In an essay for the London Review of Books, Anne Carson writes about Parkinson’s, how it has changed her handwriting, and learning to use concentration and movement to work against the development of tremors. “Righting oneself against a current that never ceases to pull: the books tell me to pay conscious, continual attention to actions like walking, writing, brushing my teeth, if I want to inhibit or delay the failure of neurons in the brain. It is hard to live within constant striving. It is hard to live within the word ‘degenerative’, which means that, however I strive, I do not win.”
Percival Everett’s James, Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year, Marilynne Robinson’s Reading Genesis, Adelle Waldman’s Help Wanted, and John Ganz’s When the Clock Broke are among the books on Obama’s 2024 summer reading list.
Esquire sent Joy Williams a questionnaire about her writing over the years for the magazine, which she first contributed to in 1972. Among her favorite short stories published in the magazine are “The Skater” and “The Last Generation,” from 1984 and 1989, respectively. In response to the question “Did writing for a magazine change your relationship to reader feedback in any way?,” Williams replies: “No.”
In his Substack, Ted Gioia reflects on the recent layoffs at National Geographic and argues that the decline of the magazine business is tied to whether the magazine values quality writing: “Legacy media’s unwillingness to pay for good writing is the single biggest warning sign that its decline is irreversible.” He continues: “Imagine if you owned the Lakers or the Yankees, and put all the emphasis on the team brand—but kept reducing the pay to actual players.”
This Thursday, Durham’s Hayti Heritage Center will host a dual book-launch event for Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, and adrienne maree brown, author of Loving Corrections. The in-person event is sold out, but the livestream will be free.