Issue 2 | July-August 2009
Writing by Degrees: the Program Era
Just as Hugh Kenner’s formidable 1973 classic The Pound Era traces innovations in literature between the world wars by following the literary juggernaut Ezra Pound, Mark McGurl takes the period after World…
London Flambé: Monica Ali in the Kitchen
One need only take a brief look at the TV Guide or the magazine aisle at the supermarket to know that we are a culture recently obsessed with kitchens, celebrity chefs, and…
To Wit’s End Postmodern Fiction?
I was sent Karen Joy Fowler’s new novel Wit’s End (published in Great Britain under the titleThe Case of the Imaginary Detective) by someone from Penguin, who had noticed from my own…
Writing Out of Time: J.M.G. Le Clézio
J.M.G. Le Clézio is an adherent of extreme environments. The author spent about one-third of his Nobel speech fondly recounting his travels through the Darién Gap, the mostly lawless and…
The Budding Bucolic D.A. Powell
In the course of just three collections — Tea, Lunch, and Cocktails — D.A. Powell has proven himself to be one of the most exciting and enjoyable American poets writing today. His work is…