The shortlist for the Man Booker Prize has been announced. The Millions has a round up of relevant excerpts and reviews.
Is Kraft Dinner our “de facto national dish”? I'd rather poutine, any day of the week. But maybe that's just because KD makes me think of university students. Jeffrey Eugenides knows what's up with university students. Here's his advice to this year's tender frosh: “There is literally nothing I would advise against. Welcome to college.”
Poetry. In SPACE.
The New Yorker has an excerpt from Salman Rushdie's forthcoming memoir, Joseph Anton. It's the chapter that details the moments immediately after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini put a bounty on his head. Sameer Rahim gives a personal account of reading The Satanic Verses, after 1989 when the fatwa was declared. PEN Canada—the Canadian arm of the organization that advocates for the political freedom of writers world wide—by the way, accepts donations online.
