others’ efforts to silence him, Chbosky wants remains open to dialogue:
If you can reach across and really talk to people-really communicate-it’s always better. I truly believe that, because then all sides feel respected and you might actually learn something. The Left hates President Bush like I’ve never heard the Left hate anybody, but they’re just like the Clinton haters six years ago. It’s the same exact rage. Passion is wonderful-in politics, in art, whatever-but it’s gotten to such an extreme that it’s strange. For my own education, I drove across the country and listened to nothing but right-wing books on tape: Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Bernie Goldberg…Half the country believes this, so it’s worth considering. I’m still a Democrat, I’m still a liberal, but it was worth it to learn about the other side and learn about that point of view. It’s just good manners.
That’s more than one can say for Bill “just shut up, cut his mike off” O’Reilly.
The January/February issue of film magazine The Independent is devoted to shorts, and includes, among other things, a production journal by director Jacob Okada and an overview of the short genre by Marissa Olson. I also happen to have a profile there about filmmaker Kevin Everson so if you’re interested, you can pick up a copy at any fine bookstore.
The winners of the Whitbread award have been announced–they are:
Now the judges (including actor Hugh Grant) will pick the overall winner. Coverage of this has started in all the usual places, and most of it is decent, though the Times takes the award for worst headline about: Whitbread judges favour women writers. Didn’t we just go through this with the NBA? And frankly, if 3 out of 5 are women, that could hardly be called favouring! God!
Al-Ahram runs its list of best books of 2004, and has included both books in Arabic and books in translation. A bit too much non-fiction for my taste, but they do include some choice works in fiction: The Dreams, a collection of short stories by Naguib Mahfouz, and a new edition of Zayni Barakat a novel by Gamal Al-Ghitani.
The Mexican government has issued a pamphlet that offers advice to illegal migrants who cross the border into the U.S. The guide offers advice such as “Crossing the river can be very dangerous, particularly if you are alone or do it at night” or “If you wear heavy clothes, they will become heavier when wet and this will make it more difficult for you to swim.” But the pamphlet has come under fire from U.S. groups, who say it encourages illegal immigration. As if the existence of a guide is what’s going to stop people from trying to make better lives for themselves.
In the Moorishgirl household, magazines fall under three categories. There’s the serious, like Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, Harper’s, lit mags, political rags, and so forth, which are promptly read and carefully shelved. There’s the fun and fluff like EW or In Style, which lie around for days unopened, finally having their pages torn and used as coasters on the kitchen counter. And then there’s the divine. Alex’s Sierra and Backpacker magazines are so carefully guarded, I’m not allowed near them. Every time I try to do a round of recycling, he makes sure I haven’t absconded with one of them. Hikers–the only people more neurotic than writers.
T.J. Forrester, a serious hiker and writer himself, has an essay about doing a PCT Thru-hike in the summer issue of Ink Pot. (Don’t know what a PCT Thru-hike is? Let me put it in terms you can understand. Doing this hike is like getting a book deal, winning an NEA, and publishing in NYer all in one year. In other words, it’s tough.) Anyway, check out T.J.’s story for a taste of what it’s like to walk from Mexico to Canada.
But this one takes a different angle, looking at writers who are prolific vs. those who are not.
Maud has a brief interview with Thomas Beller, one of the editors of Open City. (That magazine’s rejected four of my stories, but I still love it. Maybe the fifth time will be the charm?) Anyway, here’s a sample.
How do you guys approach slush pile submissions these days?Fear, loathing, anticipation, curiosity. Think of a slot machine. Any given day you get a combination of those four options, sometimes all one flavor, sometimes a mix. And there is a broad mix of readers. Another slot machine whirring at the same time.
That’s a perfect image, actually, combining the ramdomness of the submission, with the randomness of the readers’ taste, before the right combination hits. A while back, Maud had interviewed Land-Grant College Review editor Josh Melrod. She also talked to Paris Review editor Brigid Hughes.
