From The Editors
Bad writing advice
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Writing advice is everywhere. Some of it might even be good! But we were interested in the bad.
Kill your darlings
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Like plots in a garden cemetery, with lamentations, good-riddances or other epitaphs.
The pinnacle of cartography is the pinnacle of uselessness
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« Europe », drawn from memory or intuition. Thick and thin strokes of charcoal: a nod to the coal and steel on which the polity of modern Europe is founded. But more mystical, too: these drawings represent « the conviction that simple tools can grant us the power to face the god of paper. »
The ordinary jacket of today
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The ERB doesn’t stand in competition with magazines we love; it joins them, and does so in admiration. This project has made us encounter literary magazines we hadn’t read before and discover beautiful magazines in languages we wish we could read.
On the anti-poetry of « crowdfunding campaign »
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Kickstarting used to be something you did to an engine. To « kickstart » the European Review of Books makes it feel like we’re riding a motorcycle in World War I. But we only want peace!
Infrequently Asked Questions
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Who, what, and why? Imagine something called, say, the Zemblan Review of Books, or the Esperanto Review of Political Theory, or the Klingon Review of Horticulture, or the Utopian Review of Bicycles.
Do we need a European Review of Books?
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« If I were to do it again from scratch, » Jean Monnet, a founder of the European Union, supposedly said in the ’70s, « I would start with culture. » Well, who wouldn’t?