Last night, I read at the launch of the The Big Issue's Fiction Edition; Shane Maloney delivered a wonderfully wry launch speech, in which he also offered me a free piece of literary advice: 'Emmett, tuck your shirt in.'
Sam Rutter also read a brilliant short story, and fun was had by all (or at least me). I'm extremely happy to be involved with the issue, which, incredibly, has a readership of over 150,000 (those of you who know anything about magazine metrics, know that readership is distinct from actual purchases; apochryphally, The New York Times claims a readership that is double to its sales, based on the argument that every edition is actually read by at least two people, and I worked for a magazine that claimed a readership four times the size of its print run. I'm not saying these figures aren't right (I'm sure they are!), but just thought I'd clarify the term 'readership').
Anyway, I've read some really great/interesting articles online over the last week, and (because I am too lazy to write a real post) thought I might list a few of them:
- Joshua Cohen, the author of Witz, which is on my 'to-read' list, offers a scathing, but very funny review of Gordon Lish's Collected Fictions. (Lish, as you probably know, was Raymond Carver's editor).
- The consistently brilliant Quarterly Conversation has a pictorial spread of Joseph McElroy's books. I've only read Smuggler's Bible, but I have a (remaindered) hardback of his 1,192-page Women and Men (purchased at a U.S. thrift store for $1.99) staring out at me from my bookshelf like a dare...
- Overland ran a response to Harvest's response to Ted Genoways' Mother Jones article, 'The Death of Fiction', from earlier this year. I love Overland (and its blog is currently my favorite lit journal blog), but I have a few reservations about their position on this one...
- Also, a great Meanland post, which debunks Amazon's claim of ebooks outselling hardbacks...
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