August 2007

On Deck +

Contributors +

“We do have to say we are left more than a bit uneasy by his wish to: ‘influence literary culture’ (and that on a grander scale … !). Is that what a critic is supposed to do ? Have we completely missed the boat — is that what we should have been trying to do all this time with our reviews?”

- The Literary Saloon on James Wood

“Capote rented a basement on Willow Street, where he wrote Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, for $90 a month. Today, that same home (not just the basement, to be fair) is renting for $40,000 a month. Times, as they say, have changed. So while there’s a slower pace to Brooklyn, which for me is helpful in getting the work done, I wouldn’t say that modern Brooklyn is particularly helpful for writing.”

- Peter Melman interviewed at The Written Nerd

comment Brooklyn

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I think the main challenge – and this cuts to one of main goals of the Brooklyn Book Festival – is for people to recognize and embrace Brooklyn as the literary capital of New York City.

- Johnny Temple interviewed at The Written Nerd

comment Brooklyn

“One of my tests of a novel is whether I flip straight from the last page right back to the first in order to reread it. Another is whether I bash my head against the edge of my desktop in utter and hopeless envy. Both are the case with Per Petterson’s Out Stealing Horses…”

- L. Lee Lowe

(via BooksInq.)

“In an ideal world I’d like to witness one member of the odd couple welcoming the other under its roof, the way Oscar welcomed Felix, and to see some of the Lilly money committed to sustain publication of Parnassus: Poetry in Review as a companion periodical to Poetry. Such an arrangement would provide a continuing location for poetry commentary, reviews, and analytical essays in Parnassus, perhaps while also allowing more of an opportunity for Poetry to be solely a source of fine poems in its pages.”

- Edward Byrne

(via Cosmopoetica)



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