Exquisite Corpse: From Zadie Smith to R.L. Stine, fifteen writers contribute to one story for T, the New York Times Style Magazine. On poetry and popcorn: Dorothea Lasky and Adam Fitzgerald swing from snack food to the metaphysical in a conversation for Granta.
Why does science speak English? Nobel laureates for physiology and medicine May-Britt and Edvard Moser are Norwegian. So why did they, like so many others, publish in English? Michael Gordin's forthcoming Scientific Babel attempts to answer why. Until then, see Nina Porzucki for BBC News Magazine.
Frightening BOO-ks: Ayana Mathis and Francine Prose discuss the scariest books they've ever read for the NYT Sunday Book Review.
I hear you've got swagger - and you're not the first: On the evolution of slang, from "swag" to "hipster" at the New York Times.
A Scanner Transrealistically: Somewhere between realism and science fiction/fantasy, transrealism has been part of the conversation for 30 years. Damien Walter, for The Guardian, posits that this popular cross-genre hybrid will be around for at least thirty more.
Thank you, but no thank you: Jean-Paul Sartre politely declined the Nobel prize in 1964. According to Rob Lyons for spiked, his explanation holds weight in award culture today.