What Writers Are Reading: Maggie Smith & Sven Birkerts

Maggie Smith

I’m currently devouring Diane Seuss’s brand-new book of poems, Modern Poetry, and gobbling up all of the interviews she’s done about this collection, and I highly recommend doing both. Her last book, frank: sonnets, won the Pulitzer, and this new book has already grabbed me by the shoulders and shaken me awake several times. Talk about a fierce, singular talent.

Maggie Smith is the author most recently of You Could Make This Place Beautiful.

Sven Birkerts

I recommend The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut. I’m surprised that this novel didn’t find its spotlight. It’s the first book in a long time that I felt was bringing me news. By way of remembrances of colleagues and friends, many of them eminent physicists, Labatut gives a portrait of John von Neumann, who was called by many the most brilliant man alive, who was in his thinking and contributions to quantum mechanics, computing and game theory, the Pandora figure who opened the lid on the digital age. I remembered Robert Musil’s words: “Progress would be wonderful if only it would stop.”

Sven Birkerts is the author most recently of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age.