Since 2007, I have written about W.G. Sebald, literature with embedded photographs, and literature at the challenging end of the spectrum. I write at https://sebald.wordpress.com/.https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mkdh22fbes23Berlin's Lettrétage has announced "Sebald Remembering," a free program June 6, 2026, with discussion on Sebald, followed by readings from Berlin-based writers. https://www.lettretage.de/programm/sebald-remembering25 Apr 2026 16:19 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkdh22fbes23https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mi2itypmfc2rDaniele Del Giudice's 1st novel (1983) has finally been translated into English. It's about a writer who decided to stop writing. Italo Calvino said this book was "a new approach to representation." From New Vessel Press. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/a-fictional-inquiry/27 Mar 2026 16:07 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mi2itypmfc2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mhvgiavzjs2wItalo Calvino thought Daniele Del Giudice's first novel was "a new approach to representation" in 1983. "A Fictional Inquiry" still stands up nicely today. But the original title "Wimbledon Stadium" was more appropriate. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2026/03/25/a-fictional-inquiry/25 Mar 2026 15:42 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhvgiavzjs2whttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mgupj3kdok26In his new novel Montevideo, Enrique Vila-Matas continues building his literary family tree, updates a story by Cortázar, and makes hotel rooms disappear. He just may be our era’s Cervantes. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2026/03/12/montevideo-by-enrique-vila-matas-a-tale-of-two-rooms/12 Mar 2026 15:25 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgupj3kdok26https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mfdjzwmrdc2iI've created a new, ongoing, annotated bibliography of and about redacted poetry of all kinds. (And there are o-so-many ways to redact words!) It has links that let you see pages from most of the poetry titles. Even a few redacted novels snuck in. https://sebald.wordpress.com/redacted-the-poetry-bibliography/21 Feb 2026 02:07 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mfdjzwmrdc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3mcavz4rsxs2zRichard Siken is out to make a statement with his new book "I Do Know Something." The poems are written in tight rectangular text blocks that afford the reader no way in or out, no enjambments to ponder, just Siken’s singular, captivating voice. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2026/01/12/richard-siken/12 Jan 2026 20:48 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcavz4rsxs2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3maobmmcrsc2wThree books blew me away this year: John Trefry’s prose fiction Plats, Richard Siken’s brand new volume of poetry I Do Know Something, and Martha A. Sandweiss’s non-fiction The Girl in the Middle: A Recovered History of the American West. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/12/23/notable-books-from-my-2025-reading/23 Dec 2025 17:30 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3maobmmcrsc2whttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3m7iir3eidk2t"The hand of politics is so visible from their vantage point that they don’t know how they could have missed it at first." In Samantha Harvey's novel "Orbital," the astronauts in the space station finally see that he entire Earth is shaped by want and greed. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/12/08/samantha-harveys-orbital-and-the-planet-shaped-by-want/08 Dec 2025 16:56 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7iir3eidk2thttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3m5jnex7fs227Want a novel on the challenging side with an independent voice? Caleb Klaces, Mr. Outside (Prototype Press) or Rebecca Grandsen, Figures Crossing the Field Towards the Group (Tangerine Press). Mr. Outside comes with photos. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/11/13/recently-read-caleb-klaces-rebecca-grandsen/13 Nov 2025 17:01 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5jnex7fs227https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3m4qh67s5x22cIn his novel "Tomás Nevinson," Javier Marías describes the expressions on the faces of people in a photograph shown on the next page. The idea of reading faces like this gets its public scientific stamp of approval from Charles Darwin in 1872. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/11/03/the-photograph-worth-297-words/03 Nov 2025 16:34 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4qh67s5x22chttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lyvnsts73c26Making the wrong choice is the way characters are tested in Shirley Hazzard’s universe. In her 1980 novel The Transit of Venus, she puts unbearable pressure on marriages & affairs to see if anyone has an ethical spine. Absolutely great reading. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/transiting-shirley-hazzards-the-transit-of-venus/15 Sep 2025 20:35 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lyvnsts73c26https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lwpujj4jek2cGiorgio Agamben’s “Self-Portrait in the Studio” is utterly fascinating in so many ways. He uses his study as the locus for an intellectual memoir tracing the people, books & places that have been important to his thinking. Great photographs throughout.19 Aug 2025 02:29 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lwpujj4jek2chttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lw5jf6xhgk2wMathias Énard's "Tell Them of Battles, Kings & Elephants" is not his best, but very readable. However, vol. 2 of Yoko Tawada's trilogy, "Suggested in the Stars" is mostly forgettable. It feels like she's lost her way. As they say on the news, details at: https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/08/11/recently-read-enard-tawada-2/11 Aug 2025 19:21 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lw5jf6xhgk2whttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lupvdebrjs2cI wrote on 2 novels I mostly liked: Mathias Énard's The Deserters & Yoko Tawada's Scattered All Over the Earth. Enard's book is about the brutal & the elite; Tawada's subtle, almost cartoony novel is about language & climate change. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/07/24/recently-read-enard-tawada/24 Jul 2025 15:53 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lupvdebrjs2chttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lsza2phyic2xThere's a new edition of Andre Breton's Nadja out now by NYRB. I'm not up to comparing the new translation by Mark Polizzotti with Richard Howard's, but there are some good reasons to spring for the new edition, even though my heart loves the old Grove edition. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/07/02/the-two-nadjas/02 Jul 2025 22:08 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lsza2phyic2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lrjdjcl77s2zI'm really impressed with Shadows of Reality: A Catalogue of W.G. Sebald’s Photographic Materials. I gave it a good shakedown & decided it's an impressive research tool that's equally fun to browse though. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/06/13/sebalds-shadows-of-reality/13 Jun 2025 21:02 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lrjdjcl77s2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lnvop5pvjk24Such a great author photo. Peter Handke playing Foosball on the rear jacket of Short Letter, Long Farewell (FSG, 1974). US first edition.28 Apr 2025 21:14 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lnvop5pvjk24https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lndw7lunqs2pI dove into John Trefry's nearly abstract novel Plats and resurfaced with a few things to say. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/04/21/the-composition-cedes-to-disorder-john-trefrys-novel-plats/ Plats summons the reader to conjure up images and situations that can only be constructed in the mind, to use the infinite plasticity of our own imaginative processes.21 Apr 2025 19:40 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lndw7lunqs2phttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lmgh6nvyzk24Sylee Gore's first book "Maximum Summer" (Nion Editions) gives us short, intimate, sometimes visceral poems about the first few months of the poet with her new child. The poems are arranged on the page like snapshots in an album. No photographs necessary.10 Apr 2025 02:24 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lmgh6nvyzk24https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lm4b4wavk22aSecond half of my long review of W.G. Sebald's book of essays on Austrian literature Silent Catastrophes, translated by the terrific Jo Catling, is up now. Get the book! It's affordable! https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/04/04/sebalds-silent-catastrophes-part-2/06 Apr 2025 01:09 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lm4b4wavk22ahttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lgsyf7rjqc22From Virginia Woolf's Diaries, September 10, 191828 Jan 2025 17:33 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgsyf7rjqc22https://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lfqvifeixs2dSo far, I have found 15 titles of fiction & poetry published in 2024 that use photographs. Some really great examples. Poetry books were half the titles. What did I miss? https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/01/13/photography-embedded-fiction-poetry-2024/15 Jan 2025 04:10 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfqvifeixs2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lf6hmulu4k2mThe 18 notable books I read in 2024, from Asiya Wadud's incandescent poetry which wants to become dance, to Jeremy Eicher's Time's Echo, on music composed to commemorate the Holocaust. Also: @saintsoftness.bsky.social, Yoko Ogawa & Cristina Rivera Garza. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2025/01/02/notable-books-from-my-2024-reading/07 Jan 2025 20:14 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lf6hmulu4k2mhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3law7cl4h3s2nI'm doing a 6-parter on David Peace's Red Riding Quartet, one of the most malevolent places I have experienced in the world of literature. Peace has taken us inside the fat belly of a very uncomfortable whale, a place where there is no exit but death. Part 4 is just up. https://sebald.wordpress.com/2024/11/14/david-peaces-1980-the-vast-kingdom-of-grief/14 Nov 2024 15:43 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3law7cl4h3s2nhttps://bsky.app/profile/vertigoterry.bsky.social/post/3lauoytfblc2nAfter watching the movie version of Claire Keegan's "Small Things Like These," I really need to read the book. Powerful film, great acting, little is said (but much is whispered). Cillian Murphy spends half the film looking deeply inward. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/07/movies/small-things-like-these-review-cillian-murphy.html14 Nov 2024 01:19 +0000at://did:plc:3z5p2p2ycrzc2bhvfdfb7lik/app.bsky.feed.post/3lauoytfblc2n