Lo and behold, five stories guaranteed to stop your breathing.

How do they do it?

Sorry, we’re not at liberty to say. You’ll just have to read them. Like now.

So go on with ya. And remember, deeeeeep breaths.

Enjoy!

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Big Things

Big things are in the works. Big big things. All we can say is that next week at this time much will be different, and better. It’s exciting, mind-blowing, and nerve-wracking, all at the same time. If we compared these big things to the writing life, it would be akin to having a novel published, a novel that’s taken many years to write, one that’s required a strong sense of personal commitment and just a little bit of good luck.  Soon, the results of all this work and luck will be revealed to the world. Yikes, big things indeed! At any rate, to be a little less cryptic, here’s today’s roundup of literature news, which, in its own right, is just as big and important as anything else that’s happening. Stephen Burt gives us the lowdown on four new titles from the world or poetry. The MC Journal examines the future of literary publishing and wonders what the fuss is all about, Jonathan Lethem is to begin teaching at Pomona College next fall, Zadie Smith’s third novel is a ‘beautiful’ achievement, and Benjamin Black’s latest tale is excerpted in the Elegant Variation. Elsewhere, academic writing is taken to task in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the importance of high-quality literary translation is reiterated by Tim Parks in the Observer. If that’s not a marriage of literary culture, we don’t know what is. — Kevin Murphy

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