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eileen myles

New York

For Your Calendar: Downtown Literary Festival

By Jason Diamond on

New York is a paradise for book lovers. You’ve got the rich literary history stemming back to the founding of our country, big-time magazines named after our city like The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, over a hundred really important writers living here, and tons of literary journals and blogs popping up from Crown Heights to Harlem. … Read More

Books

36 Famous Writers on Philip Roth’s Retirement

By Emily Temple on

In the course of creating our list of New York’s 100 Most Important Living Writers, we reached out to a few of said figures to ask them a couple questions, including the query of the hour: “How do you feel about Philip Roth retiring?” We got a lot of responses — some quippy, some heartfelt, some sad, some glad (it’s true), and more than one with a theory on Roth’s true plans, which any of you in mourning will be glad to attach yourselves to. See what writers like Junot Díaz, Gay Talese, A.M. Homes and Gary Shteyngart had to say about the great man’s retirement after the jump — and if you’re so inclined, share your own, less famous feelings in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Photo Gallery: Catherine Opie's Girlfriends

By Paul Laster on

Exploring lesbian identity, Catherine Opie delves into her archive of unprinted black-and-white images of girlfriends to uncover portraits that complement her recent color photographs of butch-dykes, both famous and unknown. Shot from the heart, Opie’s powerful images include Madonna and Angelina Jolie’s ex-girlfriend Jenny Shimizu in black leather boots on a white bed; sultry singer k.d. lang with a guitar strung over her shoulder on a country road; author Eileen Myles sitting atop a stool in a plaid shirt; The L Word‘s Katherine Moennig blowing smoke rings; and Le Tigre’s JD Samson sporting a stache. On view at New York’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery through April 24, Opie’s portraits are both insightful and intriguing. … Read More

Boldtype

Review: The Importance of Being Iceland by Eileen Myles

By Robyn Hillman-Harrigan on

Eileen Myles exists somewhere outside of neat binaries. We know her as a legendary queer poet and novelist, a respected professor, and a one-time presidential candidate. In this book, she shows us yet another side of herself — that of art critic and travel journalist. Myles’ latest work combines broad, universal experiences with a pinpointed mapping of gay and lesbian art-intelligentsia; a large portion of these essays offers up personal and continually relevant analysis of her friends, including Allen Ginsberg, Sadie Benning, James Schuyler, and Jill Johnston. Myles also witnesses the brilliant art spectacle of Björk in concert and interviews Daniel Day… Read More