Afternoon Bites: Matt Bell Interviewed, Ladyfest Philly, Collected Noah Cicero, Matthew Specktor, and More

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“Before I was finished, a lot of other influences had been mixed in: there’s a little bit of King James Version, some Greek myth, a little bit of Old Norwegian, a smattering of unusual words lifted from nineteenth-century dictionaries, some Cormac McCarthy and Brian Evenson and Hiromi Itō and Christine Schutt, all these writers who work so well at the sentence level, who write so wonderfully about the body.” Matt Bell chatted with Tin House about his new novel In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and Woods.

Hey, it’s the fiction finalists for this year’s Best Translated Book Award.

Courtney Maum has a new column at Barrelhouse.

“Good fiction necessarily encompasses our limited understandings of one another, and of ourselves. Henry James’ entire career was predicated on that, and I think it’s what fiction is for: to illuminate that gap between our secret selves and our more visible and apparent ones.” Jennifer Sky talked with Matthew Specktor for Interview.

The lineup for Ladyfest Philly is making us ponder a road trip.

Wakin on a Pretty Daze is Vile’s most spacious, becalmed record yet, and it contains some of his best-ever brand of cosmic stand-up.” Jayson Greene on Kurt Vile’s latest.

Lazy Fascist is collecting Noah Cicero’s work, beginning next month.

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