Penumbra Magazine

04/25/2014

Have you ever tried writing in a second language? Read about the ways in which linguistic alter egos can enrich your literary life: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/books/writing-in-english-novelists-find-inventive-new-voices.html?hp&_r=0

An expanding flock of novelists is writing in second languages, enriching and expanding the literature of their host cultures.

04/18/2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnNgjUWgrGQ

This is an excellent documentary of the life, times, thoughts and writings of Colombian-born Gabriel García Márquez, one of the twentieth century's most nota...

04/16/2014

Which fictional animal has won you over?

“It is completely selfless love: Tereza did not want anything of Karenin; She did not ever ask him to love her back. Nor has she ever asked herself the questions that plague human couples: Does he love me? Does he love anybody more than me? Does he love me more than I love him? Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe, and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something (love) from our partner instead of delivering ourselves to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”

― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

04/14/2014

"Even if I only had 10 readers, I'd rather do the book for them than for a million readers online."
Happy b-day Daniel Clowes, cartoonist and screenwriter. Check out his blog here: http://danielclowes.blogspot.com/.

04/13/2014

“She had never seen pomegranates nor tasted pineapples.” Pineapples take three years to mature. Pomegranates were the symbol of fertility for the ancient Egyptians. Which of the two is a fault for Madame Bovary’s departure from sanity and morality?

04/11/2014

In the early 1950s, The Paris Review asked the young novelist William Styron about writing, and the quality of his contemporaries. Here is that conversation: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5114/the-art-of-fiction-no-5-william-styron

The Paris Review is a literary magazine featuring original writing, art, and in-depth interviews with famous writers.

04/08/2014

Aminals + books = yay! http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/26/top-10-books-intelligent-animals-watership-down-animal-farm

Karen Joy Fowler: From Watership Down to Animal Farm, here are 10 novels filled with anthropomorphic frailties and fantasies

03/26/2014

Books to consider reading over your next croissant: http://flavorwire.com/446452/25-essential-books-about-americans-in-paris/

Paris, the city of lights, and the city of endless romanticizing from Americans who have heard that it's a magical land of baguettes and artistic freedom. Americans have been traveling to Paris to ...

03/04/2014

Get your book on this March!

flavorwire.com/442976/10-must-read-books-for-march

As we hopefully begin to try and start thawing out from what has been a very long winter, March offers us up enough great books to help us get through what really should be (I mean, who knows these...

03/01/2014

Who do you believe? Flavorwire showcases ten of literature's least reliable narrators: http://flavorwire.com/410468/10-of-literatures-most-unreliable-narrators

It was 55 years ago today that Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lo**ta was first published in the US. Nabokov's remarkable prose is as evocative today as it was in 1958. Facet's of the author...

02/28/2014

How many of these titles have you actually read?

A new survey reveals the top 10 books people claim to have read but haven't. Be it War and Peace or Infinite Jest, share your uncracked spines here

02/26/2014

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong" Joseph Chiltern Pierce

Check out this list from brainpickings of five classic books about fear and the creative process:

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/09/12/fear-creativity/

From Monet to Tiger Woods, or why creating rituals and breaking routines don't have to be conflicting notions. "Creativity is like chasin