By: Kat,
on 5/22/2014
This bizarre, mesmerizing debut collection got a lot of attention when it came out, for good reason. Russell has a gift for telling intricate, fantastical tales with great emotional depth. To read one of the stories in St. Lucy's is to step into a new world — a world you'll long to revisit again and [...]
By: Powell's Staff,
on 3/16/2014
At Powell's, our book buyers select all the new books in our vast inventory. If we need a book recommendation, we turn to our team of resident experts. Need a gift idea for a fan of vampire novels? Looking for a guide that will best demonstrate how to knit argyle socks? Need a book for [...]
By: Jason Boog,
on 9/24/2013
Authors Donald Antrim and Karen Russell were among the 24 creators and thinkers picked as MacArthur Fellows for 2013. These “genius grant” recipients will be the first class of fellows to receive a $625,000 no-strings-attached stipend (compared to the previous $500,000 stipend).
The foundation published glowing biographies of the two writers. They cited Donald Antrim‘s reputation as a “writer’s writer” who “has yet to achieve major commercial success.” Here’s more:
He is a professor at Columbia who is deeply committed to his students, and he is currently working on a new novel and collection of short stories. His style is highly contradictory — at once absurd but relatable, free but structured, romantic but realistic, funny but sad. His unusual style blends tightly controlled prose with comic absurdity and surreal events.
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By: Karen Russell,
on 2/7/2013
Describe your latest book. My latest book is a short story collection called Vampires in the Lemon Grove. Many of the stories are about monstrous metamorphoses — teenaged bullies in New Jersey, captive Japanese women converted into factory machinery, vampires in recovery. Human subjects converted into objects by violence. What fictional character would you like [...]
By: Jason Boog,
on 6/27/2012
The New Yorker recently ran a nostalgic essay by Swamplandia! author Karen Russell about Pizza Hut’s Book It! reading program. Unfortunately, the article itself is subscription-only. Here is an excerpt:
In the early nineties, Pizza Hut sponsors Book It! to promote reading. For every ten books you read, you get a certificate for a free, one-topping pizza. At the end of each month, you come home from Mrs. Sicius’s fifth-grade class and slam down the Book It! certificate in front of your parents like a hunter dropping a deer carcass on the kitchen table. Book that Family! We are eating tonight! It turns out there is no greater pleasure than reading for pizza. No longer do you feel guilty about eschewing the ‘real’ world for these fantasy zones. Now you have an unassailable American motivation; you’re a breadwinner. Literally.
Reading the essay, this GalleyCat editor remembered the hours and hours and hours of pizza-driven reading he completed as a Book It! kid back in Michigan. If you were a fan of the program, Pizza Hut still hosts the reading contest with some new media twists. Book It! graduates can sign up for the alumni newsletter.
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By: thurberhouse,
on 11/8/2011
Last Thursday we wrapped up our Evenings with Authors series for the season. The audience had a fantastic time with Karen Russell as she dove into the heart of her acclaimed novel Swamplandia! Here are some photos from the event:
"Swamplandia!" is Russell's bestselling novel set in the Florida Everglades about the Bigtree family and their adventures in trying to save their alligator theme park.
Russell takes the stage to share inspiration behind the story and offer a glimpse of how she gave life to the hysterical band of alligator wrestlers.
The audience listens intently as Russell captivates their attention with the novel's creative storyline and hilarious characters.
After the reading and Q&A, Russell met with fans and signed their copy of "Swamplandia!"
Thank you Karen! We had a wonderful evening and were so honored to have you as our guest!
Overall the evening was a huge success and the perfect conclusion to the Fall Evenings with Authors series. If you weren’t able to make it out this fall, stay tuned to our website, Facebook and Twitter as we’ll soon announce our Winter and Spring series line-up!
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By: Jason Boog,
on 10/20/2011
HBO has approved a “half-hour comedy project” based on Karen Russell‘s critically acclaimed novel, Swamplandia. Producer Scott Rudin will lead the project.
Follow this link to read a free excerpt from Swamplandia. The debut novel focused on a teenaged alligator wrestler who takes a surreal journey through the Florida Everglades.
The Hollywood Reporter also revealed details about other literary projects at HBO: “A search is under way for a writer on the project, with Rudin attached to executive produce the comedy and author Russell consulting … In addition, Rudin is attached to Noah Baumbach‘s adaptation of Jonathan Frazen‘s The Corrections and Cynthia Mort‘s half-hour comedy based on scribe Mary Karr‘s life.”
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By: Maud Newton,
on 7/28/2011
The Daily Beast asked some writers — Donna Tartt, Junot Díaz, Chris Adrian, Geoff Dyer, Karen Russell, Sherman Alexie, Siri Hustvedt, Darin Strauss, Téa Obreht, Kathryn Stockett, Alexandra Fuller, Anne Enright, Elisabeth Kostova, Alexander McCall Smith, and me — about our favorite summer books.
Mine is John Colapinto’s first (and, so far, only) novel, About the Author. What I said:
I read John Colapinto’s hilarious, propulsive, and gorgeously written About the Author in a single day almost exactly eight years ago, before the rise, demise, and resurrection of James Frey, when I knew next to nothing about publishing but had great expertise in planning to write and not writing. The novel’s narrator, Cal Cunningham, has also perfected this skill. A supposed wordsmith, he spends his days shelving books at a big midtown bookstore, nights going from bar to bar picking up girls and getting laid, and Sunday mornings filling his dull law student roommate in on his escapades. Our hero’s sense of superiority is shattered when he discovers that the roommate hasn’t been locked in his room typing tedious legal briefs but working on a novel, one that’s actually good, one that sounds suspiciously like Cunningham’s own life, so much so that when the roommate dies unexpectedly… Well, I’ve already said too much, but it’s a remarkable book, a confessional literary thriller that makes you care about its plagiarist narrator even as it reveals him to be a coward and a liar and satirizes the publishing and media world that exalts him.
I’ve been blogging so long, I can point exactly to when I first read About the Author, a gift from Emma early in our friendship. (I didn’t know then that the novel took Colapinto thirteen years to write. No judgment here.)
Head over to the Daily Beast for the other picks.
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By: Aerin,
on 1/1/2010
Have fun getting back into the blogging fun. Your sweet for adding me to the list, thank you.
I haven't read Wings yet, but I did BUY it, so I probably should one of these days...
Happy new year, Aerin! That is a great list!
Oh, WOW. Thank you! That was so sweet and kind of you!!! REALLY. That has made my whole night! :)
(And I SO agree with you on Wings. What a let-down. Have you seen the new German cover? It's super-sexy....but they barely kiss in the book...)
(And reading that makes me look like I think no sex = let down, but that's not what I meant!)
Whoa, Beth, now I want to see the German cover of Wings. :)
And Aerin, I feel like I haven't seen you around on the Internet much lately! Hopefully 2010 will be an even better year! And thanks for putting me on your list. I'm honored. :)
"Incomparable" as in "the incomparable Mary Poppins" or "the incomparable Angelina Jolie."
Stunned and thrilled to have made it into this post. Cheers!
That's one good list. You have my two thumbs up.
I hope 2010 is a great year for you, Aerin!!
I really like Kristin Cashore's blog too. Thanks for linking to my post!
Although, wait... I just clicked the link and it goes somewhere other than my page!
>pout<
Ah Aerin . . . I'm blushing. Thanks for including me in your list. I'm not always the best for leaving comments so I apologize but I'm always checking out everybody's posts. Have a great new year!
You're a peach.