Some three years ago, I wrote a post here that touched on several things, including some satisfying book art, Joseph Cornell, and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, his book-length exploration of the reasons he became a vegetarian. (And where I once again prominently used the word “aleatory”—if only this were a drinking game!) I ended [...]

Some people plan their dream wedding in great detail, furnish their dream home, or dress their dream children. Me, I stock my dream secondhand bookstore. So it was a treat to find a dreamy little Page-Turner piece by my Open Letters Monthly colleague (and Wall Street Journal Fiction Chronicle writer) Sam Sacks on what, exactly, [...]

We’ve made it to the middle of November, and it is with a grateful sense of continuity that I direct your attention to the recently announced IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlist. Regular readers know that this is one of my favorite literary competitions for a number of reasons: The books are nominated by librarians worldwide [...]

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Bloom, a new literary site devoted to highlighting, profiling, reviewing, and interviewing authors whose first book was published when they were age 40 or older. Bloom is also a community of artists and readers who believe that “late” is a relative term, not an absolute one, and who [...]

Remember Future Shock? I was a bit young for Alvin Toffler’s manifesto on the disorientations of technological change when it first came out, but when I finally got to it another 15 years down the line, it was still relevant. At the same time, though, I was young enough to feel deeply smug when I [...]