William Ghosh

Joy Williams, from "The Other Week" -- one of the most beautiful stories I've ever read.

Lore Segal, who died on Monday, at the age of 96, published her first short story in The New Yorker in 1961, and her final one two weeks ago, some 63 years later. nyer.cm/w7cesDe

@PhilKlay Denis Johnson, "Beverly Home," "Dirty Wedding," and "Triumph Over the Grave"

What are the greatest Catholic short stories NOT by O’Connor or Dubus?

I'm ten pages from the end and it is indeed extremely good theguardian.com/books/article/…

Lore Segal's late, Manhattan stories have been appearing for a few years now. The one in the current @NewYorker reads like a summation. It's extraordinary, and hearing her reading it in her own voice is magical. newyorker.com/podcast/the-wr…

Fascinating theparisreview.org/blog/2024/05/2…

Walker Brothers Cowboy. What more can you say?

A cultural history of twentieth-century Britain might fittingly end with a chapter on Caroline Aherne. She was a genius and this is a beautiful, loving portrait. @shattenstone @guardianfilm theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…

Very sad to hear of the death of the critic and poet Edward Baugh, a giant of West Indian letters.

Terrific

@austinkleon I have spent the weekend reading the new Portis Library of America, and got to this absolute gem last night

Nonfiction writer attempting a “novelistic” opening: “The crickets and the rust-beetles scuttled among the nettles of the sage thicket…” An actual good novelist:

Sometimes nonfiction writers will start their chapters with these flowery “let me set the scene” sentences in an attempt to be “novelistic” and it backfires on me because I think, “I don’t even like novels that read like this”

@scriblerian I think there's a chapter long reading of Nocturnal in Muldoon's End of the Poem

At the end of my suffering There was a door. theguardian.com/books/2023/oct…

"The great British movie artist of working class Catholic experience and gay identity ... with a voice that might have belonged to a matinee idol." Alongside Distant Voices etc, I have a particular soft spot for his version of Rattigan's Deep Blue Sea. theguardian.com/film/2023/oct/…

One of my favourite books of all time. I remember reading it in my kitchen as a teenager. Every time I tried to write about anything for about fifteen years afterwards I had its "we..." narrative voice somewhere in my ear.

@_discoursis I think the Michael Silk CUP one is supposed to be good

Can anyone recommend an excellent reader's companion to The Iliad? Awaiting Emily Wilson's translation but for the time being!

"There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that -- to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail."

"It can take days to recover and collect oneself from the experience of reading" Highly entertaining interview with Ken Ramchand, one of the great originals... newsday.co.tt/2023/08/27/a-h…

Very late to this insightful and elegant retrospective essay on the great Charles Portis @my19thcentury @the_point_mag thepointmag.com/criticism/old-…

What are the great books/essays about the idea of "tradition" (literary, historical, theological etc.)? I'm making a reading list and all help much appreciated!