There is nothing wrong with wanting to publish – or read – books that have a wide potential audience. But it does generate a certain plodding sameness of tone and subject matter that plagues a lot of contemporary American fiction. Michelle Dean Read Quote
A presidential candidate changing churches is hardly unusual. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, and Rand Paul have all aligned themselves with different faiths throughout their lives. Michelle Dean Read Quote
The Festival of Books is indeed a well-oiled machine, one which leaves most of the other literary festivals in America, including vaunted Brooklyn’s, in the dust. Michelle Dean Read Quote
It is no secret, of course, that people have strong feelings about fat – feelings that seem only to have been inflamed by the sense, in western countries, that there is an obesity crisis afoot. Concerns about health have mutated into a kind of panic attending any mention of fat people at all. Michelle Dean Read Quote
For a long time, it seemed as if podcasting was a male realm, but no longer. Sure, there are lots of men doing podcasts, but women are voicing a lot of the form’s biggest hits. ‘Serial,’ the podcast that made podcasts a phenomenon, was narrated by a woman. Michelle Dean Read Quote
Push the envelope too far as a female artist, and you may only earn an ocean of ink expressing concern for your delicate constitution, amounting to a caution against playing on traditionally male wavelengths. Michelle Dean Read Quote
Poems are ideally suited, in some ways, to social media because they pack so much meaning into so little language. Michelle Dean Read Quote
Literary novelists who have a strong handle on plot are often characterized as good vacation reads because they manage to transport you elsewhere, away from the petty facts of ordinary life. Michelle Dean Read Quote
I tend to judge a piece of criticism by how smart I find the argument. This, I know,, is not how everyone does it. Michelle Dean Read Quote
I like debate and argument, so I’m usually all right with disagreement, and I’m even all right if the critic doesn’t come to a clear thumbs up or thumbs down. But I need the disagreement to have some kind of line I can follow on the map. I like following an interesting mind along it. Michelle Dean Read Quote
