Here are links to five bits of writing that recently captured my attention. They all have something to do with writing. Maybe you’ll get something out of one or two of them. Happy reading.
- The Paris Review on discovering new writers. One of the legendary and upper-echelon literary magazines, The Paris Review, opened for submissions yesterday (Thursday, October 1), and to mark the occasion–and perhaps to encourage unknown writers–Owen Park, the magazine’s assistant editor, wrote about “the journey a piece can take from the slush pile into our pages.” From this piece, I learned that Philip Roth was among the literary luminaries who once submitted unsolicited manuscripts to this august publication. Others have also found their way into The Paris Review, as Park reports.
- Why I’ve Stopped Submitting My Stories to Literary Magazines is an essay by writer Mary Felice, who describes herself as “a novelist at heart” and who posted this not in any literary magazine but on her Substack page, which is appropriate, given the subject and the nature of Substack. In the piece, she points out that literary magazines usually don’t pay, that it takes a lot of time and effort to submit, that it won’t advance her literary goals, etc. It’s worth a read, even if you don’t agree with everything she has to say.
- Remembering Annie Dillard. The New York Times Magazine‘s Same Anderson writes (gift link) that Dillard, the brilliant memoirist, essayist, and novelist who died last month, was “a sort of drill sergeant of human consciousness: determined, always, to force herself, and others, to see.”
- Running the writer’s race. In “This Side of the Finish Line,” writer Nancy Jorgenson discusses her ambitious goal of writing 52 essays this year in the form of an athlete’s mid-year progress report to a fictitious coach. The result is an enjoyable and insightful essay that even less ambitious writers (like myself) can relate to.
- Farewell to another fine and beloved literary magazine. The Argyle Literary Magazine‘s final issue dropped at the end of September. Another fine literary magazine, and home to three pieces of my writing, is going away. The editors plan to go permanently offline December 15, so read the final issue soon! While you’re there, visit the archives for many splendid works of art, prose, and poetry.