Mavis Gallant is sitting “in her apartment on Rue Jean Ferrandi” when, in a “voice gentle yet commanding”, she says “There are two kinds of writers to me, the Tolstoy and the Dostoevsky.” With this Russian project underway, I sat up a little straighter. “And they’re both extraordinary,” she
As February was winding down, I realised it had been some time since I picked up a book about writing and, so, I reached for The Writer’s Library (2020), which I found remaindered last autumn. It’s a set of interviews conducted by Nancy Pearl and Jeff Schwager which sounds
We’re in a seven-month-long exploration of George Saunders’ A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, with the second story: Turgenev’s “The Singers” (1852), first published in his second volume of A Sportsman’s Sketches. Since we last “met”, I’ve been running into George Saunders regularly. He blurbed the insert
You might remember that I have resolved to choose some books differently this year. Not only library duedates and review deadlines: I have been trying to look out my window as often as I look down at my book. And, so, I reread Italo Calvino’s If on a Winter’s
Kaggsy’s and Lizzy’s fifth annual celebration of Indie publishers in the UK is a regular reminder to celebrate the independent voices in this industry. All month, I’ve been reading with this event in mind, and I am finishing just in time to contribute. (My first post was here. The
