Author Archives: Ellen Akins

The Greatest Novels of the Millennium: A Work in Progress | Ellen Akins

Posted on April 25, 2015 by Ellen Akins

The Greatest Novels of the Millennium: A Work in Progress | Ellen Akins

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Translating “Raymond Carver”

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Ellen Akins

So peculiar: Upon reading Rachel Cusk’s piece about parenting in the New York Times Magazine (no, the piece, not the parenting, was in the magazine) and encountering this: Raymond Carver’s disturbing poem, “On an Old Photograph of My Son,” an outpouring … Continue reading →

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In class with Ginsberg, Mailer, & Burroughs

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Ellen Akins

Reading a collection of interviews with Allen Ginsberg, edited by Michael Schumacher, to be published by the University of Minnesota Press in Spring, 2016, I came across one entry in which Ginsberg describes asking Norman Mailer and William S. Burroughs, who were … Continue reading →

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On “The Buried Giant” and Kazuo Ishiguro

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Ellen Akins

My review of Kazuo Ishiguro’s odd new novel, a tale of post-Arthurian England invested with fantasy and myth and fading memory. Neil Gaiman, on the front page of the NYTBR, had a similar reading, but said more about fantasy. And … Continue reading →

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The End of a Diary

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Ellen Akins

This appeared in today’s book news from Liberty Hardy: Ongoingness: The End of a Diary by Sarah Manguso Manguso’s beautiful third book (the other two are also excellent), this time about her desire to keep a diary detailing every single thing … Continue reading →

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