November 20, 2012 Bulletin The Bad Sex in Fiction Award 2012: Shortlist By Sadie Stein The Literary Review has released the shortlist for the twentieth annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award. The nominees for achievement in terrible sex writing include: The Yips, by Nicola Barker The Adventuress, by Nicholas Coleridge Infrared, by Nancy Huston Rare Earth, by Paul Mason Noughties, by Ben Masters The Quiddity of Will Self, by Sam Mills The Divine Comedy, by Craig Raine Back to Blood, by Tom Wolfe Mr. Wolfe, you will recall, is a previous winner, having taken top honors in 2004 for I Am Charlotte Simmons. He was deemed eligible for this year’s awards by dint of passages like the following: But then the tips of her breasts became erect on their own, and the flood in her loins washed morals, despair, and all other abstract assessments away in a cloud of some sort of divine cologne of his. Now his big generative jockey was inside her pelvic saddle, riding, riding, riding, and she was eagerly swallowing it swallowing it swallowing it with the saddle’s own lips and maw—all without a word. Bad, assuredly. But is it bad enough to take the prize? Find out on December 4. Until then, follow the process via @lit_review. (The tweets are tagged as #LRBadSex2012.) And for a glimpse into the judging process, check this out:
November 16, 2012 Bulletin Happy Dagur Islenskrar Tungu! By Sadie Stein Jónas Hallgrímsson. Self-portrait (1845). Pen and ink Today is Icelandic Language Day (literally, “day of the Icelandic tongue”), a festival designed to coincide with the birthday of Jónas Hallgrímsson. As well as an accomplished poet, author, and naturalist, Hallgrímsson was a committed Icelandic nationalist and founder of the journal Fjölnir. He died in 1844 at only thirty-seven, but to this day is considered one of Iceland’s most beloved poets. It is said that Hallgrímsson’s poetry, which dealt often with Iceland, its landscapes, and its people, resists easy translation. Nevertheless, even in the following translation, the themes come through. A Toast to Iceland Our land of lakes forever fair below blue mountain summits, of swans, of salmon leaping where the silver water plummets, of glaciers swelling broad and bare above earth’s fiery sinews — the Lord pour out his largess there as long as earth continues! In 1945, Hallgrímsson was at the center of a rather bizarre controversy. A fan, one Sigurjón Pétursson, spearheaded a campaign to move the poet’s body from Copenhagen, where he died, to his childhood home of Öxnadalur, Iceland. The Icelandic government disagreed: they wanted him reburied at the national burial ground at Þingvellir. Undaunted, Pétursson raised the funds himself, supervised the excavation (which involved digging up four other bodies), and escorted the coffin, defiantly, to Öxnadalur. Once there, however, he couldn’t get any priest to perform the service, and the coffin stood in the church for a week before the government had it moved to Þingvellir, where it was buried and remains to this day. The poet’s legacy, however, is a happier one. Every year, the Jónas Hallgrímsson Award is given to someone who has contributed to the language.
November 15, 2012 Bulletin Louise Erdrich Wins NBA for Fiction By Sadie Stein We’d like to congratulate Louise Erdrich on her National Book Award for The Round House. The following quote, from her Art of Fiction interview, explores the author’s approach to writing: I take great pleasure in writing when I get a real voice going and I’m able to follow the voice and the character. It’s like being in a trance state. Once that had happened a few times, I knew I needed to write for the rest of my life. I began to crave the trance state. I would be able to return to the story anytime, and it would play out in front of me, almost effortlessly. Not many of my stories work out that way. Most of my work is simple persistence … But if the trance happens, even though it’s been wonderful, I’m suspicious. It’s like an ecstatic love affair or fling that makes you think, It can’t be this good, it can’t be! And it never is. I always need to go back and reconfigure parts of the voice. So the control is working with the piece after it’s written, finding the end. The title’s always there, the beginning’s always there, sometimes I have to wait for the middle, and then I always write way past the end and wind up cutting off two pages.
November 14, 2012 Bulletin Act Fast: Offer Will Not Last! By Sadie Stein This Friday, November 16, is your last chance to take advantage of our special mug deal! If you’ll recall, one side of this classic diner mug displays our logo. The other side (not pictured here): “The first really promising development in youthful, advance guard, or experimental writing in a long time.” —Newsweek, 1953 It’s yours with a one-year subscription or renewal; your subscription will begin with our winter issue. Order now! Offer good for U.S. addresses only.
November 8, 2012 Bulletin Sunday! Plimpton! Screens at DOC NYC: Mention TPR for $5 Tickets! By Sadie Stein This Sunday, join filmmakers Tom Bean and Luke Poling, along with Paris Review editor Lorin Stein and publishing luminary Terry McDonell, for a special screening of Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself at the School of Visual Arts Theatre, hosted by the documentary film festival DOC NYC. For discounted tickets to this and other films playing in DOC NYC, mention The Paris Review at the box office. (Plimpton! also shows on Wednesday, November 14.) $5 tickets are limited to two per person. To take advantage of this offer, go to the IFC Center box office at 323 Sixth Avenue (at West Third Street), open seven days a week, 11 A.M.–10 P.M. For films playing at the School of Visual Arts Theatre (333 West Twenty-Third Street, west of Eighth Avenue), you can purchase tickets in advance at the IFC Center up until the day of the show. On the day of SVA showings, tickets will only be available at SVA Theatre. This offer is not available for online purchases. For online purchases, get your tickets here. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]
November 8, 2012 Bulletin Defiance: A Literary Benefit to Rebuild Red Hook By Sadie Stein Last week, the waterfront neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn, was one of the areas shattered by superstorm Sandy. On Wednesday, November 14, join host Kurt Andersen; musicians Steve Earle and Stew; novelists Joseph O’Neill, Sam Lipsyte, and Rivka Galchen; nonfiction luminaries Phillip Lopate, Chuck Klosterman, Philip Gourevitch, Meghan O’Rourke, Deborah Baker, Robert Sullivan, and others for Defiance: A Literary Benefit to Rebuild Red Hook. Readings will center on the themes of recovery and rebuilding, drawing on more than two centuries of literature about the historic neighborhood. The event takes its name from Fort Defiance, the revolutionary-era citadel that once loomed over Red Hook, keeping ferry routes clear for General George Washington’s Continental Army. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the evening will be divided between two nonprofit organizations that are leading Red Hook’s post-Sandy recovery, Red Hook Initiative and Restore Red Hook. Learn more and buy tickets here. [tweetbutton] [facebook_ilike]