Books
TATTERS OF SONG
By Barry SchwabskyFaber’s new edition of Samuel Beckett’s poems, replacing the old Collected Poems in English and French on which most readers have depended since its first publication in 1977, is part of their program to reissue the Irish writer’s work following the closing down of his former publisher, Calder Publications.
ROBERT LOWELL AND JORGE LUIS BORGES: TWO KINGS, ONE PAIR OF TROUSERS
By Jesse Tangen-MillsSo the King of Babylon designs a labyrinth to trap the King of Arabia, but the Bedouin monarch escapes, and swears that if they ever cross paths again he’ll put him in his own labyrinth: the Arabian Desert.
“DEFUSING THE THREAT”: AMIS AND BALLARD, AESTHETICS AND BIOGRAPHY
By Brendan ByrneSix days after the death of J.G. Ballard, The Guardian published an obituary authored by Martin Amis which, partially reworked, appeared five months later as the introduction to the hardback American edition of The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard.
ALL STORIES END IN DEATH
By Justin MitchellThe term “writer’s writer” has always made me uncomfortable. On the one hand, it can be used to refer to a talented minor author who, for whatever reason, has acquired a cult following.
A GARDENER OF THIS AND THAT
By Christopher VolaAt age 95, Martin Gardner has written about pretty much everything. Known primarily for his thousands of columns in Scientific American that focused on recreational mathematics, the Tulsa, Oklahoma native’s more than 70 published works reflect an immense array of interests—pseudoscientific skepticism, children’s literature, obscure and forgotten poetry, philosophy, politics, and religion, to name just a few.
RAPID TRANSIT
By Jeffrey Cyphers WrightRiff-rattled and jack-legged, critic and poet Fred Moten conducts the ministers of the “Black Arts Movement,” fusing them into an orchestral procession. His “Ghostcatcher” runs underground and over the top, turning the outside in and insight out.
