This week, we begin with the topic of “Difficult Fiction,” books that challenge the reader’s perceptions and often require a careful reading.

Over here at Dead Darlings, we like “difficult,” “easy,” fast-paced, lyrical, and big ole, juicy reads. There’s room for all on the bookshelf. Switch it up! You’ll read more books, many from authors who don’t get the exposure that the blockbusters get. Yay. We support that.

• “…let’s not replace difficult novels with easy ones, or pretend that the two are the same. Let’s not give up on the intricacies of ambitious fiction. Let’s not stop reading the kind of books that keep teaching us to read.” More, in The Virtues of Difficult Fiction. 
• That big deal sounds so thrilling. But the hard work and anxiety doesn’t stop there. It only gets harder once you’re published.
• Degrees of Diversity: Talking Race and the MFA: “The lack of diversity we see in MFA programs and in what gets published—and the often flat, cliché treatment of characters of color in contemporary literature—are truly scandalizing.”
• The Habits of Highly Productive Writers. Hint: magic bullets are not involved.
• The next time you’re at a bookstore, be sure to “turn out” your favorite non-celebrity, non-mega bestseller book on the shelf so its glory will be known. It may not last long, but fellow readers looking for their next great read and the author will thank you.