TOBI'S DESK

Kenyan-Mexican Actress – now author! – Lupita Nyong’o has released a picture book for children. In Sulwe, Lupita Nyong’o addresses something she has long campaigned for, since her stunning win at the Oscars in 2014: the validity of someone’s dreams, irrespective of background – or color. The book introduces us to Sulwe, a dark-skinned girl […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2WxRQ4T

Vintage Russian postcard I am often complimented on how warm my coats look: “You look so bundled up!” It is praise I accept not for myself, but on behalf of the country where I bought them: Russia. I spent a total of two winters there, in Moscow, and each time, I approached the matter of buying a coat with an almost superstitious seriousness, as if the Russian winter were a spirit that watched me as I shopped, waiting to punish me if I made the wrong choice of down, or underestimated the need for moisture-wicking fabric. I was not wrong; I swear, that first winter, the wind felt like a ghost slapping me in the face, chiding me for getting the hood that buttoned rather than zipped. Perhaps that is why, every Halloween, as ghost stories make their return, my mind often wanders to Nikolai Gogol’s “The Overcoat.” Published in 1842, it tells the story of a vengeful ghost, who in life had his overcoat stolen and now in death haunts the city of St. Petersburg, pulling coats off the backs o...

In Valerie Stivers’s  Eat Your Words  series, she cooks up recipes drawn from the works of various writers. A Satanist witch from Mexico with whom I correspond on Twitter—I’m intrigued by her insights but nervous when she tweets things like #TakeMeDarkLord—wrote not long ago that all cooks are witches, though she didn’t mention the obverse: Can all witches cook? If the writer Shirley Jackson (1916–1965), a self-styled witch as well as one of the greats of twentieth-century literature, is anything to go by, the answer is yes, and the rule becomes interesting: domestic goddesshood is not quite what we expect from a horror writer, as Jackson was often (mis)labeled. Jackson’s most famous story is “ The Lottery ,” first published in The New Yorker in June 1948 and known to every schoolchild in America for its surprise ending, in which a group of ordinary-joe villagers stone a woman to death on a bright spring day for no reason other than “tradition.” The story’s message is...

Edith Wharton’s home, the Mount. “Oh, there is one, of course, but you’ll never know it,” an English lady tells an eager American couple at the start of one of Edith Wharton’s stories. The one , of course, is a ghost. The Americans are newly rich and thus in need of an estate. Their manor need not have neither hot water nor electricity. Their sole requirement is that there be a ghost in residence, and the only haunted house their hostess can offer is a country home, in Dorsetshire, whose ghostliness is as vague as a ghost itself. In “Afterward,” one is only sure of having seen a ghost, well, afterward. The story first appeared in Tales of Men and Ghosts , a collection published in 1910, while Edith was still living with her husband, Teddy, at the Mount, the estate in the Berkshires that she designed and expanded as her writing income allowed. The House of Mirth not only made her a best-selling author and celebrity when it was published in 1905, it paid for her elaborate gardens....

“We have two rules at the coven. The first is not to kill. Doreen says that life is a precious gift from the gods and should not be wasted. The second is this: break the first rule if necessary. Doreen says that while life is precious, there are decisions that must be made. Whether the […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/332qtSZ

Five African organizations related to writing and publishing have each been awarded a $20,000 grant from the African Publishing Innovation Fund to launch innovative projects that will develop literacy, book accessibility, and the use of African indigenous languages in African literature. The five inaugural recipients of the grants were recognized on October 29,  the eve […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2NsLy29

Afritondo is a new ‘media and publishing platform that aims to connect with and tell the stories of Africans and black minority populations across the globe.’ They recently announced a call for entries for their first short story prize, to be judged by South-African writer and winner of the 2017 Brittle Paper Award for Fiction […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/338fckc

John Cage. Photo: Betty Freeman. To put it mildly, John Cage’s Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse) is no ordinary account of days gone by; a plain record of events would be too simple for such a daring and meticulous artist. The product of thirty years, Diary allows us a glimpse of the late twentieth century through Cage’s eyes. His insights and observations reveal a generous, openhearted view of the world in tumult. In keeping with this openness is the book’s methodology: using a number generator based on the I Ching, Cage would allow chance to determine each entry’s word count, left margination, and typeface. Like much of Cage’s oeuvre, the complexity of this process melts away in the experience of the work. Here, for instance, is the first page of Part II, which was originally published in the Winter–Spring 1967 issue of The Paris Review :     At first glance, it scans as chaos. In practice, it reads like poetry, though the typo...

The website for the Lily Dale Assembly, the official headquarters of the small town’s spiritualist community, lists forty-nine registered mediums. The photographer Shannon Taggart has spent nearly two decades documenting Spiritualist communities around the globe. She began in Lily Dale, New York, a small town near the western tip of the state that plays host to one of the largest Spiritualist communities in the world. Her photos allow viewers to glimpse the sacred rituals by which mediums (and curious customers) reach beyond the veil.   Table-tipping workshop with mediums Reverend Jane and Chris Howarth, Erie, Pennsylvania, 2014.   Medium Sylvia Howarth enters a trance, England, 2013.   Woman said to be overshadowed by either the spirit of her grandmother, the Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, or her own doppelgänger, Lily Dale, New York, 2003.   Instrumental-transcommunication and smoke-scrying experiment outside the séance room, England, 2013. ...

In January 2016, Dan Piepenbring—then The Paris Review ’s online editor—was offered an opportunity to collaborate on a book with the artist Prince Rogers Nelson, known variously throughout his career as The Kid, The Artist, The Purple One, The Prince of Funk, Joey Coco, Alexander Nevermind, an unpronounceable symbol, or, simply, Prince. Yes, that Prince. Purple Rain Prince. “Act your age, not your shoe size” Prince. Prince Prince. The famously enigmatic musician, then in his late fifties, was grappling with how to reveal more of himself and his ideas to the world. He wanted to write a memoir about the music industry, about his childhood, about his experience as an African American artist. With Dan’s encouragement, Prince began putting his thoughts on paper. Like his music, Prince’s prose was lyrical and unexpected, reflecting his singular voice and a unique sensitivity for narrative. Even in its nascent form, the book promised to be extraordinary. But, just a few months int...

READ: 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry | New Project Pushes Institutional Boundaries in the Modern African Poetry Landscape In producing this anthology, there were challenges we had not foreseen, mostly because the individuals involved lived in different continents and time zones. Wile it has been exhausting, we have also experienced that rewarding joy […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2q03XLY

PRESS RELEASE: Abuja, Nigeria: The poet SAI Sabouke has been appointed Managing Editor of Konya Shamsrumi, effective immediately. This decision was arrived at after extensive consultations within the Konya Shamsrumi collective following the departure of pioneer Managing Editor, Kechi Nomu, months ago. Prior to now, the collective has been managed in the interim by Richard Ali. […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2JxRh5M

From 30 October to 3 November 2019, Lagos will play host to a wide array of poets, performers, and industry-related professionals at the fifth Lagos International Poetry Festival, #LIPFest2019. Themed “A Wild Beautiful Thing,” the festival will include performances, panels, book launches, readings, exhibitions, film screenings, and workshops. Among the star-studded guests for #LIPFest2019 are: […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/369QxgO

From 30 October to 3 November 2019, over 50 writers from 10 countries will be participating in the fifth Lagos International Poetry Festival, #LIPFest2019. Among the events to be held is a conversation between the 2019 Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo and Brittle Paper’s deputy editor Otosirieze Obi-Young. The conversation will take place on Saturday, […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2N11QRb

Registration is currently open for workshops with Bernadine Evaristo, Kaveh Akbar, Itiola Jones, and Logan February at the fifth Lagos International Poetry Festival, #LIPFest19. All workshops are limited to 25 participants. Here are the details of each workshop: “Poetry Workshop with Itiola Jones” Itiola Jones (I.S. Jones) is a queer American/Nigerian poet and music journalist. […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2JxJPr8

Award-winning writer Chika Unigwe has a new book out from Cassava Republic Press. Titled Better Late Than Never, the book is one of a trio of short story collections released under the Cassava Republic Press series Cassava Shorts. The other books that make up this trio include Toni Kan’s Night of a Creaking Bed (2019) […] from Brittle Paper https://ift.tt/2Nuicki

Every week, the editors of  The Paris Review  lift the paywall on a selection of interviews, stories, poems, and more from the magazine’s archive. You can have these unlocked pieces delivered straight to your inbox every Sunday by  signing up for the Redux newsletter . This week, we’re listening to the first episode of The Paris Review Podcast Season 2! Read on for the pieces featured in the episode: Toni Morrison’s Art of Fiction interview , Mary Terrier’s short story “ Guests ,” and Alex Dimitrov’s poem “ Impermanence .” If you enjoy these free interviews, stories, and poems, why not subscribe  to  The Paris Review and read the entire archive? You’ll also get four new issues of the quarterly delivered straight to your door. And don’t forget to also subscribe to The Paris Review Podcast —a new episode comes out every Wednesday!   Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134 Issue no. 128 (Fall 1993) Sometimes something that I was having some t...

A postcard from Chile, amid the weeks of nationwide protests in response to a subway fare hike, rising inequality, high cost of living, and privatization.  Busses on fire in Santiago (photo: Agence France-Press) I’m writing these words in clothes that reek of tear gas. Trying to process the pulse of the street while still part of it, while our feet are still there on the ground, fleeing water cannons, not knowing where to go, hiding in the crowd, among people just like us, groups of us marching, dodging smoke and soldiers. This is a celebration, a protest, a demand for change that began with students jumping turnstiles in the metro after fares were hiked. Without any organizer, without petitions, leaders, or negotiations, the whole thing escalated and then exploded into chaos in the streets. And there is yelling, and singing, and banging on pots, and fire, and beatings. In front of the palace of La Moneda, near the theater where I work, a man tells a soldier that he doesn’t und...