Knowledge of the Life
/What are literary biographies good for, anyway? Do they provide insight into the work or just tittle-tattle about the life? Scott Donaldson's The Impossible Craft offers a brief on this endlessly alluring genre.
Read MoreJohn Domini’s Transformations
/With literary criticism disappearing as a popular artform, we increasingly look to the book reviewer to do the critic's work. A new collection by John Domini offers an example of reviews that transcend their form to provide analysis alongside mere evaluation.
Read MoreClaiming the Future
/Julio Cortázar and Gabriel Garcia Marquez brought Latin American fiction to the attention of the world. Now a young crop of writers are trying to move beyond magical realism--a new anthology charts the diverse approaches.
Read MoreActs of Rendition
/Richard Poirier was one of the great bridge-builders--his sorely neglected classic A World Elsewhere drew upon the writing of Emerson but presciently anticipated the postmodernist ideas that would soon enter the mainstream.
Read MoreStrange Silence
/Stanley Elkin's fiction is marked by verbal wizardry and a searing comic vision; does a new biography do justice to his underappreciated artistry?
Read MoreLife on the Page
/He’s the world’s most highly-regarded critic, and in How Fiction Works James Wood doesn’t stop at simply describing what’s in good novels but prescribes how they ought to be written. Daniel Green tells us how the fiction that James Wood really, really likes works.
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