Bookslut

An Interview with Jane Brox

"For the second book especially, I was thinking where do I go now? I had sort of written the personal story in the first book. I was thinking about writing something earlier about the family and the family history. I didn’t have full-fledged stories, they were just these little snippets. I kind of backed into it. I thought I’ll just go to the historical society and see what they have. The first thing I wanted to write about was the influenza epidemic of 1918 because my father kept remembering that. I always remember him talking about it, but just a sentence or two and always the same sentence or two. It was really a way of trying to fill out those stories." by Jessa Crispin

An Interview with August Kleinzahler

Your prose seems to demonstrate a healthy loathing for dullness. Poetry readings these days often tend to be shockingly dull events. What would be your idea of a truly entertaining poetry reading? A beautiful, naked 25 year old woman reading "Tintern Abbey" exquisitely well and in a Northumbrian accent. by Adam Travis

Judging a Book By Its Cover: New Releases for a New Year

"But what is actually more telling about this whole book cover is what it leaves out. This novel as well as Ted Dekker's other books fall into the Left Behind camp of literature -- in a term: Christian fiction, or to be more technical: Christian thrillers that usually involve end of the world scenarios and the oh so typical last and decisive battle of good versus evil. His books are marketed in Christian bookstores, but lately I have noticed a few copies at the local Barnes and Noble. It is revealing that the book cover and the book description go out of their way to not say "Christian" fiction. Is this just a way to market the book to a wider audience or to sneakily proselytize to the unsuspecting?" by Sharon Adarlo