Russell Smith’s most recent novel, Girl Crazy, is currently being adapted for cinema for New Real Films of Toronto. He is a co-founder of the online men’s magazine DailyXY.com.
Donna Summer, German artist
The queen of disco was much more than that. Her joyous beats came out of a European musical underground that fills stadiums today
Reading boosts empathy, but sympathy for the devil too
Research claims that reading fiction helps us understand other points of view, but history doesn’t always bear that out
What my son has taught me about storytelling
He likes tales with familiar elements, but nothing repetitive or too, too scary
Why I don’t like Picasso
I understand how breathtakingly original he was, but his paintings just don’t move me emotionally
No Pulitzer Prize for fiction? It’s no big deal
The literary community has been complaining for years about winner-take-all prize-giving
Is tough-guy talk taking over?
Blame it on the play-by-play reports, the present tense is ending up where it doesn’t belong
RIP Thomas Kinkade. And how is he different from Damien Hirst?
Thomas Kinkade’s cute cottages and flower gardens made him an artist reviled by critics, but a gazillionaire
Whips, handcuffs and the rise of mommy porn
The enormous success of E.L. James’s erotic romance Fifty Shades trilogy is a mystery to critics underwhelmed by the writing and storytelling. How do you explain the sudden rise in submissive fantasies among the book clubs?
Reports of the novel’s death have been exaggerated
Every new art form, stylistic evolution and literary theory pronounces the death of long-form reading, but it just keeps on going
Why sad movies make us happy but terrible events fill us with angst
While fictional accounts of tragedy may have a cathartic effect on mood, news reports of real-life horror are much less comforting
