Remember last month when we rounded up a bunch of fake books from fiction that we wished that we could read? Well, today we have some slightly-related news to report: Our friends over at GalleyCat tipped us off to the fact that Granta has released an animated graphic novel that was inspired by the fictional B-horror movie that the narrator in Roberto Bolaño’s short story, “The Colonel’s Son,” watches on late night TV. How delightfully meta is that? Illustrator Owen Freeman, web developer Eduard Prats Molner, and the literary quarterly’s artistic director, Michael Salu, all collaborated on the project, which features an original score by composer Sorgerune. If you’re feeling brave (and have your headphones on), click here to check it out now!
Since today marks the beginning of New York Book Week, we’d like to feature some events that are open to the public and might be of interest to you, dear reader. Most of them are free, so all you have to do is wander in and enjoy. If you’d like more information, head over to BookExpo America’s website here, where you’ll find a ton of readings, signings, and roundtable discussions across the city this week.
Ever since its first “Best of Young British Novelists” issue in 1983, Granta‘s once-a-decade spotlight on rising literary talents — initially including then-relative unknowns Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie, and Martin Amis — has proved to be a consistent predictor of enduring success. Although the magazine has issued two similar lists for American writers (first in 1996, most recently in 2007), its focus has remained limited to the English-speaking world. Last week marked a historical turn in a new direction, however, as Granta 113 boasts a selection of 22 Spanish language authors whose names are sure to soon join the recognizable ranks of other Latin American and Spanish heavyweights. Ahead of the issue’s release, here’s a chance to familiarize yourself with a selection of these emerging writers before they’re as ubiquitous as Borges and Bolaño.
This past week, a 1950s video of Vladimir Nabokov sipping tea, discussing Lolita with Lionel Trilling, and just generally being his charmingly elitist self made the rounds. It reminded us that author videos don’t have to resemble the BookTV cliche of someone just droning on and on. It also got us thinking: What else is out there today? After the jump, we collect our five favorite sites for author videos.
The Rehearsal Project Short-Film Contest came to a close this week and our judging panel have been hard at work wading through submissions and selecting the winner. In the end it was Jonathan Poritsky‘s short film “Process” (embedded after the jump) that took the prize — selected for astutely and skillfully interpreting the idea of “life as performance” through a simple and beautifully shot monologue from Nazi Karimi. Read More »
