All Blog Posts Tagged 'literature' (31)

Mitzi's Reading in Vienna, Austria

Mitzi Szereto reads an excerpt from her short story "Odalisque" (from her anthology "Foreign Affairs: Erotic Travel Tales") at Shakespeare & Company Booksellers, Vienna, Austria; 17 July 2009.

http://mitziszereto.com/blog

Added by Mitzi Szereto on July 24, 2009 at 11:45pm — No Comments

Elmore Leonard's 11th Rule of Writing

I’ve always enjoyed Elmore Leonard’s novels and seen him as one of the true stylists of popular fiction. In a review, I even described my pal Christopher G. Moore as the “Elmore Leonard of Bangkok” and I meant it as a compliment. But I have a bone to pick with the great Elmore.

I just read a book of Elmore’s short stories from 2004 titled “When the Women Come Out to Dance.” In many ways it’s superb. The… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 15, 2009 at 10:59pm — 13 Comments

Ingenious book readings: Just don't mention books!

In his terrific book "On Writing" Stephen King notes that he once asked Amy Tan what she's NEVER asked about at public readings. "They never ask about the writing," Tan tells him. Which spurs King to write a book about exactly that.

Now controversial UK… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on July 12, 2009 at 7:13pm — No Comments

Culture and harshness in Central Europe: Adam Lebor's Writing Life

Political writing at its best highlights the unexpected changes in parts of our world that are hidden to us. That’s true of writing about the corridors of power in our own capital cities, but it’s even more of a factor for a writer like Adam Lebor whose work – fiction and nonfiction – has captured the dynamism and double-dealing… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 29, 2009 at 5:55pm — No Comments

The most obscure band in Jerusalem

I bet you didn't know there was an underground scene in Jerusalem (at least not an underground music scene; you've probably heard of some other undergrounds that operate here). Here's a little bit of Middle East insider poop for you: what's the most obscure underground band in Jerusalem?

Answer: Dolly Weinstein.

A fivesome (formerly a sixsome, sometimes foursome) of folk rock and rock standards, featuring yours truly on bass.

Other writers are notable for… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 26, 2009 at 5:39pm — No Comments

Stranger than zinc bars and literary fiction

Foreign correspondents are always more enthusiastic about Beirut than about Amman. Just like critics prefer “literary” fiction to crime novels.

It seems to me they’re both wrong, and for the same reasons.

Visiting reporters always rave about Beirut. Mainly because there’s a very un-Middle Eastern nightlife there. Zinc bars. Beautiful girls in spaghetti-strap tops beside the zinc bars. Booze, dance clubs, DJs.

They’re not really interested in the broken-down… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 25, 2009 at 10:05pm — No Comments

Thriller Bugbear #69: Plot-Point Techno Madness!

Much as I love Nordic crime fiction, the Europewide megaseller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson made me want to throw knives like the Swedish chef on The Muppet Show. Why?

Two reasons.

First, the minor reason. Written by a (tragically deceased) Swedish journalist, the book is… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 18, 2009 at 9:05pm — 2 Comments

A living foreign correspondent the most useless thing to media industry -- Reviewing a "Novel of Jihad"

The magazine of Harvard's Nieman Fellowship asked me to write an essay about Jeffrey Fleishman's "Promised Virgins: A Novel of Jihad". I wrote about why international correspondents like me and Fleishman, Cairo bureau chief for the LA Times, turn to novels to express the depth of what we learn about a foreign culture. Here's how the article begins:

Jay Morgan,… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 14, 2009 at 5:59pm — No Comments

Warm Guns and Whingers: Happy-Guru Eric Weiner's Writing Life

What’s happiness? A large income, Jane Austen said. Absolute ignorance, according to the delightfully morbid Grahame Greene. Or John Lennon’s less delightfully morbid warm gun. Whatever else it is, happiness is done to death. But where it is? That’s something new. The genius of Eric Weiner’s New York Times… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 10, 2009 at 7:11pm — No Comments

Michael Palin mistakes the Palestinians for Buddhists

Last week at the Palestine Literature Festival, Michael Palin produced some of his funniest material since his Monty Python heyday. However, he probably didn’t intend it to be funny.

Palin told an audience that was rather lacking in actual Palestinians – mainly locally based international aid workers, diplomats and heaven knows who else – that he had seen how Israeli checkpoints worked. He thought it’d be a good idea to “always look on the bright side of life” and see the checkpoints… Continue

Added by Matt Rees on June 5, 2009 at 1:04am — No Comments

New Publishing Company

Melanie D. Calvert-Benton and Gary L. Benton have announced the future

opening of Dancing Fox Publishing. Dancing Fox Publishing of Jackson,

Mississippi, will strive for excellence in the publishing field.

Gary a professional web designer is designing a web site and we should be

online within a couple of weeks. We will consider any writing genre, except

porn, or manuscripts with

We have decided to make our services free of any… Continue

Added by Melanie C. Benton on January 10, 2009 at 1:57am — No Comments