At Hyperallergic, Albert Mobilio and John Yau pick their favorite poetry books of the year. Their choices include work by Nathaniel Mackey, John Keene, Will Alexander, and Kim Min Jeong, as well as an issue of the Chicago Review dedicated to contemporary Korean poetry.
For the New Yorker, Hilton Als considers the life and work of Joan Didion, and explains how issues of race, class, and gender play out in her writing: “Raised in a white Republican family in Sacramento, she grew up with the rights and privileges of her class. But, as she moved away from that world and into the larger realm of her mind and her experience, she began to see the cracks, and to wonder what those cracks meant.”
The New York Times suggests sixteen books to look forward to in January.
SSense magazine looks back at 2021, highlighting stories from the magazine about photographer Reynaldo Rivera, designer Miyako Bellizzi, and writer Mina Kime, as well as considerations on sexting, kitchens, and faces.
In January, works published in 1926 will enter the public domain, along with about 400,000 sound recordings made before 1923. On January 20th, the Internet Archive, Creative Commons, and other open-source organizations will celebrate “Public Domain Day” with a virtual event and an in-person dance party in San Francisco.