Daniel Quinn gets dragged into the ugly mess of the Discovery Channel gunman. (FOXNews)

Maryann Yin recaps the finalists for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. (GalleyCat)

Neal Stephenson releases a serialized digital novel. (seattlepi.com)

Stuart Evers goes off on authors who get too long-winded in their acknowledgments. (Guardian Books Blog)

Laura Fraser officiates over a battle between chick lit and dude lit. (The Daily Beast)

Stephen Elliot sets up an audio interview with author Steve Almond. (The Rumpus)

M.A. Orthofer links to new issues of two literary magazines. (The Literary Saloon)

R.I.P. George Hitchcock, poet and publisher of kayak. (KansasCity.com)

“On this day in 1666, the Great Fire of London began, enkindled by the King’s baker when he failed to damp his oven properly. The Diary of Samuel Pepys provides a fascinating eye-witness account, from his first horrified sighting of “an infinite great fire,” to digging a pit for his best wine and cheese, to a final walkabout “with our feet ready to burn.”" (Today in Literature)

From the Vimeo description:

Cindy Woodsmall - New York Times best-selling author of Amish Fiction - talks about what led her to write and her first interaction with an Amish girl in prep school:

Cindy Woodsmall Talks About What Led Her to Become a Writer from waterbrook multnomah on Vimeo.

The Seven Year Bitch author Jennifer Belle says writers should write what they want to write. (GalleyCat)

Steve Almond leads the charge in a “meditation on editors, ambition and angry dependence”. (The Rumpus)

Borders is shutting down its San Francisco operations. (San Francisco Examiner)

The Virginia Quarterly Review has temporarily closed its offices and canceled its winter issue after the suicide of Kevin Morrissey. (NYTimes)

Attention grammar police: June Casagrande gives fair warning about some changes in the new edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. (Glendale News Press)

Justin Peacock finds the that today’s great social novels are being written by crime authors. (The Daily Beast)

Matthew Pearl reports from the front lines of the “novel wars”. (Huffington Post)

M.A. Orthofer offers some commentary on the relative editing skills of traditional publishers. (The Literary Saloon)

Carolyn Kellogg explores whether a hit book means a hit movie. (Jacket Copy)

Scott Butki chats it up with Body Work author Sara Paretsky. (seattlepi.com)

What’s the best position for reading in bed? (Reading Copy Book Blog)

Alison Flood adds her perspective. (Guardian Books Blog)

Georgie Williamson writes in defense of “old-world critics”. (The Australian)

“On this day in 1939 Germany invaded Poland, starting WWII. This gave moment to W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939,” one of his most famous poems, and one of many attempts to figure how “the windiest militant trash” could have us all “Lost in a haunted wood.” On this day two years later, the yellow star was made obligatory for Jews in Germany; and this day three years after would be Anne Frank’s last before learning her fate: the last train bound out of Holland for Auschwitz.” (Today in Literature)

From the cosproductions YouTube description:

When Hemingway’s lost works, stolen in 1922 from his first wife Hadley Richardson, are recovered, they’re worth millions. The womanizing academic who found them is murdered, and Chicago Insurance Investigator DD McGil, aided by her antiquarian book dealer friend Tom Joyce, must recover them, if genuine, or prove they are fakes:

Okay. Finally, a literary mash-up that amuses me. (GalleyCat)

Regina Brett looks at the handwriting over a house where Langston Hughes once lived and wonders if it might be more important to instead preserve an appreciation for the author’s works. (cleveland.com)

The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library will open soon. (Official site)

John Cusack to play Edgar Allen Poe in a new thriller film. (CBC News)

Luke Sampson chats it up with author and poet Ismail Kadare. (Financial Times)

JK Rowling donates £10 million to set up a multiple sclerosis research center in the name of her mother, who died from complications of the disease. (Telegraph)

Jonathan Jones sings the praises of eReading in the dark. (Guardian Books Blog)

Pynchon’s 2006 letter defending Ian McEwan against charges of plagiarism. (Letters of Note)

Bo Emerson talks to Jonathan Franzen. (accessAtlanta)

Tom Bissell defends Virginia Quarterly Review editor Ted Genoways in the aftermath of Kevin Morrissey’s suicide. (The New York Observer)

“On this day in 1946 John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” was published in The New Yorker. The article took up almost all sixty-eight pages of text space, an unprecedented and unannounced step for the magazine, taken so “that everyone might well take time to consider.” When Hersey died in 1993, one obituary called “Hiroshima” the “most famous magazine article ever published.”" (Today in Literature)

Sari Botton chats it up with author and essayist Shalom Auslander. (The Rumpus)

Peter Stothard rounds up a new batch of the best in British literature. (The Daily Beast)

Rachel Cooke profiles Israeli author David Grossman. (The Observer)

Might eBooks be a good fit in a correctional setting? (corrections.com)

A woman has crashed her car into Stephen King’s security gate. (WMTW)

Alison Flood details some of the best modern literary book tours. (The Guardian)

Judith Rosen highlights some sleepers of the fall season. (Publishers Weekly)

Gary Dexter explains how Hugh MacDiarmid’s “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” got its title. (Telegraph)

Carol Rumens is back with a new poem of the week, Vona Groarke’s “Pier”. (Guardian Books Blog)

“On this day in 30 BC Cleopatra committed suicide. Death by self-inflicted asp was no whim: Cleopatra’s search for a painless exit caused more than one unfortunate to be experimentally force-fed this or that drug or snake. The dress-rehearsing done, came the final act: “Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have / Immortal longings in me. . . .”" (Today in Literature)

Peter Stanford profiles prolific historical fiction author Conn Iggulden. (The Independent)

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will be the last. Thanks a lot, internet. (Telegraph)

Julie Bosman examines how Jonathan Franzen was chewed up and spit out of the pop culture machine in record time. (NYTimes)

Diane Leach looks between the covers of Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth. (LATimes)

Simon Winder laments the end of Penguin’s ‘Great Ideas’ series. (The Guardian)

Mark Sanderson rounds up a new batch of interesting literary tidbits. (Telegraph)

Dean Kuipers explores the environmentalist side of US Poet Laureate WS Merwin. (LATimes)

R.I.P. Jules Edward Loh, journalist. (AP)

R.I.P. Jackson Gillis, TV drama writer. (NYTimes)

“On this day in 1833, the Mills and Factory Act was passed in England, one of a series of measures to improve the “Health and Morals” of child laborers. The Act allowed a forty-eight-hour work week for children aged nine to twelve, but it brought many changes which the younger Dickens and William Blake’s even younger “Chimney Sweeper” would have welcomed.” (Today in Literature)

Andrew Anthony profiles James Ellroy through the prism of his lastest, Blood’s a Rover. (The Observer)

Richard Lea reports on the longlist for the 2010 Guardian first book award. (The Guardian)

Blogcritics’ Scott Butki chats it up with novelist Laura Lippman. (seattlepi.com)

Kelly Zhou rounds up a week of festivities in honor of Ray Bradbury’s 90th. (Daily Bruin)

Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner talk to Jason Pinter about the whole “Franzen feud”… (Huffington Post) …more here and here.

And here: Lincoln Michel asks if the Times really does favor white male authors. (Faster Times)

Bloomsbury to relaunch the entire Harry Potter series to coincide with the upcoming film and then, presumably, roll around naked in piles of money. (The Independent)

Jacket Copy looks at some “non-book literary oddities” on eBay. (LATimes)

Author Amanda Craig says the UK government should ban poor people from  having more than two children. (Telegraph)

“On this day in 430, Saint Augustine died at the age of seventy-five. He was Bishop of Hippo (now Annaba, Algeria) for thirty-four years, during which time he became the patriarch of Christian Africa and one of the most influential leaders of the Latin Church; from a literary viewpoint, his Confessions is seen as one of the first major contributions to the genre of self-disclosure.” (Today in Literature)

…as recited by a 3 year-old:

Bo Emerson profiles Mississippi poet Natasha Tretheway, whose new book tackles the lingering effects of Katrina. (accessAtlanta)

Greg Gerke chats it up with short story author Lydia Davis. (The Rumpus)

Michael Korda explains why he writes. (Publishers Weekly)

In celebration of Tanith Lee. (Guardian Books Blog)

Robert Richardson discusses why William James continues to matter. (The Daily Beast)

Michael Pollak traces Mark Twain’s New York footsteps. (NYTimes)

A rather hefty profile of David Mitchell. (The Independent)

6 year-old lands a 23 book deal? (Mirror)

UK authors join forces in protesting cuts to Public Lending Right, which pays authors each time one of their books is borrowed. (The Guardian)

“On this day in 1841, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer was published. This covers the earliest phase of the Leatherstocking saga, wherein the twenty-three-year-old Natty Bumppo must pass his first tests in the wilderness, rise above the worst of paleface and redskin ethics, avoid being burned at the stake, return Chingachgook’s beloved Wah-ta!-Wah to him, and tell Judith that his heart belongs to the forest.” (Today in Literature)

From the torforge YouTube description:

When New York City jewelry designer Garet James stumbles into a strange antiques shop in her neighborhood, her life is about to be turned upside down. John Dee, the enigmatic shopkeeper, commissions her to open a vintage silver box for a generous sum of money. Oddly, the symbol of a swan on the box exactly matches the ring given to her by her deceased mother. Garet can’t believe her luck and this eerie coincidence until she opens the box and otherworldly things start happening. . . .

That evening, the precious silver box is stolen. When Garet begins to investigate, she learns that she has been pulled into a prophecy that is hundreds of years old, and opening the box has unleashed an evil force onto the streets of Manhattan and the world at large. Gradually, Garet pieces together her true identity—one that her deceased mother desperately tried to protect her from. Generations of women in Garet’s family, including her beloved mother, suffered and died at the hands of this prevailing evil. Does Garet possess the power to reclaim the box and defeat this devastating force?

On her journey, she will meet the fey folk who walk unnoticed among humans and a sexy vampire who also happens to be a hedge fund manager that she can’t stop thinking about. But the fairies reveal a desire to overpower mere humans and the seductive vampire has the power to steal the life from her body. Whom can Garet trust to guide her? Using her newfound powers and sharp wit, Garet will muster everything she’s got to shut down the evil taking over her friends, family, New York City, and the world.

Seth Godin expands on his reasons for bypassing traditional publishing. (mediabistro.com)

Ramy Habeeb chats it up with “digital innovator” Peter Collingridge of Enhanced Editions, who produces enhanced eBooks in the UK. (Publishing Perspectives)

Rachel Deahl has some new details on the Andrew Wylie / Random House truce. (Publishers Weekly)

Charlotte Higgins talks to AS Byatt about her new novel, in addition to “religion, reality, her hatred of diaries and why she is eager for someone to write a novel about the discourse of Facebook and Twitter”. (The Guardian)

Free eBooks for college students… get em while they’re hot. (GalleyCat)

Rick Gekoski muses on what it means to be good literary loser. (Guardian Books Blog)

David Pogue takes the new Kindle for a test drive. (NYTimes)

MI5 thought James Bond screenwriter Cyril Wolf Mankowitz was a spy. (Herald Scotland)

In other “weird spy” news, the author who claimed he was a CIA assassin killed himself on accident… (AP)

“On this day in 1875, the lawyer-politician-writer John Buchan was born, in Perth, Scotland. Buchan wrote prolifically and in almost all genres, but he is best known for his spy-adventure novels, particularly the first “Richard Hannay” book, The Thirty-Nine Steps. Most give Buchan credit for the kind of espionage thriller — he called them “shockers” — that would eventually arrive at James Bond.” (Today in Literature)

From the YouTube description:

Young adult author Larry Mike Garmon interviewed for KWTV-4’s “Is This a Great State or What?” segment at Altus High School, Altus, OK:

Random House / Andrew Wylie Saga Resolved

Random House Strikes Truce with Wylie Agency (GalleyCat)
Wylie and Random House make e-peace (The Literary Saloon)
Amazon Loses E-Book Deal (Wall Street Journal)

In other news:

Chris Power continues his “brief survey of the short story” with a look at the work of Vladimir Nabokov. (Guardian Books Blog)

Why aren’t Britons visiting libraries anymore? (Telegraph)

Poet Liz Lochhead will read at the funeral of Edwin Morgan tomorrow. (Herald Scotland)

Will Gompertz comments (briefly) on the “Franzen media roadshow”. (BBC)

Sean Di Lizio chronicles his experiences in attempting a novel in three days. (The Millions)

Joseph Berger details the woes of New York City’s sole Yiddish bookstore. (NYTimes)

Sabina Dana Plasse explores what makes US Poet Laureate WS Merwin tick. (Idaho Mountain Express)

Kayla Webley looks at what the prisoners at Guantánamo Bay are reading. (TIME)

R.I.P. Edward Kean, TV writer. (NYTimes)

R.I.P. Gerald Rosen, novelist and professor. (San Francisco Chronicle)

R.I.P. George David Weiss, songwriter. (NYTimes)

R.I.P. Satoshi Kon, anime writer and director. (Collider)

“On this day in 1949, Martin Amis was born. In any history of the last half-century of English Literature, a chapter will have to be given to the Amis family’s seventy-five books — and still counting, in Martin’s case. Two chapters might be better: one of father Kingsley’s many “failures of tolerance,” to use Martin’s phrase, was his contempt for his son’s postmodern novels, or the few he’d tried reading.” (Today in Literature)

From the YouTube description:

“Age of the Dragons” is an adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick. Set in a medieval realm where Captain Ahab and crew hunt dragons for the vitriol that powers their world, Ishmael, a charismatic harpooner joins their quest. Ahab’s adopted daughter Rachel, beautiful and tough, runs the hunting vessel. Ahab’s obsession is to seek revenge on a great “White Dragon” that slaughtered his family when he was young and left his body scarred and mauled, drives the crew deeper into the heart of darkness. In the White Dragon’s lair Ahab’s secrets are revealed and Rachel must choose between following him on his dark quest or escaping to a new life with Ishmael.

Alec Michod chats it up with “brainy British novelist” David Mitchell. (The Rumpus)

The launch of Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay creates high hopes among booksellers. (NYTimes)

The September 2010 issue of World Literature Online is now, well, online. (WLT)

Charlotte Higgins examines the ethics of the memoir. (The Guardian)

Jeff Rivera talks to bestselling author Phillipa Gregory (audio). (GalleyCat)

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg muses on the effect of Seth Godin walking away from traditional publishing. (Wall Street Journal)

Daniel B. Roberts profiles the “next big thing in urban hipster lit”, Tao Lin. (Salon)

John Le Carré calls James Bond a “neo-fascist” gangster. (Telegraph)

Google shifts its stance on net neutrality. What does that mean for the book settlement? (Publishers Weekly)

“On this day in 1847 Charlotte Bronte sent her manuscript of Jane Eyre to her eventual publisher, under her pseudonym of Currer Bell. Many first reviewers thought the book outrageous; one speculated that Currer Bell was an “unsexed” woman who dared “to trample upon customs established by our forefathers, and long destined to shed glory upon our domestic circles.” (Today in Literature)

From the YouTube description:

In 1905, Jack London, American adventurer and author of “The Call of the Wild,” “The Sea Wolf,” “White Fang,” and more than two dozen other books, purchased over 100 acres of land outside the town of Glen Ellen, in Sonoma County, California. He called the area “the Valley of the Moon.” The ranch he built is now a California State Park and National Historic Landmark. The grounds include the ranch house, farm buildings, the House of Happy Walls, the ruins of the ill-fated Wolf House, and the graves of Jack and Charmian London.

Günter Grass talks writing, politics and the Brothers Grimm in a wide-ranging interview. (Spiegel)

Prepare to laugh. (Better Book Titles)

Peruse the most anticipated fiction and non-fiction of this fall. (New York Magazine)

Jonathan Jones declares Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom “the novel of the year, and the century”. (Guardian Books Blog)

Johann Hari reminds us that Jack London was far more than a children’s adventure writer. (The Independent)

German best seller list invaded by women writing in English. (Publishers Weekly)

Kelly Zhou joins the chorus of 90th birthday wishes for Ray Bradbury. (The Daily Bruin)

Carol Rumens celebrates the life of Edwin Morgan in this week’s “poem of the week”. (Guardian Books Blog)

Peter Applebome looks back at the quirky poetry, and even quirkier behavior, of Alfred Starr Hamilton. (NYTimes)

“On this day in 1305 Scotland’s William Wallace was executed — to be accurate: hanged, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered. The William Wallace legend and the popularity of the Braveheart movie owe much to a 15th century epic poem by Blind Harry the Minstrel. Robert Burns added to Wallace literature too, though his “Scots Wha Hae” went forth behind cover.” (Today in Literature)