Book awards - in America, at least - are not like the Oscars. Awards are not cumulative, and in the case of… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
I don't care about the bare fact that anyone liked or didn't like a book or movie; they can only interest me… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
The Festival of Books is indeed a well-oiled machine, one which leaves most of the other literary festivals in America, including vaunted… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
The 'beach read' has become such a ubiquitous concept in contemporary literature that we assume it has always been around. In fact,… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There is nothing wrong with wanting to publish - or read - books that have a wide potential audience. But it does… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Most people do not pay attention to the publisher's imprint on a given book. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Great novels are maps of complication, leading nowhere in particular, taking stances only provisionally and obliquely, happy to be tangled and to… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There is something a little vulgar about writing a novel that is too close to the present, too concerned with current events,… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There has long been an argument in New York about what, exactly, the purpose of book awards ought to be. One model… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
The forward march of American literature is usually chronicled by way of its male novelists. There is little sense, in that version… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Vacation reading is not a new concept. Ever since the 19th century, when novels were considered relatively sinful indulgences, leisure and fiction-reading… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
I read almost no romantic fiction, in part because I barely believe in romance in the age of Tinder. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There are, of course, fat characters in books out there, some of them quite enduring and famous. But they tend to be… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Many people, I've noticed by informally polling friends, are prone to distinguishing a beach read by genre. Some people thought all thrillers… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There is an unfortunate side effect of being a person of few words: Sometimes people will assume you are less intelligent than you are. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Poems are ideally suited, in some ways, to social media because they pack so much meaning into so little language. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
The diversity of perspective, the unwillingness to generalise - those are good traits in countries as they are in art. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
When Paul Beatty's 'The Sellout' was first published in America in 2015, it was a small release. It got a rave review in the… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Hollywood versions of watershed moments in American history are generally high-minded shlock. 'JFK,' 'The People vs. Larry Flynt,' even 'Lincoln': all of these boast… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
I still think, most of the time, when people called shows like 'The Sopranos' or 'Deadwood' 'art' that they were correct. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Saying that you spend Christmas alone is, to most middle-class Americans, akin to confessing a terminal illness. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
There are many things to like about 'Mr. Robot,' the most ephemeral and yet memorable of them being the opening credits. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Bad criticism recites rote arguments. The shame of rote arguments isn't just that they're cliches, though they are, but that they tend to hide… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
Research can be a boon to a novelist - there are more things in heaven and Earth than can be dreamt of in a… — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
In an age where television is viewed as the best medium to 'tell stories,' narrative often stands in for substance on would-be prestige shows. — Michelle Dean Copy Share Image
