James McGirk
Writer specializing in finance, energy, emerging technologies, development, and longform content.
Nobody Wins
PULITZER prizes are better known for honoring American journalism than fiction. Their heft in literary circles is far outweighed by the Nobel prize or MacArthur Fellowship. Yet the Pulitzer remains one of the few literary honours that can substantially increase an author’s sales in America. The Pulitzer prize for fiction last year boosted sales of Jennifer Egan’s “A Visit from the Goon Squad” by an order of magnitude. Publishers had been keen on a similar revenue injection this year, in light of disappointing sales and a looming (and costly) anti-trust decision on digital rights.
The Q&A: Tom McCarthy
TOM MCCARTHY’S 2005 debut, “Remainder”, managed what the jackets of so many first novels promise: a fresh and—in this case—unsettling take on contemporary life. It is about a brain-damaged man who marshals millions of pounds and a troupe of actors, consiglieres and forensic experts to reconstruct a memory. It is an intentionally confusing and difficult book that manages to draw on both Proust and Beckett, yet remain intoxicatingly readable…
CAN YOU REALLY RANK WRITING PROGRAMMES?
Right now, in faculty rooms across the country, admissions officials are trying to winnow out the next batch of Masters of Fine Arts diploma candidates, America’s presumptive writing elite….
WHITNEY BIENNIAL: THE LIST
The Whitney Biennial is something of a coming-out party for mostly young and mostly unknown contemporary artists working in America. To announce the much-anticipated list of artists selected for this year’s show, which opens in New York on February 25th, the two curators, Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari, have supplemented the traditional press release with a short, weird film. Art wags are now scratching their heads, wondering what this could possibly mean….
Highline Bandit
A BANDIT ON THE HIGH LINE
The High Line park, recently converted from an elevated train track that snaked through the gallery district on Manhattan’s west side, is one of New York City’s most constrained public places. Designed to preserve the native flora and rusted chic of industrial-age New York, it is rare among city parks for the way it controls visitor numbers. Riffraff are held at bay. People actually seem to behave… [LINK]