Imagine praising a book in 2025 for being "sparse"? Look I enjoy sparse prose as much as the next, but we've been in a decades long Sparse Race of prose that you can increasingly just inhale like a delicate mousse and at some stage we will have to start making adjectives cool again

In this month’s newsletter, after bragging about eating a great dessert, I recommend Barbara Comyns’ WHO WAS CHANGED AND WHO WAS DEAD; Magda Szabó’s ABIGAIL, trans. Len Rix; and Halldór Laxness’ UNDER THE GLACIER, trans. Magnus Magnusson. 📚💙 Read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

In this month’s newsletter, after bragging about eating a great dessert, I recommend Barbara Comyns’ WHO WAS CHANGED AND WHO WAS DEAD; Magda Szabó’s ABIGAIL, trans. Len Rix; and Halldór Laxness’ UNDER THE GLACIER, trans. Magnus Magnusson. 📚💙 Read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

Dad Had a Bad Day arrives 5/19/26 right before Roland Garros! Here is the cover and a link for more info: astrapublishinghouse.com/product/dad-...

Thinking about them

"You can throw a small dart in this short book and find a nice line from Franz." Another review of Markus Werner's The Frog in Throat. It's short and funny and punchy and completely misanthropic.

can’t recall if we do #fridayreads on here but I loved reading Michael Hofmann’s translation of Markus Werner’s THE FROG IN THE THROAT and I’m looking forward to finishing John Keene’s COUNTERNARRATIVES so I can immediately read it again

"I am still struggling to say why Jane Bowles had such a profound effect on me...Certainly it was encountering a book so glittering, so original, so profound, so witty, so charming, so contemporary, and so old, in which every sentence read as if it had been translated from some unknown tongue."

I wrote about some of the best books I've read in the heat of this summer, including works by António Lobo Antunes, Lisa Tuttle, Alexis Wright, Jacqueline Harpman, Irene Solá, Yoko Tawada, and Marcia Douglas. thethoughtofthething.substack.com/p/summer-rea...

Looking for summer reading recommendations? May I suggest Adam Ehrlich Sachs’ THE ORGANS OF SENSE, John Berger’s BENTO’S SKETCHBOOK, and Seichō Matsumoto’s POINT ZERO, translated by @louisehk.bsky.social? You can read this month’s newsletter here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

👀

In this month’s newsletter, I wrote about Marie-Helene Bertino’s BEAUTYLAND, Markus Werner’s THE FROG IN THE THROAT, trans. Michael Hofmann, and Thuận’s ELEVATOR IN SÀI GÒN, trans. Nguyễn An Lý. I also wrote about a dog named Panda. You can read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

This will sound weird but love yourself enough to write your own term papers.

File under things to keep me going

Altogether I feel like Katherine Mansfield's fly after it was drowned the sixth time or was it the seventh?

Lisa Robertson

spiritually buoyed by this convo btwn David Velasco— who you may recall got fired by Artforum for an open letter in support of 🇵🇸—& Sarah Schulman “Solidarity is the essential human process of recognizing that other people are real & their experiences matter” www.bookforum.com/print/3104/c...

Apparently May is short story month?!?! In which case, May we recommend . . .

This month, I dusted off the newsletter and wrote about Ali Smith’s GLIFF, Hisham Matar’s MY FRIENDS, and Anne de Marcken’s IT LASTS FOREVER AND THEN IT’S OVER. 📚 You can read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

This month, I dusted off the newsletter and wrote about Ali Smith’s GLIFF, Hisham Matar’s MY FRIENDS, and Anne de Marcken’s IT LASTS FOREVER AND THEN IT’S OVER. 📚 You can read it here: www.marisagrizenko.com/campaigns/vi...

Before you block me for once again sharing this review of Barbara, know that it is the last time I will share this review of Barbara (a book you should read!)

I second this proposal to make this the year of BINA. Great book.

Made a contribution just now to Filipino BC & The Filipino Centre. If you're moved to do likewise in solidarity with the Filipino community in the wake of last night's mass murder, donations can be received at the following link:

supports & resources for anyone impacted by the terrible events at the Lapu Lapu Day festival in Vancouver, please share: vanfilemergency.my.canva.site

Jay Wright

"The story she tells is at once her own & that of the 20th century, a personal tale refracted through an era of technological & scientific advancement, burgeoning consumerism, artistic experimentation, & war." Marisa Grizenko on Joni Murphy's Barbara for the Ex-Puritan: ex-puritan.ca/a-20th-centu...

Photo 9,873,234 of Pepper

Your routine becomes your life, no matter how stupid. —Alex Higley, True Failure

For @ex-puritan.bsky.social's winter issue, I reviewed Joni Murphy's wonderful new novel, Barbara, published by @bookhugpress.bsky.social in Canada / Astra in the US.

Ate some gummy candy today that tasted like shower gel from the Body Shop circa 1998

congrats to these wonderful writers!! what a pleasure to read all the finalist entries (again & again). find these three beautiful essays in the next issue of EVENT

jason cut the crazy lace! the second I leave he cuts the crazy lace agate!

Small press; much-loved book.

Please share far and wide! 🏳️‍⚧️💖

Always!

walking past the "canadian-owned and operated!" sign on the local grocery store, feeling my heart swell that i'm further enriching a *canadian* billionaire

How you find me

Got spam today from Melampus Brockhouse

wanda | dir. barbara loden

I was so impressed by this novel. A painful read at times, but mordantly funny and so good at capturing those quirky tensions of family life that we all know exist but are so hard to put into words. Less Sally Rooney discourse, more Gwendoline Riley discourse!

I had the pleasure of editing these reviews for our previous issue, and now they are here! Online!

For those interested in Vancouver history and/or legendary lifeguards, I (concisely) review Ruby Smith Díaz's Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes, published by @arsenalpulp.bsky.social, in the latest @reviewcanada.bsky.social Bookworm 🌊

speaking of blurbs, my favourite one ever is still: "Kleist inflates me like an old pig bladder." — Franz Kafka On @sublunary.bsky.social's edition of Kleist's Anecdotes (trans. @unpaginated.bsky.social)

I have been summoned

I'll read whatever Joseph writes (and also reads...need to get to a bookstore asap)

I always look forward to Elisa Gabbert’s year-end wrap-up! elisagabbert.medium.com/every-book-i...

Le 26 décembre.