Salman Rushdie, Noam Chomsky, Jennifer Egan, and other writers have signed a letter pledging to boycott Arizona until it revokes its new SB1070 immigration law.
Last May, David Biespiel wrote an article for the Poetry Foundation arguing that poets should assume a stronger role in the "the life of American Democracy"—maybe even run for office. Now, Stephen Burt (the author of the excellent Close Calls with Nonsense) offers a rousing reply, explaining why this would be "bad for our poetry," and "bad for our politics."
"I quit being a Christian," says a Facebook post by bestselling author Anne Rice, who became famous as a writer of vampire novels and has more recently been writing about Jesus. "In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist."
The new Amazon Kindle Wi-Fi will sell for just $139.
At his indefatiguable website, Dennis Cooper offers up a typically fascinating list: "15 of the American poems that helped me stop trying to imitate Rimbaud back in the '70s."
Tonight at Brooklyn's Greenlight Books, you can catch Gary Shteyngart reading from his new novel Super Sad True Love Story—and feel relieved that New York hasn't devolved into chaos (yet). Anyone looking for less dystopic fare should check out Jessa Crispin's "happy books for dark times."
