David Samuel Levinson's Blog, page 6

They Break The Silence

So, there's an excerpt of my novel, Antonia Lively Breaks The Silence, up on the inaugural issue of Wild Rag, the literary arm of Mischief + Mayhem Books, as well as pieces by Nikki Dillon, Michael Obert, Ian Boyden, and Mike Heppner, great writers all. A huge thanks to the good folks at M+M Books for [...]

Dear The Missouri Review

Dear The Missouri Review: Since opening your contest to submissions, I have received about twenty emails from you, reminding me about the contest's deadline. I received a new one this morning, reminding me that you've extended the contest's deadline for a few days due to glitches in your online submission manager. Automated responses from my [...]

New Publishing Model Moves Mountains

Check this out. I think there's a little movement under way. It's a soft rumbling under the feet of big publishing. They can feel it. Can you? I have devoted many years of my waking (and dreaming) life to my work. I have lost friends and relationships because I wanted to stay at my desk [...]

Literary Debs And The Men Who Rate Them

1. While at an artist residency, I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Bock, whose novel, Beautiful Children, had not yet been released. 2. Once, a sedan rolled on to the grounds and stopped. I was on my way to check my email, lost in my own private thoughts (guests were supposed to stop at the office, [...]

The Tao Lin Shakedown

I have nothing against Tao Lin personally; it's his "novel" and style of "writing" (or lack thereof), facile, self-indulgent, navel-gazing, narcissistic, monotonous, that I have a problem with. Here's an excerpt of Bock's snappy review in TNYTBR: Late in the book, Mom's feistiness returns, and there's an attempt at redemption for Haley Joel, but by [...:]

A Brief History of the Literary Debutante

1) While at an unnamed artist residency, I had the (dis)pleasure of meeting Charles Bock, whose novel, Beautiful Children, had not yet been released, though you never would've known that it hadn't been released, since Charles wandered around as if he were already an anointed member of the literary guild. 2) Once, a sedan rolled [...:]

Fall In(to) Berlin

Hans Fallada. Ever heard of him? He's that German writer who eventually drank himself to death. Yeah, him. He was "institutionalized at eighteen for shooting his roommate in a botched suicide pact, later arrested for embezzlement, theft, and the attempted murder of his own wife. Fallada may deserve to be labeled «a colorful character»." Indeed. [...:]

Manifesto Wars

…and over at Mischief + Mayhem Books, Dale Peck's manifesto has gone up at last. And what a manifesto it is! Peck, as always, delivers slingshot ideas that find their targets again and again—this time it's the Goliath that is publishing (in so many words). Check the manifesto out here. Peck also takes a nice [...:]

Something Terrible Has Happened to The Short Story

"Peace Comes to Those Who Wait Something terrible has happened in the house next door.  Mrs. Allen has lost her son.  Meaning he has been taken from her.  The first I know of it, late-afternoon sirens fill the air, and from my bedroom I see police cars lining the street, jammed edgewise.  Many other neighbors [...:]

I ♡ Elif Batuman

While over at the London Review of Books, Elif Batuman had this to say about The Programme Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative Writing by Mark McGurl: McGurl has an explanation for why programme writing seems so unexciting and unspecial. It's a weird explanation. 'As with the disappearance of the .400 hitter in [...:]