Contributor
Daniel Handler is an American writer and musician. He is best known for his children’s series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions, published under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket.
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Claude Simon
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Sinclair Lewis
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Daniel Handler
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What the Swedes Read: Eugenio Montale
Daniel Handler
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What the Swedes Read: Odysseus Elytis
Daniel Handler
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What the Swedes Read: Mario Vargas Llosa
Daniel Handler
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What the Swedes Read: Miguel Ángel Asturias
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Pär Lagerkvist
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Bertrand Russell
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Anatole France
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Isaac Bashevis Singer
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Gabriela Mistral
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Jaroslav Seifert
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Camilo José Cela
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: V. S. Naipaul
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Ivan Bunin
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Gao Xingjian
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Salvatore Quasimodo
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Romain Rolland
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Rudolf Eucken
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Paul Heyse
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Harry Martinson and Eyvind Johnson
Daniel Handler
Interviews
A Microinterview with Heather Christle
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: François Mauriac
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Thomas Mann
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Vicente Aleixandre
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Rabindranath Tagore
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Harold Pinter
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Carl Spitteler
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Elfriede Jelinek
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Wole Soyinka
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Yasunari Kawabata
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Rudyard Kipling
Daniel Handler
Columns
What the Swedes Read: Saint-John Perse
Daniel Handler
Interviews
Microinterview with Simone Muench
Daniel Handler
Reviews
Other Flowers
Daniel Handler
Reviews
Take It
Daniel Handler
Departments
The Buddha Machine: Portable Ambien Music Generator, $23.00
Daniel Handler
Interviews
An Interview with Matmos
Daniel Handler
Interviews
An Interview with John Darnielle
Daniel Handler
Interviews
An Interview with Jack Black
Daniel Handler
Recently, I had a conversation about the casting of a movie based on my books. “Jack Black!” I said. “Jack Black! Jack Black! Jack Black! Jack Black!” There was a pause on the ...
Interviews
An Interview with Martin Short
Daniel Handler
What the Swedes Read: Sinclair Lewis
Daniel Handler
Feb 1 2018
LAUREATE: Sinclair Lewis (United States, 1930) BOOK READ: Main Street It began as the title of an Anthony Trollope novel, but it’s become a slogan for the kind of ...What the Swedes Read: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Daniel Handler
Dec 1 2017
LAUREATE: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (Norway, 1903) BOOK READ: Beyond Human Might, translated by Edwin Björkman Here is a quick test for you. Read the following ...What the Swedes Read: Eugenio Montale
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2017
Laureate: Eugenio Montale (1975, Italy) Book read: Satura, translated by William Arrowsmith It’s so great when something great turns out to be really great. I have a ...What the Swedes Read: Odysseus Elytis
Daniel Handler
Oct 1 2015
LAUREATE: Odysseus Elytis (Greece, 1979) BOOK READ: The Sovereign Sun, translated by Kimon Friar Before diving into the poetry of Odysseus Elytis, let us talk, you and ...What the Swedes Read: Mario Vargas Llosa
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2015
LAUREATE: Mario Vargas Llosa (2010, Peru) BOOK READ: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, translated by Helen R. Lane In my willy-nilly research following my reading of Aunt ...What the Swedes Read: Miguel Ángel Asturias
Daniel Handler
Jan 1 2015
LAUREATE: Miguel Ángel Asturias (1967, Guatemala) BOOK READ: El Señor Presidente, translated by Frances Partridge Before I read this book, I was against dictatorships. ...What the Swedes Read: Pär Lagerkvist
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2014
LAUREATE: Pär Lagerkvist (Sweden, 1951) BOOK READ: Barabbas, translated by Alan Blair I’d never heard of Pär Lagerkvist before embarking on this project, but as I bummed ...What the Swedes Read: Bertrand Russell
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2014
LAUREATE: Bertrand Russell (Great Britain, 1950) BOOK READ: Sceptical Essays In discussing Bertrand Russell, one of the few philosophers awarded the Nobel Prize in ...What the Swedes Read: Anatole France
Daniel Handler
Jun 1 2014
LAUREATE: Anatole France (France, 1921) BOOK READ: The Gods Will Have Blood, translated by Frederick Davies It is with some embarrassment that your humble columnist must ...What the Swedes Read: Isaac Bashevis Singer
Daniel Handler
May 1 2014
LAUREATE: Isaac Bashevis Singer (United States, 1978) BOOK READ:: The Collected Stories, various translators For this Nobel project, there are writers I know: for ...What the Swedes Read: Gabriela Mistral
Daniel Handler
Mar 1 2014
LAUREATE: Gabriela Mistral (Chile, 1945) BOOK READ: Madwomen, translated by Randall Couch One of the strange side effects of writing for young people is that young ...What the Swedes Read: Jaroslav Seifert
Daniel Handler
Feb 1 2014
LAUREATE: Jaroslav Seifert (1984, Czechoslovakia) BOOK READ: The Casting of Bells, translated by Paul Jagasich and Tom O’Grady The Casting of Bells is probably the ...What the Swedes Read: Camilo José Cela
Daniel Handler
Nov 1 2013
LAUREATE: Camilo José Cela (Spain, 1989) BOOK READ: The Hive, translated by J. M. Cohen in consultation with Arturo Barea To get right into it, I loved reading this ...What the Swedes Read: V. S. Naipaul
Daniel Handler
Oct 1 2013
LAUREATE: V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad and Britain, 2001) BOOK READ: The Enigma of Arrival Travel can be the perfect book. You see fresh scenery. You meet new people. ...What the Swedes Read: Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2013
LAUREATE: Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Sweden, 1931) BOOK READ: Arcadia Borealis (Selected Poems) translated by Charles Wharton Stork I was chatting with a poet recently when ...What the Swedes Read: Ivan Bunin
Daniel Handler
Jun 1 2013
LAUREATE: Ivan Bunin (Russia, 1933) BOOK READ: The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories, translated by David Richards and Sophie Lund On the back of my ...What the Swedes Read: Gao Xingjian
Daniel Handler
May 1 2013
LAUREATE: Gao Xingjian (China, 2000) BOOK READ: Soul Mountain, translated by Mabel Lee A Conversation DANIEL HANDLER: Not long after Gao Xingjian won the Nobel Prize, I ...What the Swedes Read: Salvatore Quasimodo
Daniel Handler
Mar 1 2013
LAUREATE: Salvatore Quasimodo (Italy, 1959) BOOK READ: The Selected Writings, translated by Allen Mandelbaum My copy of The Selected Writings of Salvatore Quasimodo ...What the Swedes Read: Romain Rolland
Daniel Handler
Feb 1 2013
LAUREATE: Romain Rolland (France, 1915) BOOK READ: Jean-Christophe, translated by Gilbert Cannan This great brick of a book—somewhere in the 1,500-page range, if you ...What the Swedes Read: Rudolf Eucken
Daniel Handler
Jan 1 2013
LAUREATE: Rudolf Eucken (Germany, 1908) BOOK READ: Life’s Basis and Life’s Ideal: The Fundamentals of a New Philosophy of Life, translated by Alban G. Widgery What’s ...What the Swedes Read: Paul Heyse
Daniel Handler
Oct 1 2012
LAUREATE: Paul Heyse (Germany, 1910) BOOK READ: In Paradise, translator unknown Paul Heyse, the winner of the 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature, lived from 1830 to 1914, ...What the Swedes Read: Harry Martinson and Eyvind Johnson
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2012
LAUREATES: Harry Martinson and Eyvind Johnson (1974, Sweden) BOOKS READ: Martinson, Views from a Tuft of Grass (translated by Lars Nordström and Erland Anderson); Johnson, ...A Microinterview with Heather Christle
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2012
This year, Heather Christle won the second annual Believer Poetry Award for The Trees The Trees, her second collection of poetry. Her third, What Is Amazing, contains poems ...What the Swedes Read: François Mauriac
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2012
LAUREATE: François Mauriac (1952, France) BOOK READ: Vipers’ Tangle, trans. Warre B. Wells Above and below: Pages of notes found in Daniel Handler’s copy of Vipers’ ...What the Swedes Read: Thomas Mann
Daniel Handler
Jun 1 2012
LAUREATE: Thomas Mann (Germany, 1929) BOOK READ: The Magic Mountain (translated by H. T. Lowe-Porter) The Magic Mountain is a big book, and big books are completely ...What the Swedes Read: Vicente Aleixandre
Daniel Handler
May 1 2012
LAUREATE: Vicente Aleixandre (Spain, 1977) BOOK READ: A Longing for the Light: Selected Poems (various translators; Lewis Hyde, ed.) It hit me the other day, reading the ...What the Swedes Read: Rabindranath Tagore
Daniel Handler
Mar 1 2012
LAUREATE: Rabindranath Tagore (Bengal, 1913) BOOK READ: The Gardener (translated by the author) Right now I’m OK with weddings. First they were very boring because I was ...What the Swedes Read: Harold Pinter
Daniel Handler
Feb 1 2012
LAUREATE: Harold Pinter (2005, Britain) BOOK READ: Ashes to Ashes If I had to choose, I'd read five bad novels instead of attending one bad night of theater. Scratch ...What the Swedes Read: Carl Spitteler
Daniel Handler
Jan 1 2012
LAUREATE: Carl Spitteler (1919, Switzerland) BOOK READ: Two Little Misogynists (translated by Mme. la Vicomtesse de Roquette-Buisson) It’s an odd side effect of my booky ...What the Swedes Read: Elfriede Jelinek
Daniel Handler
Nov 1 2011
LAUREATE: Elfriede Jelinek (2004, Austria) BOOK READ: The Piano Teacher, trans. Joachim Neugroschel I like sex in a novel. The way I feel about sex in novels is ...What the Swedes Read: Wole Soyinka
Daniel Handler
Oct 1 2011
LAUREATE: Wole Soyinka (1986, Nigeria) BOOK READ: Death and the King’s Horseman There’s something depressing about foreign literature that doesn’t feel foreign. It’s ...What the Swedes Read: Yasunari Kawabata
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2011
LAUREATE: Yasunari Kawabata (1968, Japan) BOOK READ: The Old Capital, trans. J. Martin Holman All great books are strange. In fact, strange might be the only thing all ...What the Swedes Read: Rudyard Kipling
Daniel Handler
Jun 1 2011
LAUREATE: Rudyard Kipling (1907, Britain) BOOK READ: Kim Rudyard Kipling is one of those writers people still read widely in America, if by “still read widely” we mean ...What the Swedes Read: Saint-John Perse
Daniel Handler
May 1 2011
This issue contains the first of a new column written by Daniel Handler. For each installment, he’ll read and write about one book by each winner of the Nobel Prize in ...Microinterview with Simone Muench
Daniel Handler
Sep 1 2010
This issue features a “microinterview” with Simone Muench, conducted by Daniel Handler. Muench is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Orange Crush, ...Other Flowers
Daniel Handler
May 1 2010
Take It
Daniel Handler
May 1 2009
The Buddha Machine: Portable Ambien Music Generator, $23.00
Daniel Handler
Jun 1 2006
In ninth grade I was at a party and Becky Davis put on the twelve-inch single of New Order’s “Everythings Gone Green.” Someone had a spare ticket to hear the Kronos Quartet, ...An Interview with Matmos
Daniel Handler
Nov 1 2004
Matmos—Drew Daniel and M. C. Schmidt—have found a sort of fame as Björk’s backup band, creating the clatterings and blips behind many of her songs. On their own, they’ve ...An Interview with John Darnielle
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2004
Plenty of indie-rock bands find the poignant in the ridiculous and vice versa, but few do it with the hand-strummed, hardscrabble troubadouring of John Darnielle, the ...An Interview with Jack Black
Daniel Handler
Nov 1 2003
Recently, I had a conversation about the casting of a movie based on my books. “Jack Black!” I said. “Jack Black! Jack Black! Jack Black! Jack Black!” There was a pause on the ...An Interview with Martin Short
Daniel Handler
Jul 1 2003
Of the two kinds of comic actors—the kind who plays an ordinary person making his way through a ridiculous world, and the kind who plays a ridiculous person who often cannot ...
