All Shook Up. Lots of changes in the world of lit mags these days: Granta, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Southern Review, Georgia Review, McSweeney’s. VQR‘s Ted Genoways is keeping track of all the upheaval, including the “temporary” demise of Antioch College. (We’re grateful to add that things at KR are pleasantly undramatic.)
Mum’s the Word. As the Brisbane Times reported recently, author/illustrator Shaun Tan had a dilemma when he was asked to read from his award-winning book The Arrival at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. The book, which was among this year’s winners of the New South Wales (NSW) Premier’s Literary Awards, contains no words. Citing why it selected The Arrival, Arts NSW says, “Without words, this graphic novel has all the hallmarks of lasting literature in that it explores the human condition through the plight of one man and in so doing explores what it is to be human.” The Brisbane Times adds, “Illustration is not often seen as literature, but of those who argue that a book without words is unworthy of literary acclaim, Tan asks: ‘How many words does something have to have before it becomes literature? Is poetry less literary than a novel?'”