paper trail

Jan 23, 2013 @ 12:08:00 am

W.G. Sebald

Students who took W.G. Sebald's final fiction class have compiled a list of the Austerlitz author's "writing tips."

Due to a surplus of women, Housing Works is offering a discount to dudes who want to participate in their February 13th literary speed-dating event.

We’re not normally interested in athletes’ personal essays, but after his breathtaking letter attacking a Maryland politician for homophobia, we’re very much looking forward to Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe’s forthcoming collection of "uncensored" writings.

Given that the French find Fifty Shades of Gray sadly lacking in the sadomaschocism department, it’s no surprise that the country’s national library is willing to pay more than $5 million for the original manuscript of the Marquis de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom. “The document is Sade’s most atrocious, extreme, radical work,” Bibliothèque Nationale de France director Bruno Racine remarked. “But we make no moral judgment about it.”

The Brazilian government has greenlighted an eight-year, $35 million initiative to promote Brazilian literature beyond the country’s borders. The money will go to “promote new works in translation, grants for publishers outside of Brazil to support Brazilian publications, and funding for Brazilian authors on world book tours.” It is also, as MobyLives notes, timed to coincide with Brazil’s role as a guest of honor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, and Amazon’s arrival in Brazil.

At the New York Times, Ken Johnson reviews a new show of Allen Ginsberg’s photography.