"'People in the arts are often the people who speak truth to power,' avows Holtmann."
On what's happening at the NEA—and to cultural life in the U.S. Big thanks to Adam Morgan (@thefrontlist.org) and the Los Angeles Review of Books (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social).
lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...
I wrote about the NEA cuts and that overwhelming feeling when so many different orgs and people need our money. But there are some answers in here too, courtesy of @michaelholtmann.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social. lithub.com/on-the-lates...
Bananas.
Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney, in Granta.
VOICES OF ADRIANNA is forthcoming from @twolinespress.bsky.social on February 18.
granta.com/images-of-wo...
Gift of The Ian Woodner Family Collection
Odilon Redon, Trees in the Blue Sky, c. 1883
https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135076
THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR!
Love seeing THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE and WOODWORM (both from Two Lines Press) in such distinguished company (and in print!) here.
Thanks again, Gabino!
Odilon Redon - Peach, 1901
Ha! Amazing.
The Mower BY PHILIP LARKIN The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found A hedgehog jammed up against the blades, Killed. It had been in the long grass. I had seen it before, and even fed it, once. Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world Unmendably. Burial was no help: Next morning I got up and it did not. The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time.
“we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time. -Philip Larkin” inscribed on a lemon, found in the grocery store fruit aisle
Best Larkin is not cynical Larkin, imo
—
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
Philip Larkin, 'The Mower'
#everynightapoem
Also: found poetry at Harris Teeter, spotted by a friend
It has been 20 years since Bowker found only 3% of books were translations. Of the 100 “best books” by the ny times this year a whopping… 4 are translated. How far we’ve come.
Breyten Breytenbach. Farewell.
The first time I read it, THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF AN ALBINO TERRORIST knocked me on my ass.
“They took seven years from him, and he has now struck back with a volume that seems to have been ripped from his entrails.” —J. Lelyveld www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/w...
Breyten Breytenbach, who will be much missed:
‘History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against it.’
Adrienne made the books section at Esquire the best one in the business. Heartbreaking to see her and it become a casualty of bad management.
What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand returns to BTC to discuss Salvage: Readings from the Wreck
Audio📻🔥: tinhouse.com/podcast/dion...
@fsgbooks.bsky.social
it was radicals who first opened my eyes to how individual acts of repair were not gonna be the ticket. the corporations must be compelled to change. this should be a function of government for the sake of all and we must insist on it. I know this is rather earnest but the need is pressing, urgent.
Optimist: the glass is half full
Pessimist: the glass is half empty
Translator: when you say glass,
are we talking flute, coupe, shot glass, balloon, tumbler, highball, schooner, snifter, tankard?
August Wilson forever.
Oakland! Come toast the return of East Baaaayyy Boookseeellleerrrs
www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to... www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to...
As you may have heard, from me or whomever else, East Bay Booksellers is reopening. A smaller version of itself, perhaps. But no less for the wear, I suppose. We're toasting to mark the occasion on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 2pm. Swing by, if you're so inclined or available.
Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers.
"Taiwan Travelogue follows a fictional 🇯🇵 writer and her relationship with the charming yet closed-off 🇹🇼 woman who serves as her interpreter [...] this novel explores language, politics, and popular culture in 1930s Taiwan, and the shape a cross-cultural friendship takes under the weight of history."
screenshot of Yang Shuang-zi and Lin King, Winner, 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature for 'Taiwan Travelogue'
Lovely news! #TaiwanTravelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi (author) and Lin Kin (translator), have won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature! A first for Taiwan.
Piet Mondrian. Red Amaryllis with Blue Background. ca. 1907. Watercolor on paper
Y sus amarillos y sus rojos y naranjas y violetas.
Wendell Berry
It’s a personal favorite. A true touchstone. Such spectacular harmonies, such brilliant orchestration, the apotheosis of the Romantic Era. And the sublime, time-bending Adagietto. It’s almost too gorgeous.
I discovered Mahler in my teens, and my life was never the same.
This piece. One of the greatest.
The trumpet motif borrows from the Austro-Hungarian Army’s Generalmarsch.
From Mahler’s notes:
“In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt.”
At a measured pace. Strict. Like a funeral procession.
New to this blue but not all blue.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk...