Michael Holtmann

We Don’t Have Any Reserves | Los Angeles Review of Books Adam Morgan writes on the impact of Trump’s coup at the NEA for small publishers and literary magazines.

"'People in the arts are often the people who speak truth to power,' avows Holtmann."

On what's happening at the NEA—and to cultural life in the U.S. Big thanks to Adam Morgan (@thefrontlist.org) and the Los Angeles Review of Books (@lareviewofbooks.bsky.social).
lareviewofbooks.org/article/we-d...

On the Latest Threat to Literary Culture’s Fragile Ecosystem: Donald Trump There’s an ongoing crisis in book publishing. I mean, there are many, but corporate consolidation is a threat to anyone who cares about books. When there are fewer publishers, both large and small,…

I wrote about the NEA cuts and that overwhelming feeling when so many different orgs and people need our money. But there are some answers in here too, courtesy of @michaelholtmann.bsky.social and @markkrotov.bsky.social. lithub.com/on-the-lates...

Bananas.

Images of Women | Elvira Navarro | Granta ‘In the years before his stroke, just how many times had her father told a woman he loved her after dating for two or three weeks?’ Fiction by Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney.

Elvira Navarro, translated by Christina MacSweeney, in Granta.

VOICES OF ADRIANNA is forthcoming from @twolinespress.bsky.social on February 18.

granta.com/images-of-wo...

Gift of The Ian Woodner Family Collection

Odilon Redon, Trees in the Blue Sky, c. 1883

https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1135076

THE YEAR’S BEST HORROR!

Love seeing THROUGH THE NIGHT LIKE A SNAKE and WOODWORM (both from Two Lines Press) in such distinguished company (and in print!) here.

Thanks again, Gabino!

Odilon Redon - Peach, 1901

Ha! Amazing.

The Mower BY PHILIP LARKIN The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found A hedgehog jammed up against the blades, Killed. It had been in the long grass. I had seen it before, and even fed it, once. Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world Unmendably. Burial was no help: Next morning I got up and it did not. The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time.

“we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time. -Philip Larkin” inscribed on a lemon, found in the grocery store fruit aisle

Best Larkin is not cynical Larkin, imo

—
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

Philip Larkin, 'The Mower'
#everynightapoem

Also: found poetry at Harris Teeter, spotted by a friend

It has been 20 years since Bowker found only 3% of books were translations. Of the 100 “best books” by the ny times this year a whopping… 4 are translated. How far we’ve come.

Breyten Breytenbach, Dissident South African-Born Writer, Dies at 85 He wrote poetry in Afrikaans and prose in English in his fight against apartheid, an effort that landed him in jail for seven years and in Paris as an expatriate.

Breyten Breytenbach. Farewell.

The first time I read it, THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF AN ALBINO TERRORIST knocked me on my ass.

“They took seven years from him, and he has now struck back with a volume that seems to have been ripped from his entrails.” —J. Lelyveld www.nytimes.com/2024/11/26/w...

Breyten Breytenbach, who will be much missed:

‘History is a succession of things that ought never to have happened, and the writing act is a kind of revenge against it.’

Adrienne made the books section at Esquire the best one in the business. Heartbreaking to see her and it become a casualty of bad management.

Dionne Brand : Salvage : Readings from the Wreck - Tin House What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand’s latest book of nonfiction Salvage: ...

What does it mean that a life can not only be animated by books but destroyed by them? That a self can be not only made by reading, but unmade by it? Dionne Brand returns to BTC to discuss Salvage: Readings from the Wreck
Audio📻🔥: tinhouse.com/podcast/dion...
@fsgbooks.bsky.social

it was radicals who first opened my eyes to how individual acts of repair were not gonna be the ticket. the corporations must be compelled to change. this should be a function of government for the sake of all and we must insist on it. I know this is rather earnest but the need is pressing, urgent.

Optimist: the glass is half full

Pessimist: the glass is half empty

Translator: when you say glass,
are we talking flute, coupe, shot glass, balloon, tumbler, highball, schooner, snifter, tankard?

August Wilson forever.

Oakland! Come toast the return of East Baaaayyy Boookseeellleerrrs

www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to... www.eventbrite.com/e/a-toast-to...

As you may have heard, from me or whomever else, East Bay Booksellers is reopening. A smaller version of itself, perhaps. But no less for the wear, I suppose. We're toasting to mark the occasion on Saturday, Nov. 30 at 2pm. Swing by, if you're so inclined or available.

Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers. Support local booksellers.

"Taiwan Travelogue follows a fictional 🇯🇵 writer and her relationship with the charming yet closed-off 🇹🇼 woman who serves as her interpreter [...] this novel explores language, politics, and popular culture in 1930s Taiwan, and the shape a cross-cultural friendship takes under the weight of history."

screenshot of Yang Shuang-zi and Lin King, Winner, 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature for 'Taiwan Travelogue'

Lovely news! #TaiwanTravelogue, by Yang Shuang-zi (author) and Lin Kin (translator), have won the 2024 National Book Award for Translated Literature! A first for Taiwan.

Piet Mondrian. Red Amaryllis with Blue Background. ca. 1907. Watercolor on paper

Y sus amarillos y sus rojos y naranjas y violetas.

Wendell Berry

It’s a personal favorite. A true touchstone. Such spectacular harmonies, such brilliant orchestration, the apotheosis of the Romantic Era. And the sublime, time-bending Adagietto. It’s almost too gorgeous.

I discovered Mahler in my teens, and my life was never the same.

This piece. One of the greatest.

The trumpet motif borrows from the Austro-Hungarian Army’s Generalmarsch.

From Mahler’s notes:

“In gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie ein Kondukt.”

At a measured pace. Strict. Like a funeral procession.

YouTube video by MilesDavisVEVO Miles Davis - So What (Official Audio)

New to this blue but not all blue.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk...