by Porter Anderson

At London Book Fair: Blindsided By “Bird Box”

In Josh Malerman’s debut, Bird Box, the role of Malorie brings to new literature a distinctively male recognition of strong women. Like Hugh Howey’s Vic in Sand and Jules in Wool and Montana in Peace in Amber, Malerman writes a rational intelligence that women may too easily take for granted in themselves and each other. Read More

by Porter Anderson

Publishing, Between Revolution and Revolt

Follow that burn­ing fuse. It runs between these two curi­ously dif­fer­ent words. We may need to think about which of them is closer to us. Rev­o­lu­tion. Pretty com­fort­able. Thanks to Madi­son Avenue, we nowa­days say “rev­o­lu­tion” for every change, from geopo­lit­i­cal alliances to bath­room tis­sue. Revolt. Not so com­fort­able. More acute. Some­thing or some­one feels out of con­trol. It’s an upris­ing, not a down­falling. Dangerous. Read More