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I prefer the writing of writers who never publish. Sam Frank is one of the best who publishes the least. He’s probably going to be publishing even less, because he’s doing well in crypto. Sad! Start with this piece in Harper’s where he hangs out with some libertarians and this piece in Triple Canopy about how his dad failed to do what he might have done. Or email him.
Oct 21, 2021
Related Recs
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publishes a piece from a debut author every 2 or so weeks. they're often fiction, they're always really good
Mar 22, 2024
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great spoken word poet with a few books out now
Apr 18, 2024
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I love the Best American Essays collection, and there are many good years (two honorable mentions include 2017 2019), but 2023 includes one of my favourite essays: “Concision: A Sprawl” by George Estreich. It is so good. The foreword by Atwan also has such clear call to writers, and gives warning about lil of the scary awful things happening in the US. Estreich’s essay really elaborate on Atwan’s main point so eloquentl, and without any direct reference. He just does what Atwan describes in the foreword, and does so in a way that leaves you feeling changed. He ruminates on identity, the need to be concise in writing, and how we relate to other people. Sometimes concision isn’t the best option, sometimes concision is exclusive, and other roads should be considered to reaching a more powerful end. Sometimes we need to sprawl.
Feb 20, 2025
Top Recs from @kaitlin-phillips
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I thought Labi Saffre was a woman, he’s not. Nice quality in a singer. Anyway, these are two of the best love songs ever written. I first heard You’re Lovely on repeat on mushrooms. It’s :32 seconds. I recommend the experience.
Oct 21, 2021
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Henry makes a lot of low key insufferable navel-gazey films that I really enjoy. Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995) is his best. A matriarch presides over her family, who are all somehow involved in the theatre. It makes you wish you grew up with intellectuals in a house by the sea. Eating: A Very Serious Comedy about Women and Food is so annoying, it’s just women saying they’re fat at a party in Los Angeles, but my friend and his wife have the poster in their dining room, and it’s a great poster, I recommend getting it. He’s alive, Henry is, my translator friend knows him, she’s his muse, though she’s turned the camera back on him, her documentary on him needs a place to screen, if you’re a gallerist, get in touch. Support living artists!
Oct 21, 2021
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My two favorite living American writers — Fanny Howe and Mary Robison — both named female characters Money. Fanny imagined it was long for “Mona,” Mary, that it was short for “Monica.” I will be naming my child Money Phillips, no middle name. Anyway, you should read their books. (I have a lot of ready demands on whatever partner is dumb enough to procreate with me. Like, whoever has a child with me will have to drive me to a random hospital across the stateline into Montana in my third trimester, because I need my child to be a fifth generation Montanan. It’s a great source of anxiety to me that my dad lied to me growing up and said I was fifth generation. I was fourth.)
Oct 21, 2021