fiction | The Smart Set

Town and Country

Richard Klin — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 11:30:00 +0000

Some time ago, I embarked on a personal reading project: An informal survey of books that once had been widely read — so widely read, in fact, that they had earned their place in the literary lexicon. The criteria for my project did have certain strictures. The operative word was once. The contents of these […]

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Shehan Karunatilaka Will Kick You Out at Midnight

Sudipto Sanyal — Thu, 07 Dec 2023 12:30:00 +0000

Ventriloquism “I only became famous in October,” mumbled Shehan Karunatilaka as he leaned on the wall of the Chandni Chowk metro station and lit a cigarette. Here, in downtown Kolkata, with its crumbling office blocks and chaotic sidewalks, the long-haired, eyebrow-pierced writer from Sri Lanka was about as conspicuous as a dirty napkin in a […]

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Voice Is Vision

Kelly Cherry — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 13:30:55 +0000

Levine continues: By the time I was twenty-one years old I’d begun to think of myself as something of an accomplished poet; what I lacked — among other things — was a recognizable, consistent voice for my poems. For the most part, American poets make this search for a voice automatically — it’s part of […]

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Write Outside

Christine Ro — Thu, 14 Sep 2017 11:30:38 +0000

It’s a difficult task, writing about a country that is yet to appear on many printed maps. This is compounded when you’re writing as a foreigner, representing a foreign perspective that sees the new country mainly in terms of conflict and uncertainty. It can also be argued that an outsider mining a newly independent country […]

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The Reality of Rebellion

Byshera Williams — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 14:58:34 +0000

We enter Panem, home of The Hunger Games, a dystopian film and book franchise that centers on the oppression of the 12 mostly impoverished Districts controlled by the Capital. Every year, the Capital holds an event called The Reaping where they make each one of the Districts sacrifice two children to The Hunger Games. During […]

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My Two Sense

Paula Marantz Cohen — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:12:43 +0000

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Two hundred years is a long time, and much of the appeal of Jane Austen lies in how long ago she wrote. Every year the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) meets in a major city and stages a […]

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Plotting Along

Jessa Crispin — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:12:43 +0000

Every year when the Orange Prize announces its longlist, or its shortlist, or its jury members, or an anniversary, or is mentioned in the press, people start to write long opinion pieces about the sad state of women’s fiction. This year’s award will be announced next week, and we’ve been enduring months of such complaints. […]

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Writing Circle

Nick Mamatas — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:12:43 +0000

The other week I popped into an outlet of major retail bookstore chain just to use the restroom. I walked out with Marion Meade’s Lonelyhearts and Tracy Daugherty’s Hiding Man — biographies of Nathanael West (and Eileen McKinney) and Donald Barthelme respectively. That’s me down $52. In my bag, as my commute read, I already […]

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The Foreign Service

Jessa Crispin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:12:43 +0000

It is impossible to write about such a book as Best European Fiction 2010 without also writing about America’s disinterest in such a book. Neither Zadie Smith nor Aleksandar Hemon could do it — and they’re the author of the introduction and the editor of the anthology. It’s a well worn angle by now: the fact […]

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Updike the Synthesizer

Morgan Meis — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 16:12:43 +0000

Updike gave a lecture on American art last year at the National Endowment for the Humanities. It was called “The Clarity of Things: What is American about American Art.” Updike discussed how American painting finally managed to become American. Most of the early American painters were tradesman. They knew how to paint, but they […]

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