Jennifer Howard

I have never seen the movie “Life Is Beautiful.” I haven’t seen it because when it came out, everybody, and I do mean everybody, told me I had to see it, that it was too good to miss. Maybe it is. All these years later, I’m still not inclined to find out. The critical collective spoke too loudly. My spouse and I call this the “Life Is Beautiful” problem. It applies to books as well. I thought about this recently while reading novelist Michael Cunningham’s two-part “Letter from the Pulitzer Fiction Jury” in the New Yorker’s Page-Turner blog. You might… Read more...

Except for taking the occasional cheap shot on Twitter, I’ve kept clear of the op-ed juggernaut created by Anne-Marie Slaughter’s piece in the Atlantic on “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” (Some headline writer deserves a good slapdown for that one.) I haven’t even read all of Slaughter’s argument yet, and I’m not sure I will. When I go to a scary movie, there’s always some harrowing scene that I’ll peek at through my hands: I can’t quite not watch but I don’t want to look at the carnage straight on. Slaughter’s column and the reactions to it (there… Read more...

For someone who grew up in Washington, D.C., I am not very well read in the literature of the city—the political literature, that is. I haven’t read many of the political novels set here. That has been partly a deliberate choice, a desire to concentrate more on the extra-political creative possibilities of this town. A lot of Washington lives have very little to do with politics; not everyone moves here to be a Type A politico or lobbyist or lawyer or, heaven help us, journalist. Many of my neighbors are people whose families have been here for three, four, five… Read more...

I’ve got a new short story out. It’s called “Mercury Rising,” and you can find it in Amazing Graces (Paycock Press, 2012), a collection edited by Richard Peabody. (Read a Washington Post profile of him.) Here’s the excerpt I read at Politics and Prose on Sunday, when we launched the book: “Call the fire department!” Everything Timmy said these days had an exclamation point at the end of it. Six was the age of enthusiasms. “He’s not on fire, stupid,” said William. “Don’t call your brother stupid,” Roberta said. “We’ll call 911.” She left the engine running while she plowed… Read more...

It’s no secret that I’m not a very good member of my book club. I tend to read the book late if I read it at all. I go for the company (smart, friendly) and the wine (why not?). The latest book I didn’t read is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, which got raves from those who actually had read it. The book club loved many things about it but especially loved the plot, which sounds like a corker. One friend, who’s also a novelist, said, “It’s the kind of plot that must have been a lot harder… Read more...

I’m over at Bookslut this week as a guest blogger. Bookslut remains one of my favorite litblogs; Jessa Crispin and her gang do great work there. If you are in the neighborhood, swing by. Feel free to drop me a line with bookish tips and lit news. This is also the week I get back to fiction-writing, although the results of that won’t be public for a while. No, I’m not participating in NaNoWriMo, but if you are I wish you the best of writing luck and discipline. Tell me how it’s going in the comments. Does the time pressure… Read more...