From the Penguin description:

Author Heather Brewer invites her minions to party the night away with her at the Snow Ball in celebration of the release of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eleventh Grade Burns:

The Spanish city of Valladolid remembers Miguel Delibes. (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Janice Turner profiles the very funny, very frightening Lionel Shriver. (Times Online)

Jennifer Schuessler examines the lack of attention in novels to the work life. (NYTimes)

Australian author Kathy Lette uncovers her ancestral link to the Botany Bay settlers. (Telegraph)

McCrum tracks down some of today’s top Shakespearean actors and directors about the myriad conspiracy theories regarding the authorship of the Bard’s plays. (The Guardian)

Biographer Laura Skandera Trombley examines Mark Twain’s dark side. (LATimes)

Headline of the week: “Guy’s Frozen Penis Snaps Off in Ian McEwan’s New Novel” (Gawker)

R.I.P. Vinda Karandikar, poet. (DNA India)

“On this day in 1939, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was published. Although Steinbeck believed that he had succeeded in his “very grave attempt to do a first-rate piece of work,” he was so convinced that his “revolutionary” book would be unpopular and unread that he tried to dissuade his publisher from having a large first printing.” (Today in Literature)

From the Penguin US description:

Fonts. Obsessed? Couldn’t care less? Either way, they affect the way that you feel about what you’re reading. They’re an added layer of communication that we are often unaware of.

Mary Jane McKay looks at the global influence of Irish literature. (CBS News)

Carolyn Kellogg recaps the National Book Critics Circle awards. (LATimes)

Ian McEwan stands his ground in the face of accusations that criticism of Muslims is necessarily racism. (Telegraph)

Catch up on upcoming notable literary releases and events. (The Independent)

John Mullan surveys some of literature’s best men writing as women. (The Guardian)

R.I.P. Gerald Flamm, reporter and author. (San Francisco Chronicle)

“On this day in 1891, Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts premiered in London, an event so “controversial and epoch-making,” says biographer Michael Meyer, that it is now regarded as “one of the most famous of theatrical occasions.” Theater historians report that the furor made Ibsen “a household word even among those Englishmen who never went to the theatre or opened a book.”" (Today in Literature)

From the Liverpool Daily Post YouTube description:

Watch our LiveRead video of horror writer Ramsey Campbell reading an extract from his short story, “Laid Down”:

Take a trip back through your childhood with this slideshow of 10 of the best heroes from children’s fiction. (The Guardian)

Jeff Rivera profiles literary agent Michael Bourret. (GalleyCat)

John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, to be adapted for the stage. (AP)

Heather Struck chats it up with novelist Jonathan Ames. (Forbes)

Boyd Tonkin surveys the field on the long-list for this year’s Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. (The Independent)

Vit Wagner looks toward the April 12 announcement of the Commonwealth Writers Prize winners. (thestar.com)

Jason Boog rounds up the results of last night’s National Book Critics Circle awards ceremony. (GalleyCat)

R.I.P. Miguel Delibes, acclaimed Spanish novelist. (AP)

R.I.P. Julia Urquidi, Mario Vargas Llosa’s “Aunt Julia.” (Reuters)

“On this day in 1901 Andrew Carnegie offered New York City $5.2 million for the construction of 65 branch libraries. Of the 56.5 million given by Carnegie for over 2500 libraries in a dozen countries, this was his largest single grant, part of a wider attempt to gainsay those who attacked his “Gospel of Wealth” and to live up to his famous dictum: “The man who dies thus rich, dies disgraced.”" (Today in Literature)

Jennifer Gilmore chats it up with novelist Chang-rae Lee. (The Rumpus)

Wesley Yang profiles historian, author and academic Tony Judt, now two years into his battle with ALS. (New York Magazine)

Australian authors rally around novelist Robert Dessaix, who has been banned from entering China because he is HIV positive. (Telegraph)

AL Kennedy puts one word after another. (Guardian Books Blog)

Go behind the scenes and discover some of the more eclectic parts of the David Foster Wallace archive in Austin. (The Second Pass)

Will Google’s book project change copyright law as we know it? (San Jose Mercury News)

Penguin’s Portfolio imprint launches Current, a new imprint for science books. (GalleyCat)

Winners announced for Best Translated Book Awards. (Three Percent)

“On this day in 1923, James Joyce wrote to his patron, Harriet Weaver, that he had just begun “Work in Progress,” the book which would become Finnegans Wake sixteen years later. When Nora found out that her husband was “on another book again,” she asked if, instead of “that chop suey you’re writing,” he might not try “sensible books that people can understand.”" (Today in Literature)

The talk show host and comedienne discusses her third book, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang:

Alexandra Alter chats it up with Elif Batuman about her interesting debut novel, The Possessed—a “tongue-in-cheek account of her study of Russian literature.” (Wall Street Journal)

Kudos on 50 years to Phoenix Literary Magazine. (TNJN)

Canadian novelist and essayist Ralston Saul takes South Korea’s prestigious Manhae Grand Prize for Literature. (The Globe and Mail)

Better late than never: Mark Sanderson’s weekly roundup of tidbits in “Literary Life”. (Telegraph)

M.A. Orthofer posts the shortlist for the Best Translated Book Award, the winner of which will be announced tonight. (The Literary Saloon)

Actress and musician Hilary Duff to pen a YA series for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. (GalleyCat)

New York Times Book Review to be made available for eReaders. (Poynter Online)

Sam Jordison makes “the ecological case for ebooks.” (Guardian Books Blog)

Tom Roberge looks back at how Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke met and made history. (The Rumpus)

“On this day in 1948, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, and eight other patients were killed in a fire at the Highland Mental Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. This was eighteen years after Zelda’s first mental breakdown and eight years after Scott’s fatal heart attack — a world away from the Jazz Age they helped to define, and which helped to defeat them.” (Today in Literature)

From the GalleyCat description:

So you think you can design a book cover? Just push play to watch the six-hour process unfold at superspeed.

Iran’s big bad mullahs afraid to let 82 year-old poet Simin Behbahani travel to France. (BBC)

McCrum reminds us that crap is the grease that keeps the gears of the publishing industry turning. (The Guardian)

Seth Grahame-Smith talks about the literary mashup trend he helped foist on us. (GalleyCat)

UT’s Harry Ransom Center scores again—this time with the David Foster Wallace archive. (HRC)

Garrett Kenyon looks back at the top ten crime and mystery novels of last year. (LitKicks)

Jesse Chambers chats it up with poet Billy Collins. (Birmingham Weekly)

JK Evanczuk weighs the relative pros and cons of creation by committee. (Lit Drift)

The Daily Beast editors round up the 10 best revelations in Karl Rove’s new memoir. (The Daily Beast)

Neil Gaiman talks about creepy things. (CBS News)

Molly Flatt frets over the endless distractions that a reader endures in our high-tech world. (Guardian Books Blog)

“On this day in 1994 Charles Bukowski died. Though dismissed by most critics, he was the Grand Old Man of the fringe presses, publishing over fifty books in a career which spanned a half-century and brought near-celebrity status — appearances with Allen Ginsberg, interviews in Rolling Stone, sold-out readings in Europe (to which he would be able to take not the two six-packs but four bottles of good French wine), and a movie of his earlier, Barfly life.” (Today in Literature)

An interesting piece on David Shields’ latest:

Acclaimed author John Edgar Wideman opts for self-publishing through Lulu for his new collection of stories. (Publishers Weekly)

Carol Rumens steps into a poetic minefield as she takes on the always hotly-debated William Carlos Williams poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow.” (Guardian Books Blog)

M.A. Orthofer explains why reports of the Man ‘Asian’ Literary Prize’s death were greatly exaggerated. (The Literary Saloon)

Mystery writer Elizabeth Spann Craig rounds up a treasure trove of links to various and sundry writing tips (thanks, Aleta). (Mystery Writing is Murder)

Lincoln Michel meets David Shields on his own terms as he dissects Reality Hunger. (The Rumpus)

Former book designer Craig Mod says good riddance to print. (NYT)

Poet Gary Snyder to receive the 10th annual Robert Creeley Award. (The Milford Daily News)

Sherlock Holmes fans rally to save the Surrey home of Arthur Conan Doyle. (BBC)

Stuart Evers explains the rare and unexpected trick of “pulling a Roth.” (Guardian Books Blog)

Farrar, Straus & Giroux editor Lorin Stein to take the helm at The Paris Review. (NYT)

The fantasy, horror and science fiction author talks about the craft of writing and his new novel The Extra:

Iris Murdoch’s relationship with a former student revealed in letters from the author. (Telegraph)

Susan Salter Reynolds profiles prolific author and essayist John McPhee. (Times Argus Online)

Are Harlequin romances’ cowboys and doctors a sign of evolutionary instincts? (The Guardian)

Katy Guest finds a hopeful future for poetry in the number of poetry competition entries by young people. (The Independent)

M.A. Othofer weighs on on the calls for translators to get their due as artists in their own right. (The Literary Saloon)

Jason Boog tracks down the best book editors on Twitter. (GalleyCat)

Mark Sanderson returns with more odds and ends from the literary world. (Telegraph)

Alexander McCall looks back at his time in Belfast during the Troubles. (The Guardian)

“On this day in 1967 Alice B. Toklas died, at the age of eighty-nine. Toklas spent her last twenty-one years without Gertrude Stein, but with the same idiosyncratic devotion to Stein’s genius as she had throughout their thirty-three years together. This did not protect her from those managing Stein’s estate, and at eighty-seven she was evicted from the flat which the two had shared for decades.” (Today in Literature)

From the AtGoogleTalks YouTube description:

What sustains us in a time of panic? How do we survive disasters beyond our control? Bestselling author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni considers these timely questions in her compelling new novel, ONE AMAZING THING. Drawing on Divakaruni’s personal experience of Hurricane Rita and inspired by literary works ranging from The Decameron to Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, ONE AMAZING THING explores what happens when people from different walks of life are trapped together are trapped by a violent earthquake.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s honors include an American Book Award, a PEN/Josephine Miles Award, two PEN Syndicated Fiction awards, and a Distinguished Author Award from the South Asian Literary Association. Her work has appeared in The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, and a Pushcart Prize anthology. With the publication of her new novel, One Amazing Thing, Divakaruni is the author of sixteen books, two of which have been made into movies. A frequently sought-after op-ed commentator regarding South Asian-American culture, Divakaruni is the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Houston.

Maria Bustillos looks back at the envy and hate leveled at Wyndham Lewis to make sense of the envy and hate leveled at Dave Eggers. (The Awl)

Make it stop… Quirk Books announces yet another mash-up. (The Independent)

Edith Grossman makes the case for counting translation as an art form all its own. (The Boston Globe)

The Rochester and Chatham Dickens Fellowship raising money to save the chalet where Dickens wrote Great Expectations. (Telegraph)

Penguin explores the brave new world of iPad content. (CNET)

Harper Teen shells out seven figures for a debut Young Adult trilogy. (Publishers Weekly)

Michael Cieply looks at the next steps in the Cussler case. (NYT)

Toby Lichtig explores whether the Holocaust’s place in Jewish literature should change. (Guardian Books Blog)

“On this day in 1928 Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born. Living to Tell the Tale, his first volume of memoirs, is prefaced by Marquez’s belief that “Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it.” What follows is recounted in such a colorful, captivating way that we can only hope, given his lymphatic cancer, Marquez remains well enough to tell the whole tale.” (Today in Literature)

The award winning author talks about her new novel, Wolfsbane Winter:

$5 million judgment against Clive Cussler overturned by a California appeals court. (Denver Business Journal)

Sam Jordison looks back (on balance, rather fondly) at Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. (Guardian Books Blog)

IndyBest rolls out a slide show of their choices for the best new books. (The Independent)

DreamWorks acquires the film rights to Kathryn Stockett’s bestseller The Help. (Reuters)

Michael O’Sullivan recaps last month’s Sulu DC, which showcased Asian American poets. (Washington Post)

James Cameron does some damage control to save his Hiroshima film plans. (NYT)

Meanwhile, Chinese sci-fi writer Zhou Shaomou sues Cameron for ripping off one of his novels.  (People’s Daily Online)

Jason Boog rounds up the honors from last night’s Shorty Awards in NYC. (GalleyCat)

“On this day in 1954, Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood was published in England; coming out just four months after his death in New York, it was an immediate best seller. Thomas’s lifelong ambivalence towards Wales — “Land of my fathers. My fathers can keep it”– is maintained in the play, his Laugharne becoming the imaginary village of Llareggub, or “bugger-all” backwards.” (Today in Literature)