TOBI'S DESK

> Society Of Young Nigerian Writers Anambra to celebrate Achebe. The Society of Young Nigerian Writers, Anambra State Chapter in collaboration with Prof. Kenneth Dike Library, Awka Anambra State is set to honour and celebrate a Literary Legend and an ebullient indigen of the state, Late Prof. Chinua Achebe. This programme tagged: ”CHINUA ACHEBE: A … Continue reading Society Of Young Nigerian Writers Anambra State Chapterplans to celebrate Achebe → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dkwgLq

Year: 2042 Month: July Day: 25 Location:  Castella Residence – Richmond, Virginia Time seemed to thicken into a viscous liquid, idly slopping along, prolonging the agony Meghan felt in her heart.  She stared into the darkness of the gun’s nuzzle.  It’s black hollow, ever reminiscent of the death it promised.  Sirens could be heard in … Continue reading The Russian Connection (11): Sparring Partners → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cHNhRF

My soul faints within me My heart is soaked in regret The thought that I had lived in error all these years kills me Out of the belly of this regret, I write these words. These words are the words I had always wanted to write but then it took me this long to get … Continue reading Rants Of A Young Nigerian → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dkwO3Y

In the middle of the night, In a twenty-first century world As I walk home from a delayed party Came these three women They sat on broom sticks But if they stood in the air They would fly freely GIVE US YOUR LUCK, they said IT IS SO STRONG AND WE ENVY IT I chuckle … Continue reading Witches and We → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cImxM1

In the heart of  a quiet town, on an equally quiet Thursday, where on a quaint street , stood a tall building built from red bricks, that were turning to brown. In this building, six stairs away to the top is a bar, a seedy one, with tall stools for chairs and cracking wood planks … Continue reading In The Heart Of A Quiet Town → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dywe5O

Ed. Note: This week’s puzzle contest is officially over—thanks to all who entered. Our winner is Mark Clemens. He gets a free subscription to the  Review.  Congratulations, Mark! Below, the solutions.  “ Netanyahu’s Ready for More Puzzling? ” answers: The Clan of the Cave Bear Bryant Reese Witherspoon River Anthology Rockin’ Robin Lane Fox Koolhaasta la vista, baby Enoch Light in August The Jewel of the Nile Rodgers Batter My Gary Hart, Three-Personed God Last Yo La Tengo in Paris Graham Greene Acres Mary Baker Eddy and the Cruisers Chico and the Man Without Qualities Nate Silver Spoons Rocky Mountain Highsmith The Fiona Apple Dumpling Gang Fire and Ice Cube The Age of Wire and String Cheese Incident The William Pitt and the Pendulum The Sun Myung Moon and the Bonfires A Finn Wolfhard Day’s Night The Bonnie Hunt for Red October Boulez Lady Lay A Phoebe Waller-Bridge Too Far The Günter Grass Roots Gordon Parks and Recreation Wilfr...

What’s Jean-Francois Lyotard's Libidinal Economy doing in an episode of Melrose Place ? You can thank the GALA Committee for that... I know Patrick Hoffman as a real-life detective. So when I picked up his novel Every Man a Menace , I expected to find a bunch of believable lowlifes killing each other, believably, over a large shipment of drugs. I was not expecting—wasn’t demanding—subtle characterization, tricky narrative switchbacks, or vivid, moody prose. I also wasn't expecting the action to begin with a long acid trip. “In his mind’s eye, Raymond saw emeralds cut into shapes that couldn’t be described in human language … He saw the insides of stars like rooms in a house.” When Hoffman takes off his detecting hat, he’s closer to Denis Johnson than to Elmore Leonard. — Lorin Stein   I’ve never watched much Melrose Place , but I’m always looking for reasons to start. I found the best one at Red Bull Studios, where Mel Chin and his team of artists, the GALA Committee, are ...

    ” You are on my mind” I received this 6:40 am I was curious to know Who sent me a deep poem I had to go through my chat To see whose name is there I smiled when i saw it was you wow! my very good friend I checked the time it … Continue reading You are on my Mind 1 → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dBtjZP

Lauren Groff’s Fates & Furies , just out in paperback, tells the story of a marriage. The first half of the novel is from the perspective of the husband, Lotto, who sees marriage as, “a never-ending banquet, and you eat and eat and never get full.” The second half is from the perspective of the wife, Mathilde, who says of marriage, “Kipling called it a very long conversation.” Fates and Furies  shows how two people can misunderstand each other over time. Lotto and Mathilde live their lives together, but they inhabit completely different worlds. In this way, the novel has a similar dynamic to Twitter. People tweet messages at each other while also inhabiting completely different worlds. Though on the social network major miscommunications take only 140 characters to unfold, in both a true connection remains elusive. So what if Lotto and Mathilde were both to tweet? Without the luxury of 400 page...

Matteo Pericoli is the founder of the  Laboratory of Literary Architecture , an interdisciplinary project that looks at fiction through the lens of architecture , designing and building stories as architectural projects. In this series , he shares some of his designs and what they reveal about the stories they’re modeled on. Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s mystery novel The Judge and His Hangman  revolves around a sudden nighttime encounter between chief detective Bärlach, an inspector with the Bern police, and his eternal rival, Gastmann. During the encounter, we learn that the two men had met forty years earlier at a dive bar in the Bosporus where, inebriated, they made a bet that will bind them for the rest of their lives. Bärlach maintained that committing a crime is an “act of stupidity”: human imperfection, the unpredictable actions of others, and the inability of taking chance into account are the reasons why most crimes are inevitably solved. His ...

Photo: scarletgreen Today in extravagant acts of self-protection: Julian Barnes wasn’t a fan of his first novel, 1980’s Metroland . So he wasn’t surprised when it got a savage notice in an organ called The Daily Sniveler by one “Mack the Knife”—a nom de guerre for Barnes himself. Yes, Barnes trashed his own novel, just so he could be sure he got there first. “In the old days,” he wrote, “ the Sensitive Young Man, after producing his novel, would slide back into the obscurity of book-reviewing and hock-and-seltzer ; he would in middle age be much taken with writing letters to the newspapers; and in old age, chairbound in his club, he would reveal himself to be the unremitting philistine which his earlier manifestation had sought to conceal. We must wish Mr Barnes well as he sets off on this inevitable journey.” Hi, here are some metaphors: Translation is a handshake. Translation is mimicry. Translation is a chess match. Translation is reproductive printmaking. Translation is a g...

Three years after his National Book Award, I am pleased to report that James McBride has outdone himself.  His new book, a delicious stew of styles called Kill ’Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul , is part memoir, part biography, part history, part journalistic investigation, and part musical exegesis.  But mostly it’s a scorchingly honest examination of the racial divide that explains why America continues to be a bloody and schizophrenic place. As its subtitle suggests, this book is a quest both for a man and for how he helped shape our national soul through his music and politics and personal style.  McBride goes to some lengths to state the case for Brown’s importance.  “For African Americans,” McBride writes, “the song of our life, the song of our entire history, is embodied in the life and times of James Brown .”  He adds, “James Brown was our soul” and “one of the greatest American forces in modern musical history.”...

SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN WRITERS In collaboration with THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NIGERIA (NLN), OSUN STATE BRANCH AND OSOGBO WRITERS FORUM Present 2ND OSOGBO BOOK READING, ARTISTS AND WRITERS WORKSHOP (FREE WORKSHOP) Date: Sat. Nov. 5, 2016 Venue: National Library of Nigeria, Osun State, Branch Omo West Area, New Ikirun Road, beside NYSC Secretariat, Osogbo, … Continue reading 2nd Osogbo Book Reading, Artists And Writers Workshop → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dw7M0w

SOCIETY OF YOUNG NIGERIAN WRITERS (ANAMBRA CHAPTER) IN COLLABORATION WITH ANAMBRA STATE LIBRARY BOARD Presents FOUR YEARS AFTER THE DEMISE OF THE LATE PROF. CHINUA ACHEBEC CALL FOR PAPERS AND POEMS IN THE MEMORY OF PROF. CHINUA ACHEBE. The Society of Young Nigerian Writers Anambra State Chapter are hereby calling for papers/ essays from both … Continue reading Call For Papers And Poems In The Memory Of Prof. Chinua Achebe. → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dc1193

How the other side lives You have had a second hand experience of the way the other side lives. You have seen and then practiced the loose-limbed yet regal walk of the confident, and you’ve drank tea with your pinky finger sticking out like the rich do. But you do not belong, at least not … Continue reading How the other side lives → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2drkJrJ

With smiles, giggles and arms locked together they strolled into the consulting room. They seemed truly happy together. There was a palpable bond of affection between them. My face lit up and my lips curved into a light as they approached my desk. Cupid! I thought as my heart fluttered mildly. They reminded me instantly … Continue reading Finding A Reason → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cPMP2d

Lie awhile and work a lot Walk in street of faith and love Love of light and not the world Love of world can take your work Let the wind of glory blow Glow awhile and blow a lot Lie a while and work a lot Do the work of greater height Never slumber and … Continue reading Lie Awhile And Work A Lot → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2drkexM

“So Be It! See To It!” So you may have already seen this on the literary internet earlier this year, but today’s Friday, and we needed a little infusion of life: enter  Octavia Butler ‘s amazingly awesome note to self  (via the also amazing and awesome  Rose Eveleth ). The post Our New Mantra appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2dJ49Yx

“Where does the line between the self-portrait and the selfie fall? Both Kardashian West and Kahlo are masters of the form—suggesting that perhaps there is no clear line at all.” Anyone who puts Frida and Kim together in an essay , as  Sarah Murray has for  The Rumpus , has our full and enthusiastic support. Also relevant:  Alizah Salario ‘s piece about the naming of North West . The post Face Off: Kardashian/Kahlo appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2dJ1MVp

“Baker is such a wonderful prose stylist that he could probably get away with publishing his diary—which, for epic stretches, is what Substitute feels like.” Over at The Nation ,  Evan Kindley reviews   Nicholson Baker ‘s latest, a 700-plus-page non-fiction exploration of substitute teaching. Spoiler: it’s not as sexy as Baker’s other work. If it’s the sex you want, see our primer on Baker’s novels; also immensely entertaining, our interview with the author from 2013. The post Everything Is Interesting appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2dbM4Un

What a vain little seal! It’s Banned Books Week, and everyone is rallying around the classics: your Gatsby s, your Catcher in the Ryes , your Mockingbird s and Lady Chatterley s. No one is giving any love to Snorri the Seal —to my eye one of the handsomest books ever to face censorship. Snorri is a Norwegian children’s book written and illustrated by Frithjof Sælen. Published in 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Norway, it tells the story of “the vainest little seal in the Arctic Ocean”—that’s our Snorri!—who whiles away his seal-days delighting in his own good looks. And who wouldn’t, with a luxurious coat like his? He’s so self-absorbed that he fails to see trouble on the horizon in the form of Brummelab, a distinctly Soviet polar bear.  Clearly there’s a metaphor afoot, and Sælen knows how to run with it: he stocks the book with obvious stand-ins for various nation-states. (Even the ice floe he plays on is shaped like Norway.) Snorri evades Brummelab only to encounter G...

Meredith Trede’s poem “On Seeing an Ex-Husband on the Cheese Line of the Gourmet Grocery Store” appeared in our Fall 1994 issue . Her latest collection is Tenement Threnody .  His eyes dart through a physical-asset inventory; he asks, was I wondering, as he gestures to the contents of his cart, about his expanded tastes, apparently each product reminds him of a country he and his new wife (she too busy to work for wages) have seen—and so on and so far from our first trip to France, then new to travel though after only one year already old to each other, to Paris and my falling in love with and knowing I was loved by every man I met, anything but myself, aglow with francomania— then his tone changes and brings me back to the surface: as he was saying just now, am I listening, what have I been doing, and I hold the high ground, managing not to brag about myself on the cheese line. The post On Seeing an Ex-Husband on the Cheese Line of the Gourmet Grocery Store ap...

1. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table… Teddy Wayne is drawn to loners. His debut novel, Kapitoil , chronicled a brilliant young immigrant’s attempts to penetrate the lingual and interpersonal density of New York’s Financial District. Wayne’s next book, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine , followed an 11-year-old pop star on tour as his manager/mom slipped him pills and arranged publicity-driven “dates” with other fun-sized celebs. Each narrator failed (for the most part) to burst through his respective bubble and connect with others. Each book pulled double duty as amusing character study and troubling social commentary. Which brings us to Loner (Simon & Schuster), Wayne’s latest first person, voice-driven, cautionary tale of societal ill. Like Love Song , the specter of J. Alfred Prufrock looms over this story — but this time Prufrock heralds more doom than gloom. Harvard freshman David Alan Federman...

We’re not spying, but it feels like we are. Each moment is tracked on surveillance monitors, recorded, studied. On one screen, a man, dressed moments ago in cowboy gear, is now postcoital with a robot prostitute. She soon makes herself scarce, heading back to recharge her circuits in the break room. The cowboy stares up at the ceiling, his six-shooter cooling in a holster draped over a chair. He’s luxuriating inside a simulacrum of an 1880s Western whorehouse, one situated within a network of amusement parks in an unnamed desert expanse. It’s the end of the first act of the 1973 film Westworld , written and directed by Michael Crichton, a master of the techno-thriller novel whose occasional forays into filmmaking—he directed a half dozen features over two decades—yielded more modest, earthbound results than the fantastical predictions he packed into his paperbacks. But Westworld , his feature debut, continues to haunt. Its vision of a pleasure dome with exploited, humanlike robots...

Jur Oster & Vera van de Sandt, Capri , from Love Land Stop Time . Image via Hyperallergic Herman Melville ended his life as a failure, with no inkling of the posthumous glories to come. It sounds so miserable when you put it that way, doesn’t it? And in many ways it was. But his final years had small pleasures of their own. Mark Beauregard writes: “ Having failed commercially as a novelist, he had spent the last twenty-five years of his life out of the public eye, and he had written poetry nearly every day . Mostly, his verse was tortured and cramped, and he often drew his themes from unlikely sources: ancient Greece and Rome, the Holy Land, myths, gods, and temple architecture … Six days a week, he walked west from his apartment at 104 East 26th Street, across lower Manhattan, to the docks along the North River (as the Hudson was then known). His job was to check ships’ cargoes against their bills of lading and write reports, for which he earned four dollars a day (a ...

When I was an aspiring fiction writer fresh out of grad school, I won a fellowship to spend a month at an artist’s colony in Montauk, at the very tip of Long Island.  Known as the Edward F. Albee Foundation, the colony was founded and funded by its namesake, renowned author of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and many other wonderful plays, who recently passed away. The Albee fellowship was the biggest thing that had happened to me early in my career as a writer, a label I still felt uncomfortable wearing. In fact, during my first week at the colony, I happened to overhear another of the artists on the phone, a playwright, who was explaining to a friend who else was in residence: “There’s a poet, a sculptor, a painter from Japan, and a novelist from New York.” My ears perked up. A New York novelist? Where? Who was it? Someone famous? In my head, I started to rattle off the names of my favorite writers. It took me a minute to realize he meant me. I was ...

Fate and careful planning had brought Martin my way again. My seeing him at the interview was no surprise as I had known from a contact within the company that he would be on the interview panel. Now for the next stage- making him fall in love with me (for real this time) then dumping … Continue reading Finding Tiwa (3) → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cN46JG

Mama Kasali took to the advice of her mother-in-law to sought the counsel of an old seer, who was capable of foretelling her son’s future. Although, Mama Kasali had nursed initial reservations for such traditional performance, with the insistence of the older woman, she had to decide finally. She considered that such a harmless ritual … Continue reading In Your Hands → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dmjz4r

The night was charged with vigor. The stars look as though on liquor. Blurry, and unstable in gaze. Looking as death in the face. clang! The sword sweeps you back. -in battle. We’ve been running for days. Through stone tiled paths and ash like hays. Hearts pounding , pebbles high flying. Rushing for that thing, … Continue reading First Of All → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cXxVVk

Runner: The Siege The town of Limala laid sleeplessly in the dark like a shadow in the night musing and whispering away, like endangered an specie, smelling of fear and anxiety, swelling with people coming in, people other than her inhabitants, coming in without going, running away, away to life, life seeking life, away from … Continue reading Runner( Part Three): The Seige → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dmjjlO

Itunu struggled to get the Jean past her laps.This was the third time of her trying to get it past her thighs and it wasn’t bulging. She would love to see Barrister Jindu, the divorce lawyer, wearing a Jean, looking less formal but having an air of firmness. A Jean would be perfect, she had … Continue reading Itunu’s Decision → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cXxURj

Title- Convicted. Author- Tito Ubabuko. Mike glared at the television not picking any interest in what was on it, he simply reminisced his day at work and the loads of work yet to be done the next day, when all of a sudden it seemed to him like he heard a man’s scream, “maybe it … Continue reading Convicted → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dmjZaR

Whether you laugh or not Whether you play or not Whether you have a unique ability or not NO ONE CARES Whether you are beautiful or not Whether you have achieved things or not Whether you are spiritual or not NO ONE CARES Whether you are married or not Whether you have a child or … Continue reading No One Cares → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2cXxTgc

MOTHER JOKE BY DINDY Mothers will be like: “Oh junior you are really strong” Junior: (Feeling fly) smiles……… …. Three hours later in school……. Junior: Kelvin my punch will bend this iron rod Kelvin: Junior you can’t do it. Junior: Ok wait and see. He Throws a single punch with his left hand to the … Continue reading Mother Joke By Dindy → from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dmk9ze

“It wasn’t our job to be aroused; it was our job to enhance literature meant to arouse our paying readers.”  Kayleigh Hughes  writes for Catapult  about her year of editing e-erotica . You will learn myriad things from her account, such that publishers list “every sex act contained in every book, and the page on which those activities could be found, so that those in sales could properly categorize and organize the books for maximum success in the e-market.” And if your lust still requires further satiation, see also this account of  writing the erotica itself. The post Get Off Get Paid appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2cXr1zw

“Books can be dangerous objects–under their influence people start to wonder, dream, and  think .” In “celebration” of Banned Book Week, the New York Public Library has a quiz for you to find out how much you know about the freedom to read. See also our tribute to   The Bluest Eye , one of the United States’ most challenged books. The post Fancy Yourself a Bowdlerizer appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2dsTYbH

“Hitler increasingly presented himself in messianic terms, promising ‘to lead Germany to a new era of national greatness,’ though he was typically vague about his actual plans.” The New York Times ‘ Michiko Kakutani writes a review of Volker Ullrich ‘s new Hitler biography, Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939 , so timely it could easily be an op-ed. Just read it. And when you’re done, read this too . The post A Thing of Beauty appeared first on The Millions . from The Millions http://ift.tt/2cXnGk2

Nothing so appalling… In Canada today, Home Depot announced that it was pulling a Halloween decoration called “Scary Peeper Creeper” from its shelves . Shoppers were deeply perturbed by the Peeper’s pockmarked, rubbery visage, and for good reason—he’s designed to scare the living shit out of people. “Realistic face looks just like a real man is peering through the window at you,” boasted the description on Home Depot’s website; all that’s missing is the labored mouth-breathing. The manufacturer advises sticking him “on the passenger side of a car window, in a bedroom window, basement window, kitchen window, bathroom window, or garage window … We’d love to hear where you've gotten good results with your Scary Peeper!” The debacle brought to mind Herschell Gordon Lewis, cinema’s very own Scary Peeper, who got very good results with his pictures. He died yesterday at ninety. In his forty-one turns as a director, he did more to popularize gore, splatter, and willful puerility than...

  No one can understand Except they are in your shoes No one can understand Except they are with you     They can’t be in your shoes ‘cos it’s fit for only you They can’t be with you ‘cos they have their story to tell too from NaijaStories.com http://ift.tt/2dDijKS

Catch up with Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , and Part 4 of Vanessa Davis’s column. Vanessa Davis is the author of the collections Spaniel Rage and Make Me a Woman . She is one of the  Daily ’s correspondents. The post Autumn Hours, Part 5 appeared first on The Paris Review . from The Paris Review http://ift.tt/2druivT