two umbrellas

MoMA has an interesting exhibit called book/shelf, which runs from Mar 26 – July 7.

The Museum of Modern Art’s collection and Library are rich in works by artists who tackle the idea of books by stretching the conventions of the medium. The works presented here use a variety of techniques – photography, film, printing, assemblage, drawing, and sound recording – reflecting the wide diversity of approaches.

The online exhibition has a few highlights.

A few months ago I went to a reading presented by Hobart magazine. It was a good time and the readings were good. As an added bonus, they gave away door prizes and mine happened to be a one year’s subscription to Ninth Letter, a literary magazine that is published by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The print version is large, bulky and very hard to handle. I would never take it on the bus with me. However, it is a treasure chest. It is beautiful. The art is creative, interesting, and unique – unique not only to the magazine, but to each piece. The magazine covers fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and interviews. The Fall/Winter issue boasts works by: Oscar Hijuelos (and an interview), Michael Martone, and Louise Erdrich, just to name a few in the 200 or so pages of the magazine.

Today was the first day that I went to the website. Again, very dramatic art and design. But there is more. The website has added content and featured artists. One of the featured artists is Richard Powers, who has contributed a piece of short fiction called, “They Come in a Steady Stream Now.” It is a piece that needs to be experienced.

There are so many literary magazines available online and in print. Often it is difficult to comb through all of the new writing and find pieces that are creative, well written, universal and timeless (lofty qualities – I know) and presented in an innovative way. But there are a few.

This year Penguin celebrates sixty years of publishing Penguin Classics. To celebrate they are offering five limited edition covers. (Unfortunately, these are not available in the same economical fashion as the originals.)

The Guardian has a nice condensed version of the Penguin Classics’ history.

enjoy.

(via TEV)

“Our time is Fix’d, and all our are Number’d.”