The Good of the Critic (& the novel)

'we live in “an age of drive-by reviewing, when every reader can tell the (electronic) world whether or not they ‘like’ a particular book.”'

Interesting article on the New Yorker site about The Good of the Critic

'The Good of the Novel will not be dogmatic or prescriptive. To theorise about a genre as fluid, capacious and protean as the novel is to risk incoherence or banality. Each novel set the terms of its own reception, makes its own demands of its readers. As Amit Chaudhuri argues here, the reading of a single novel can realign one’s entire aesthetic. Each novel writes its own constitution.'

How did I miss this book? Ordered.

Comments

New Welsh Writing Awards: The Winners!

Huge congratulations to Natasha Gauthier, Winner of the Borzello Trust Poetry Prize – winning a £500 development publishing contract with us – announced at our New Welsh Writing Awards ceremony in Abergavenny last night. It was a great pleasure to judge this award with Niall Griffiths. And congratulations to all the shortlisted poets whose work you can read in our next issue (138). Also, many congratulations to Sam Christie who won the The Rheidol Prize in the New Welsh Writing Awards with his story ‘The Widowmaker’ (judged by former NWR editor Gwen Davies and author David Lloyd Owen). Winning a £1000 development publishing contract with us. The two runners-ups prizes went to Natalie Ann Holborow with her story ‘The Man Who Knew Things’ and Sybilla Harvey with her story ‘The Flattening’. Both winning a creative residency with Gladstone's Library and Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre. You can read all three stories in our next issue of New Welsh Review .

REVIEW OF THE ART OF CONTRACEPTION | CARYS BRAY

'The Art of Contraception', Susie Wild The Art of Contraception, Susie Wild 'The Art of Contraception' is a collection of eleven short stories and a novella. These stories are linked by themes of relationships, sex and procreation. The first story 'Aquatic Life' is available to read online (see link below). Replete with watery imagery, it is a story of loneliness, secret desires and exotic holidays taken in the bath. Wild has a talent for writing about human oddness, hence the use of the word 'quirky' in so many of the descriptions of this collection. 'Pocillovy' is a story about a missing egg cup which suddenly becomes 'essential to the health and survival' of Alice's relationship, while 'Waxing, Waning' takes the reader on an altogether more unpleasant journey to Thailand with Natalie, who has a 'childlike need to believe in wishes coming true.' My favourite stories were 'Pica', in which a pregnant woman i...

BYT: Hello There

April 2010 by Susie Wild This BYT is writing her first entry in a rush. A dirty rush at that, as today I have mostly been cleaning out an old brothel in the name of art. No, not that kind of art… I am staging a 24 Hour Poetry Marathon a week today as a fundraiser for the Hay Poetry Jamboree in June. Local artist, curator and general good guy Jon Powell has offered me the new Elysium Gallery space in Swansea for the purpose. It hasn’t even opened to the public yet, and with good reason – the building has been empty for 10 years, and before that all kinds of sordid ‘fun’ occurred. Today was testament to that, as we found a cobwebbed high heel, a tube of KY Jelly, an empty wallet and a handwritten itemised takings sheet for a night – the best girl, Elisa, made £195. Insightful. Shame I’ve already written The Art of Contraception , really. So after much sweeping up of filth and moving of furniture, I am back home for a ‘whore’s wash’ and ...

Wildlife

Search This Blog