Charles Baxter takes the REA Award for the Short Story. (reaaward.org)

When one author has an affair with another author’s wife, the public gets two novels out of it. (The New York Daily News)

The Carnegie Medal finalists are announced. (carnegie.org)

… while the American Library Association makes way a new award for adult fiction. (St. Louis Today)

Is Harry Potter good enough for literature studies? (The Telegraph)

Two California newspapers debut a dedicated children’s book review section. (Publishers Weekly)

Twitter bookclubs are explained at (The New York Times)

Harlan Ellison re-releases some of his early, pulpier work. (GalleyCat)

Library Journal features 26 graphic novels relevant to June, LGBT Pride Month. (Library Journal)

Mexico City’s Benjamin Franklin Library turns 70. (state.gov)

Carlos Fuentes is lauded and remembered by the literary community and the world in a state funeral. (The Telegraph)

“On this day in 1593 Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council issued a warrant for the arrest of Christopher Marlowe on charges of spreading ‘blasphemous and damnable opinions.’ Five days earlier Marlowe’s roommate and fellow playwright, Thomas Kyd, had also been arrested on similar charges; under torture (apparently a set piece on the rack called ’scraping the conscience’), Kyd had claimed that the offending documents in his possession were in fact Marlowe’s…” (Today In Literature)

“Gaze into the fire, into the clouds, and as soon as the inner voices begin to speak..surrender to them. Don’t ask first whether it’s permitted, or would please your teachers or father or some god. You will ruin yourself if you do that.”

- Hermann Hesse

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Michael Dirda is impressed with Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley, edited by Alex Abramovich and Jonathan Lethem, calling the author a “master of satirical science fiction.” (Washington Post)

Mary Pols calls Sadie Jones’ The Uninvited Guests “a sublimely clever book about generosity, discovered late, yet just in time.” (San Francisco Chronicle)

Robin Harding slices and dices Paul Krugman’s End this Depression Now! (Financial Times)

Beth Jones declares Sátántangó by László Krasznahorkai “a Hungarian masterpiece about the nature of storytelling.” (The Telegraph)

The Atlantic profiles the work of Pulitzer-winner, Marilynne Robinson. (The Atlantic)

Publishers Weekly goes back in time to fix their 1998 list of the 100 best novels. (Publishers Weekly)

Paris as a literary focal point is the topic today at (The Guardian)

Agent, Rachelle Gardner, scores a hit with her blogpost 7 Bad Habits of Successful Authors. (rachellegardner.com)

Journalist, Adam Piore, says that, despite the trials of magazines and print media, it’s still an exciting time for nonfiction narratives. (The Huffington Post)

Will Ellsworth-Jones recounts the research hunt for the street artist, Banksy. (The Telegraph)

Salon explores the social potential of the suggestibility of readers. (Salon)

Whatever the may think of 50 SHADES OF GRAY, these prominent literary groups don’t hold with censorship. (GalleyCat)

Children’s author, Jean Craighead George, dies at age 92. RIP. (School Library Journal)

“On this day in 1873 Dorothy Richardson was born. Pilgrimage, Richardson’s life-long experimental novel, began appearing in 1915, at about the time Joyce and Proust were engaged in similar experiments. While Richardson may or may not be’ the genius they forgot’ (the subtitle of one biography), her writing was the first to be described as ’stream of consciousness,’…” (Today In Literature)

Alexandria, Virginia (my hometown) takes honors as the ‘Most Well-Read City in America’. (GalleyCat)

Shortlist.com culls 30 quotes from Stephen King books and lets you vote on your favorite. (shortlist.com)

Canteen Magazine drops writers and photographers into an artistically lit room. Fancy. (The San Fransisco Chronicle)

Hinton’s THE OUTSIDERS becomes an ebook. (The Los Angeles Times)

‘Ecstatic Alphabet/Heaps of Language’ exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art is previewed at (Salon)

The Guardian looks after John Updike’s literary legacy. (The Guardian)

Andrew G. Bodnar was sentenced (by a real judge) to write a book. Now he’s done his time behind keyboards. (The Wall Street Journal)

Here’s the funny and tangled flowchart of how a book is made. (The Huffington Post)

Books-a-Million’s sexy front table display doesn’t necessarily go over all that well in Tennessee. (The Tennessean)

Author, Carlos Fuentes, dies at age 83. RIP. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 1939 Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust was published. Although now ranked with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon as one of the best novels about Hollywood, and on the Modern Library’s Top 100 of the century list, The Day of the Locust had mixed reviews when it came out…” (Today In Literature)

“I think that all artists, regardless of degree of talent, are a painful, paradoxical combination of certainty and uncertainty, of arrogance and humility, constantly in need of reassurance, and yet with a stubborn streak of faith in their own validity no matter what.”

― Madeleine L’Engle

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Stephan Lee gives Meg Howrey’s novel, The Cranes Dance, a B+, praising its “an addictive, absorbing take on competition and sisterhood.” (EW.com)

Andrew Riemer points to “the eloquence and vividness” of Andrew Motion’s writing in Silver: Return to Treasure Island. (Sydney Morning Herald)

John Barrell says Andro Linklater’s evidence is “intriguing” (though “impossible to prove”) in Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die. (The Guardian)

Moira E. McLaughlin declares Laura Vanderkam’s All the Money in the World a “welcome primer in how to find meaning in how you spend your money.” (The Seattle Times)

Twitter lied. Gabriel García Márquez isn’t dead. Hooray! (The Guardian)

HarperCollins takes the Publisher of the Year prize at the Bookseller Industry Awards. (The Bookseller)

Johannes Gutenberg did not invent the printing press. Have a look. (io9)

So, did all that funny stuff really happen to Dave Sedaris? And does it matter if it didn’t? (The Washington Post)

Iain Banks has a chat with (The Telegraph)

The New Yorker debuts a new book-discussion blog - Page Turner. (The New Yorker)

… and one of its first guests is Salman Rushdie. (The New Yorker)

Ebooks are gaining traction in the UK. (The Bookseller)

The classics don’t hold sway over modern writers, claims study. (The Guardian)

Journalist and literary hoaxster, Mike McGrady, dies at age 78. RIP. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 1855 Walt Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court, New York. The first edition was published seven weeks later, on or about July 4th. Over the next 36 years, ‘Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos,’ would revise and add to the original twelve poems, publishing seven more editions.” (Today In Literature)

“Life can’t ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer’s lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, and constant.”

- Edna Ferber

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Joan Franks says that Tania James’ “prose is clean, deep, limpid; the stories she builds throw strange, beautiful light on completely unexpected places” in her new collection, Aerogrammes And Other Stories. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Yunte Huang compares Wenguang Huang’s The Little Red Guard to Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. (Chicago Tribune)

Leyla Sanai discovers “a touching story about love, loyalty and tragedy” in Stephen May’s Life! Death! Prizes! (The Independent)

Dwight Garner calls Buzz Bissinger’s memoir, Father’s Day, “riveting and a bit frightening.” (NYTimes)

Here’s a preview of the half-dozen finalists for the 2012 Nebula Awards. (The Millions)

MaineCrimeWriters.com uses the novels of Paul Doiron to demonstrate how to judge a book by its cover. (mainecrimewriters.com)

If you’re gonna challenge a book, here’s a collection of suggestions that aren’t 50 SHADES OF GRAY. (flavorwire)

Thanks to ereaders, instant access to books renders one-book-a-year authors a bunch of slackers. (The New York Times)

Verizon doesn’t want to get involved in pirate-hunting. (cnet.com)

Jeff Himmelman is taking it on the chin for his authorized biography of Ben Bradlee. He looks to defend himself at (The Daily Beast)

At age 95, Kirk Douglas gets to work on book about ‘Spartacus’. (wrcbtv.com)

Hilary Mantel divulges her opinion of the Catholic Church. (The Telegraph)

Fair use ruling in Georgia State University case angers publishers and authors. (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

Eight experts award their nods from the Pulitzer list, since the Pulitzer people didn’t. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 1962 Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange was published. Although many do not think it his best novel — the vote seems to go to Earthly Powers (1980) — A Clockwork Orange made Burgess internationally famous, largely due to the controversy surrounding the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film…” (Today In Literature)

Peter Swaab remembers Edward Lear in (The Telegraph)

Will Schwalbe and his mother - a book club of two. A wonderful Mother’s day tribute in (The New York Times)

Hemingway’s mom wasn’t a fan of THE SUN ALSO RISES. And how. (BookRiot)

Chicago names a bridge after Stud Terkel. (The Chicago Sun-Times)

Mark Twain on plagiarism. (brainpickings.org)

Proceeds from the sale of THE FAMILY CORLEONE will sit in escrow while Paramount Pictures and Mario Puzo’s estate wrangle the details. (The San Fransisco Chronicle)

The Guardian compiles The 10 Best Historical Novels in pictures. (The Guardian)

“On this day in 1940 Bruce Chatwin was born. Even leaving out the literary controversy and the personality cult, Chatwin’s life has dramatic scope — middle-class Birmingham teenager to Sotheby’s clerk, to art-world star, to ultima thule by backpack, to a handful of best-sellers, a burst of fame, and death at forty-eight…” (Today In Literature)

For the wolf of a writer, the family is a crowd of sitting ducks. There they assemble at the Thanksgiving table, poor dears — blithering uncles, drugged-out siblings, warring couples — posing for a painting, though they do not know it.

-Roger Rosenblatt

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Stephen Abell concedes that a lot of Timothy Mo’s story of a Thai ladyboy-turned-spy-turned jihadist, Pure, “sounds rather silly,” but that that’s “part of the charm.” (The Telegraph)

Stephen Lee gives Anouk Markovits’ I Am Forbidden an A-, noting that reading it “richly rewards your efforts and heralds a promising new writer.” (EW.com)

Miriam Di Nunzio joins Gerry Marshall as he “traverses his life’s path — from his upbringing in New York to his college years at Northwestern University (his three children also are grads) to a stint in the Army and to Hollywood, where he experienced the good, the bad and the bankrupt” in his memoir, Happy Days in Hollywood. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Leah Umansky declares Dorothea Tanning’s poetry collection Coming to That “a book full of imagination, creativity and intellect.” (The Rumpus)

Hamas pulls the plug on the Palestine Festival of Literature. (The New York Daily News)

Matthew DeLuca culls a few of the best bits from YOURS IN TRUTH: A PERSONAL PORTRAIT OF BEN BRADLEE, by Jeff Himmelman. (The Daily Beast)

London’s new literary festival, Words in the Park, is next weekend, so you’d better get packing. (The Telegraph)

The wonderful Hilary Mantel sits down with (The Scotsman)

John Updike’s childhood home in Pennsylvania is set to become a museum. (GalleyCat)

The odd chair that is the writer’s place at the family table is diagrammed at (The New York Times)

Writer/illustrator, Howard Cruse, shares one of his prized bits of memorabilia: a wonderful and personal letter of encouragement from Dr. Seuss. (lettersofnote.com)

A paw through Federico García Lorca’s things reveals the probable identity of the object of his poetic affection. (The Guardian)

Jeanette Winterson does a stint as Professor Winterson at the University of Manchester. (The Telegraph)

“On this day in 1883 Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi was published. Much of the book had been printed as a series of articles in The Atlantic eight years earlier. These reminiscences had been popular — they ‘made the ice-water in my pitcher turn muddy,’ said William Dean Howells…” (Today In Literature)

“Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one word to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective . . . . When you pass a grocer sitting in his doorway, a porter smoking a pipe, or a cab stand, show me that grocer and that porter . . . in such a way that I could never mistake them for any other grocer or porter, and by a single word give me to understand wherein the cab horse differs from fifty others before or behind it.”

- Gustave Flaubert

Judith Newman says that Anne Enright is “a poet of the gross, explicating our newfound repulsion and fascination with a body no longer completely under our control” in her memoir, Making Babies. (NYTimes)

David Daley says that, in John Irving’s newest, In One Person,  the author is “a master of the big-hearted social epic, but the earnest tone sometimes wears…” (USAToday)

Ian Thompson declares Bernard Wasserstein’s On The Eve: The Jews Of Europe Before The Second World War a “moving and scrupulous history” that “recreates a world on the edge of its extinction.” (The Independent)

Vikas Swarup experiences “a depiction of despair and dreams in an Indian megacity that is as vivid as great fiction” in Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Slum, by Katherine Boo. (Financial Times)

Mary Higgins Clark has a chat with (The New York Times)

Norwich, England is UNESCO’s City of Literature. (The Guardian)

… while Colin Grant has a ramble and talk with (The Telegraph)

Tim Parks examines ‘Fear and Literature’ in (The New York Review of Books)

Sleep with your books: bookshelves married to beds. (BookRiot)

The LA Times wonders what new mother’s are reading. (The Los Angeles Times)

Author, Charles Baxter, takes the $30,000 prize for the 2012 REA Award. (The Washington Post)

Anthony Hororwitz weighs in on the book blurbing game for (The Guardian)

Harry Potter and Kindle team up for an interactive reading experience (and a lucrative one for both.) (GalleyCat)

The buddy comedy - animal style. (The New York Times)

“On this day in 2001 Douglas Adams died of a heart attack in a Santa Barbara gym, aged forty-nine. He had moved to California to be more involved in negotiations with Hollywood producers on the movie version of his Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a frustrating process which Adams likened to ‘trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it.’…” (Today In Literature)

Joe Bovino’s FIELD GUIDE TO CHICKS OF THE UNITED STATES is shortlisted for The Worst Book Ever by (The Huffington Post)

But there are better awards. Terry Pratchett, John Lanchester, and Sue Townsend are among those in the running for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize For Comic Fiction. (The Telegraph)

The Palestine Festival of Literature draws Gaza security forces over author event. (ahramonline)

When literature meets cartoons, a new thing entirely is born. (The Wall Street Journal)

Before he was POTUS, he had opinions on T.S. Eliot’s poery and politics. Here’s an excerpt from David Maraniss’s BARACK OBAMA: THE STORY. (The New York Times)

Ebooks on British radar: they’re on the way. (BBC)

How the changing publishing landscape may call writers to view their fans in a different light. (The Guardian)

Jonny from Waterstones has the shine taken off his book-arranging hobby. (WaterstonesOxfordStreet)

It took WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE more than 40 years to crack the bestseller list at (USA Today)

The Huffington Post profiles budding book critic, 16 year old, Robby Auld. (The Huffington Post)

“On this day in 1907 Kenneth Grahame wrote the first (or the first extant) of a series of letters to his son, Alastair, describing the Toad, Rat, Mole and Badger adventures that eventually became The Wind in the Willows…” (Today In Literature)

“If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That’s how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.”

- Shelby Foote

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