weekend links: National Book Awards, bad sex, the election and the mourning after
James Welling (2016). Image courtesy Artforum.
The Oxford Dictionary released its choice for word of the year: Post-Truth—when feelings trump facts. Can we get an emoji for that? [Time]
The National Book Award winners were announced this week. Although fields favorites Karan Mahajan and Solmaz Sharif lost out, we congratulate the winners and all of the nominees on their success. Here's National Book Foundation Executive Director Lisa Lucas's take on why the NBA—the National Book Award—is more like the WNBA. [ESPN]
While media is buzzing about Colson Whitehead’s win for The Underground Railroad, less mention has been paid to poetry winner Daniel Borzutzky. Read a few short excerpts from his winning work The Perfomance of Becoming Human here. [Bustle]
TheLiterary Review will be handing out a very different type of literary award this month—the bad sex in fiction award, given to an author on the basis of an extraordinarily bad sexual description in an otherwise good work. While they received nominations for Donald Trump, the review noted that he could not be included in the short list “on the grounds that the award only covers fiction.” [The Guardian]
The Internet is awash in poetry and essays and outpourings of grief as we contemplate our frightening new world. Here is a small sample of that. We will continue to collect work that inspires us, and we will continue to fight against the prejudice and hate that stems from our undeserving leaders. [Artforum]
Author P.E. Garcia shared a powerful essay detailing his experience teaching in the aftermath of the election, and the pain that comes from realizing your students voted for your oppressors. [HTMLGIANT]
Let us look to the past for inspiration. Philip Guston's Nixon-inspired work is a good place to start. [Hyperallergic]
Austin fans, meet Troy Campa, one half of the CAMBIAart Gallery. If you haven't seen their latest exhibit, featuring Edward Lane McCartney, we recommend you check it out. [The Austin Chronicle]
—Katie Lauren Bruton and Sean Redmond