Reading this, the Take 30 interviewer’s comments from 1977 circled in my mind: an unrealised conversation, where declaration replaces exploration. The interviewer said the stories filled her with sadness, all those rotten situations and dismal romantic relationships; however, she mentioned no details and referenced just one story dedicated to
Initially, I watched Hana Gartner interviewing Margaret Atwood on “Take 30” Sept. 27, 1977 as a complement to Dancing Girls, and ostensibly that’s the subject. But it’s more interesting as an example of the kind of preconceptions and judgements Atwood’s faced throughout her career. You don’t learn about the
It’s a tough industry when a magazine as amazing as Freeman’s can’t make it. I said the same thing about Tin House, The Believer, and Bookforum too—the latter have resumed publication recently—and I don’t subscribe to them all myself. In the recent Lithub piece, “On the Ending of a
As usual, Kaggsy and Simon have chosen a year rich with reading possibilities. As not-exactly-unusual, I have done better at gathering possibilities than of reading them. Initially I planned to expand my reading of James Baldwin, but the interlibrary-loan copy wasn’t speedy (sometimes it’s a week, sometimes weeks—depending how
Abdullah, Hage, Friedman, Ha, Orner and Atwood Short Stories in October, November, and December Whether in a dedicated collection or a magazine, these stories capture a variety of reading moods. This quarter, I returned to three favourite writers and also explored three new-to-me story writers.
