A review of Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer by Jeff VanderMeer. Is the writing workshop a crucible for an aesthetic based on shame? Mark Greif investigates. Writing advice: The world doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your MFA. A review of And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft by Mike Sacks. Lincoln Michel on appreciating The Onion’s lit humor. There seem to be an awful lot of books these days on "annualism", with the author doing something odd for a year — but why? Amazon reviewers take on the classics: What if the Internet had existed centuries ago? Students get new assignment, picking books you like: The experimental approach is part of a movement to revolutionize the way literature is taught. A look at why "reading management" software cannot identify what makes some books so complex and lovely and painful. Good novels don't have to be hard work: If there's a key to what the 21st-century novel is going to look like, says novelist Lev Grossman, this is it: the ongoing exoneration and rehabilitation of plot. From American Book Review, what's the future of fiction? (and more) Social irrelevance and self-generated canons: Poetry has lost the symbolic power needed to address shared values.
