Culture
Why Don't More Writers Buy Books?
A new submission model—wherein writers must buy a book if they want their work to be considered for publication—is shaking up the literary...
Culture
Should We Care About Grammar and Spelling on Twitter?
Many people assume I am a guardian of grammar. The typical plane-ride conversation goes like this: “What do you do?”” “I am an English professor”...
Education
The Problem of Free Books
How The Fountainhead weaseled its way into the canon. Recently, a plea appeared on my twitter stream: “I'm begging for book money again: We are...
Culture
Women Writers or Male Sex Scenes: Which Would You Read?
How Kate Roiphe silenced a serious discussion about sexism. We should be past this by now-it's 2010-but it appears the question of sexism amongst...
Culture
The Very Long History of Emoticons
I used to be anti-emoticon. For years, I thought of smiley faces as the mark of an immature writer—the kind who punctuates a sentence with seven...
Culture
The Culture of the Interrobang
Is the combination question mark and exclamation point a sign of the times? On Monday I discovered the interrobang, and I have been thinking...
Culture
Saving Poetry (and Poetry)
A holiday shout-out to the Tudors, independent magazines, and charitable giving. I have been going through a Tudor phase. It started when I...
Culture
Jumping on the Slow Reading Bandwagon
School programs and libraries often encourage reading by holding summer programs that offer rewards to top readers. For example, finish 10 books...
Culture
Getting to Know the Kindle DX
The early days of Amazon's new e-book reader, as reported by one intrepid pioneer 1.) Open box, excitedly. Notice packaging seems recycled....
Design
Why We Need to Paint Books Now
Richard Baker's books portraits When I first saw Richard Baker's portraits of books in the current issue of Poets & Writers magazine, I smiled,...
Culture
Whose Words Are These?
There are so many different definitions of plagiarism-and so much written about it-that it can be hard to separate original writing from things...
Business
Criminal Advances in Book Publishing
Let's boycott books by Blagojevich, Condi, and other non-writers Earlier this month, Rod Blagojevich received a six-figure book...
Culture
"That Would Never Really Happen" and Other Fictions
Respecting the imagination in the age of "reality" media The other day, I heard a high school English teacher talking about changes her...
Culture
After the Housing Crisis, the Stories
Two new real estate books, and the stories not yet told Three years ago, I put a down payment on a new house, and put my current house house up...
Culture
Turning the Page
Thoughts about reading circa 2008 and the death of David Foster Wallace Is the surfeit of lists touting the "best books of 2008" leaving you...
Culture
Book Clubs and the Future of Publishing
When it comes to books, we Americans have author loyalty (I can't wait to read the new Lorrie Moore novel), and bookstore loyalty (I will only...
Culture
Our "Dead Pledge" Crisis
Exploring the (Latin) Roots of Our Mortgage Problems I am a national statistic. Three years ago, I decided to move. I found a new house,...
Culture
Of Men, Women, Essays, and Cannibals
The gender divide in contemporary non-fiction The New Press recently published Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person. It...
