Sweating in the Margins
On doing big edits for others
big reader bad grades
Snapshots about writers and writing, books and reading them, culture in general and the retail job that stifles it all.
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The First Time I Saw the Future
at least three different ways of being naked
Environmental Protection
on blue lights, bouncers, and pretty houses
I Read 50 Books to Write This Novel. Don't Do That.
The strategic mishap that turned a short novel into a five-year grind.
Cheesecake Provenance
and other things with which winners are concerned.
Hypothalamus in a Hat
6 days til CUBATOOTH...
Prohibition's Catholic Wine Cartel
7 days til my new book CUBATOOTH
You Can't Eat Burritos Here
and other reasons kids go to jail
Dollar Gummies
And other materials.
I Quit My Job
before they could fire me.
bad news but the good kind
Hey but my schedule's wide open if you need an editor!
"We Always Leave Things Unfinished"
William T. Vollmann is dying. In his Sacramento studio, he talks America, unfinished work, and the 3,096-page opus he finished just in time.
Vagabond Believers
On Meaghan Garvey's terrific new book and its haunted personal vibes.
“I’d Rather You Didn’t”
Inside The New Yorker’s Takeover: 1984—1985
Abduction Chic
On buying Hokas.
Three Pivotal Moments When Someone Told James Ellroy to Chill Out and He Listened
And how his new novel RED SHEET *happens* to be his best in 25 years.
A Celebrity Buys Groceries
For the octopus who needs them.
A Customer Gave Me Porn
And also a dreambook.
No Power to Stop It
"The literary equivalent of Charles Manson." Robert A. Caro's epic, THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON, debuts.
The Disabled Person I Dislike Most
And there are others.
The First Reactions
The first volume of Caro's biography, THE YEARS OF LYNDON JOHNSON, is excerpted in "The Atlantic" -- and promptly attacked.