A talk in Portland
Reed College and the University of Portland have invited me to give a talk at the end of March in Portland, Oregon. I’ll be giving the same lecture at both places. The title is going to be “The...
View ArticleLed astray
Laura Miller on Anthony Lane: Reading this much of a critic’s work will also alert you to his tics. Lane has only one that annoys me: He will cross the street, walk around the block, catch a cross-town...
View ArticleThe first volume of Leander’s diary, now safely archived
In the first chapter of American Sympathy, my 2001 study of the literary representation of affection between men in the antebellum United States, I wrote about two genteel Quakers in late-18th-century...
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The Disenchantment of literature in the age of the algorithm
I’ve got an essay in the July 2015 issue of Harper’s, titled “Counter Culture: Fighting for Literature in an Age of Algorithms.” It seemed appropriate to offer as a preview a photo of the essay taken...
View ArticleBirds of a feather
I reviewed Gregory Woods’s Homintern, a survey of homosexuals in the arts during the 20th century, for the 7 May 2016 issue of The Guardian.
View ArticleA panel at the Brooklyn Book Festival this weekend
This Sunday at the Brooklyn Book Festival, I’ll be moderating “Occupy and Resist,” a panel about politics and literature, featuring the writers Sayed Kashua (author of Native), Imbolo Mbue (author of...
View ArticleLife and unhappy novels
[An issue of my newsletter Leaflet] “In spring everything becomes drowsy. The cat forgets to chase the mouse, and men forget that they have debts.” —Sōseki, The Three-Cornered World I’ve been...
View ArticleAmbition
[A story. Also available as an issue of my newsletter, Leaflet] I was walking through the library, naked as usual, and as always, of two minds, intention and sensibility. Plot and character. Dianoia...
View ArticleInfinitely fine
In 1910, Henry James published an essay titled “Is There Life After Death?” Probably not, is the answer he starts with. For one thing, a lot of people don’t even seem to care whether they have immortal...
View ArticleMichael Cunningham’s “Day”
I reviewed Michael Cunningham’s new novel Day for the New York Times Book Review. (Way back in 2005, I reviewed his novel Specimen Days for New York magazine, which misspelled my name as “Caleb Cain”...
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