“I asked Ring Lardner the other day how he writes his short stories, and he said he wrote a few widely separated words or phrases on a piece of paper and then went back and filled in the spaces.”
-Harold Ross
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The Christian Science Monitor says the gang over at Columbia got this year’s Pulitzer for poetry just right in their review of W.S. Merwin’s THE SHADOW OF SIRIUS.
Two books on Alice Howe Gibbens James, and the James clan, drew the attention of The New York Review of Books.
LIAR’S ANONYMOUS, by Louise Ure, features well among new releases in crime fiction, so if you need a little excitment in your life…
MY SISTER’S KEEPER, by Jodi Piccuolt, is commended for its delicate, poetic touch in handling the tough subject matter.
(via Twitter… thanks Christopher Hennessy and Nicole Peeler)
Check out this collection of beautiful photographs by Kyle Cassidy, showing off the writing spaces of twenty prominent Fantasy and Science Fiction authors.
From the Barnes and Noble description:
Molly (and special guest, daughter Charlotte) interview Mary Pope Osborne, author of the Magic Tree House series:
55 year-old Texan David Douglas wins the Papa Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at the annual Hemingway Days celebration.
The Washington Post remembers E. Lynn Harris.
Carol Rumens presents the Guardian Book Blog’s Poem of the Week, Edward Lear’s “Some Incidents in the Life of My Uncle Arly”.
Ethiopian novelist Fikremarkos Desta is seeking political asylum in the US after harassment from the Woyanne tribal junta.
Electric Literature announces that it will be the first literary mag to develop and launch an iPhone application. Press release here.
The Times reignites the recent New Republic debate over whether Shakespeare should be revised to make the language more accessible to modern readers.
Sam Jordison reflects on the work of Robert Heinlein.
R.I.P. Michael Steinberg, music critic.
Today in Literature: On this day in 1890, Vincent Van Gogh shot himself in a wheat field in France. When he died two days later, he left behind a compelling collection of letters.
“Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none.”
-Jules Renard
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Love it when books and movies work in made-up languages? So does Arika Okrent. So much so that she wrote IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES: ESPERATO ROCK STARS, KLINGON POETS, LOGLAN LOVERS, AND THE MAD DREAMERS WHO TRIED TO BUILD A PERFECT LANGUAGE.
Matt Shaer has good things to say about Sarah Rainone’s debut, LOVE WILL TEAR US APART.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s bestseller, THE SHADOW OF THE WIND, had a prequel, THE ANGEL’S GAME. The Denver Post likes it.
A bird’s eye view changes everything and The Economist endorses Patricia Fara’s wings over SCIENCE: A FOUR THOUSAND YEAR HISTORY.
The former poet laureate reads his poem “Consolation”:
The Guardian’s Sarah Crown interviews Penelope Lively as part of a broader, intriguing profile.
Three New England literary organizations stay alive, thanks to federal stimulus money.
Reason pats Amazon CEO (and Reason benefactor) Jeff Bezos on the back for his apology over sneaking into people’s Kindles and deleting books.
Times Online’s Damien Whitworth peers into novelist David Peace’s “troubled soul”.
WaPo’s Poet’s Choice this week features Kevin Prufer’s “Seeds.”
Robert McCrum recounts his experience at the smaller (but more focused) Buxton Literary Festival.
Jane Bussman shares her top 10 journalism tips.
R.I.P. Rebecca Lipkin, writer and producer.
Today in Literature: On this day in 1602, printer James Roberts jumped Shakespeare’s claim to “Hamlet” by entering in the Stationers’ Register “A booke called the Revenge of Hamlett Prince Denmarke as yt was latelie Acted by the Lord Chamberleyne his servants.”
“Be obscure clearly.”
-E.B. White
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Edna O’Brien’s BYRON IN LOVE takes a drubbing for its copy-editing, but earns it all back on the content side of the consideration.
Dr. Diana Kirschner will get you all sorted out - in a single season. Check out January Magazine’s review of LOVE IN 90 DAYS.
THE SERIAL GARDEN collects all of Joan Aiken’s Armitage stories between two covers and January Magazine advises not to miss it.
The New York Review of Books examines same-sex marriage and its treatment in four upcoming books.
From the YouTube description:
In one of his last public interviews, renowned author E. Lynn Harris sat down with 3LWTV’s Lonnell Williams during the Sizzle Miami festivities. Harris talks about upcoming movie projects, why he still includes gay venues on his tours and how he relaxes.
Novelist E. Lynn Harris dies at age 54 after collapsing at a Beverly Hills hotel during a book tour.
Five heavyweight writers debate Frank McCourt’s influence on the booming memoir genre.
Liar author Justine Larbalestier discusses the control (and lack thereof) authors have over the covers of their works.
Speaking of covers, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books has some fun with the ridiculous marketing angle recently employed on Simon Kernick’s Deadline.
The Guardian’s John Mullan presents “Ten of the best novels about novelists”.
Edward Champion breaks down the personality types of book bloggers.
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig takes the $50,000 Keene Prize for Literature for her play “Lidless”.
A.S. Maulucci draws some stark distinctions between live and dead/ hot and cold poetry.
The Daily Texan reprints a 1935 Walter Cronkite interview with Gertrude Stein.
Today in Literature: On this day in 1834, Samuel Taylor Coleridge died of heart disease at the age of sixty-one.
“It seems to me that those songs that have been any good, I have nothing much to do with the writing of them. The words have just crawled down my sleeve and come out on the page.”
-Joan Baez
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If you like adventure, or just like reading about it so you don’t have to actually go out and do it, here’s the book for you - Mark Obmascik’s HALFWAY TO HEAVEN: MY WHITE-KNUCKLED — AND KNUCKLEHEADED — QUEST FOR THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH.
A whole page of new reviews from The Atlantic could come in handy if your to-be-read list has dwindled.
Bookreporter.com offers up praise for and an excerpt of Nancy Thayer’s SUMMER HOUSE.
Mid-grade series Percy Jackson & The Olympians comes to a close (with options) in, THE LAST OLYMPIAN. Sounds pretty cool to me.
From the YouTube description:
Nathan Rabin, head writer for A.V. Club, The Onion’s entertainment section, explains how pop culture offered an escape from his troubled childhood and adolescence in his memoir, The Big Rewind:
“This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our “solution” to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we’ve received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission.”
- Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO
Amulet Books has released the title and cover art of the fourth installment of Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series.
He’s back! Fredrik Colting (AKA J.D. California) has asked a federal appeals court to allow his sequel/commentary/parody of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye to be published as scheduled in September, arguing that the injunction handed down earlier this month by US District Court Judge Deborah Batts amounts to prior restraint and would cause “irreparable damage”.
Jenny Bornholdt’s The Rocky Shore wins the poetry section of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.
In other judges-as-literary-agents news, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff has approved a request to allow the temporary administrators of Michael Jackson’s estate to enter into new publishing deals to bring the late singer’s autobiography Moonwalk back to store shelves.
Johann Hari urges novelists to break out of their comfort zones.
Billy Mills explores the ramifications of poets assembling their collected poems.
“Chick Literature Examiner” Stacy Swann has collected some links for those who want to dig into the history of the chick lit genre.
LitKicks’ Jamelah Earle on his favorite book: Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.
With the recent renovation and impending opening to the public of Keats House in Hampstead, Belinda Webb wonders if moneys dedicated to preserving dead authors’ houses could be better spent on supporting the ongoing efforts of living, breathing artists.
Today in Literature: On this day in 1725 John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, was born.
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.”
-Lord Byron
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Thriller writer Michael Connelly hosts a short video of his recommended summer reads.
Now this sounds fun and interesting—a pictorial history of KITCHENS, SMOKEHOUSES, AND PRIVIES: OUTBUILDINGS AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF DAILY LIFE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MID-ATLANTIC, by Michael Olmert.
In THE PLEASURES AND SORROWS OF WORK, Alain de Botton casts a philosophically eye (and pen) towards our attitudes on labor.
A pageful of beautiful sports books from Sports Illustrated might ignite a case of the I-wants.
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