Burlesque performers of colour, Ben Lerner in The Nation, Unreadable books, Raymond Carver's first published story, Yoko Tawada in Granta, and Antonio Tabucchi: Cultural Digest for August 19

Making burlesque history

• Performers of colour are radically changing the world of burlesque. This article also has an interesting history of burlesque and the role that African-American women played in it.
• One of Europe's most innovative writers, Yoko Tawada, who comes from Japan but writes in both Japanese and German, has a really excellent and interesting new piece in Granta called To Zagreb.
• The Nation has a long piece about the work of Ben Lerner, author of 10:04 and Leaving the Atocha Station.
• Three Guys and a Book reach back into the archives and review Pereira Declares by Antonio Tabucchi. I love to see books I like from the past getting looked at and praised. It's an novel that has stayed with me for a long time, mainly because one gets a rarely seen view of the Spanish Civil War from inside Portugal.
• On unreadable books by the always charming Sadie Stein.
• Pick a Card: Raymond Carver's first published short story.