From a triptych by Fernando Botero of the Abu Ghraib atrocities; the image is reprinted in the above-mentioned fiction and politics issue of Bookforum, and also the focus of a recent issue of Virginia Quarterly Review

In almost a response (at least in our minds) to Luna Park’s recent piece on literary magazines and politics, Morris Dickstein writes in the current issue of Bookforum on “Fiction and Political Fact” (followed by commentary on political literature from international authors). Two reviews of recent biographies on two writers influential in the achievements of early 20th century American literary magazines: Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Two Asian literary magazines—Eslite Reader (Taiwan) and Translation (Shanghai)—say goodbye. The Believer cover artist Charles Burns has a new book out! Charlotte Roche—German feminist author of controversial (and best selling) sensual novel Wetlands—interviewed recently in Granta. Latest issue of The Paris Review unveils electric Satchmo collages. Virginia Quarterly Review and ZYZZYVA editor Howard Junker debate the proper funtion of the lit mag. Listen to editor Caroline Mercurio of Hunger Mountain talk about the current state of lit mags on Write the Book. The O’Henry Prize Stories 2008 is available, with work from Yiyun Li, Alice Munro, William Gass, Sheila Kohler, and more–you can read Laura Furman’s introduction of the anthology here. The second installment of the Online Nabokov Journal is up, with a timely interview with Vladimir Nabokov’s son about the master’s incomplete and soon to be published novel, Laura. And—strangely, perhaps—indie publishing phenom and Luna Park supporter Tao Lin wages sticker war on Gawker. From the archive: James Schuyler‘s 1973 poem from Poetry magazine “Hymn to Life” is available in-full online from Poetry—this stunning mid-career work by Schuyler seems to capture all of life in one frantic breath.