Abdulrazak Gurnah Q & A
At Deutsche Welle Annabelle Steffes-Halmer has a Q & A with Nobel laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah on exile and literature.
Among his observations:
When it came to writing, I didn't really think about what language I wanted to write in. I kind of understood and knew that I had an intimate connection and relationship with the way I used English that I didn't quite have in writing Swahili. People who are writing in Swahili do things with a language that I don't know how to do.
Neal Stephenson, The Tech Billionaires’ Favorite Sci-Fi Writer
His 1992 novel Snow Crash is the source of the trem "metaverse"; his 1999 Cryptonomicon basically predicted cryptocurrency. With fans from Jeff Bezos to Bill Gates to Peter Thiel to Sergey Brin, "Neal Stephenson might be the most influential novelist among business tycoons since Ayn Rand." - The Baffler
Australia Is, For Some Reason, In The Midst Of A Handmade Ceramics Boom
Sure, some people are making midlife career changes, but for others, it's social media - and the coronavirus, as with a young potter whose "unexpected lockdown hobby turned into a small business." - The Guardian (UK)
Humans Can Only Experience Time In One Direction
Luckily, writing is different: "In poetry and in prose, time can warp, twist, and buckle." - The Atlantic