April 30, 2019
Over at Brooklyn Rail, I interviewed Sarah Rose Etter about here excellent new novel The Book of X.
“The exchange between visual art and writing deserves a lot more exploration. Constantly, I was asking myself how the scenes in this book would look if they were painted or made into a movie, then aiming for something more wild, new, and true.”
April 22, 2019
April 3, 2019
My interview with Ann Beattie ran at the Los Angeles Review of Books blog on April 2, 2019. We talked about her new novel, food, and terrible writing advice. She also gave me the OK to include this terrific photo.
February 5, 2019
My review of Same Same ran in the NY Times on 2/5/19.
“In using nonsensical jargon to expose the hollow core of the global Big Ideas industry, Mendelsund has produced — or perhaps reproduced — something entirely satisfying. “Same Same” is a substantial book about emptiness. It reminds us that there’s no here here unless we create it ourselves.”
January 18, 2019
During the summer of 2018, I had the honor of accepting a Mary Valentine and Andrew Cosman research fellowship in the archives of the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. For the novel I’m writing, I’ve been looking at how Dungeons & Dragons and other interactive games and RPGs might participate in ancient traditions of oral storytelling.
Here’s the excerpt:
“Back before we had blogs or even pencils and paper, humans told each other stories in caves and around the cooking fires. Epic poets would recite their tales from memory and for hours at a time, and these tales would be retold and embellished in much the same way the fish I caught a few summers ago has grown progressively larger every year since. That’s how stories work.”
The museum recently shared my research summary on their blog. You can read the whole post here.