paper trail

Mar 01, 2012 @ 4:00:00 am

Wayne Koestenbaum

In response to the latest VIDA report, Emily Gould posits, at The Awl, an interesting theory about the paucity of women writing or getting reviewed in any of the “top” literary magazines. “Could it be,” she wonders, “that part of the imbalance is caused by the fact that women are choosing not to write for these magazines?”

We just listened to two recent and excellent public-radio interviews, both available online: At L.A.’s Bookworm, host Michael Silverblatt talked with Wayne Koestenbaum about his book Humiliation (which Laura Kipnis wrote about here). And NPR’s Tom Gjelten interviews Timothy Snyder about Thinking the Twentieth Century, his collaboration with Tony Judt, the world-class public intellectual who died of ALS last year. Near the end, Snyder says, Judt lost all the use of his limbs, but “he retained a potent individuality.”

Yesterday, the AWP (which stands for Association of Writers & Writing Programs, so it should be AWWP, but never mind) kicked off its sold-out annual conference at the Chicago Hilton. In addition to bringing in luminaries such as Forrest Gander, Jennifer Egan, Margaret Atwood, and others, the conference promises to drastically increase alcohol sales in the area. Last night’s best off-site event was at the Empty Bottle, where James Greer—who used to write rock journalism, then played bass for Guided by Voices, and now is a novelist and screenwriter—played with his band Detective.

Comedy Central has announced its plans to start publishing books. And no, that is not a joke. The network plans to inaugurate its imprint, Running Press, later this year with a novelty holiday book by Denis Leary. (Though we wonder if the press’s name will stick, as another Running Press already exists.)

The London Review of Books has published a lost short story by Charlotte Bronte that turned up while a contributor was researching the writer at a museum in Charleroi. The story, “L'Ingratitude,” was written in 1842 in French and handed in as a homework assignment for Bronte’s tutor.