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News, Notes, Talk

Remember when Ali G interviewed Gore Vidal (and Gore Vidal showed superhuman patience)?

Gore Vidal—essayist, historian, novelist, public intellectual, and Norman Mailer antagonist (Mailer headbutted him backstage at the Dick Cavett Show over a piece in the NYRB in which Vidal compared Mailer’s views of women to Charles Manson’s)—died on this day in Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

On Capitol Hill, an anonymous bookseller called out Amazon.

If you tuned into yesterday’s historic House Judiciary Subcommittee antitrust hearing, during which the top executives of some of the world’s largest tech companies tried convincing politicians that they weren’t monopolies, you may have heard a bookseller chime in during Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Here's a novel idea: masks made of books.

Is the only thing that stands between you and wearing a mask a breezy summer read? Probably not, but one professor at Mercer University, Tennille Shuster, recently devised a creative way to emphasize the importance of diligent mask-wearing. Shuster, the Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Here's the cover for Blake Bailey's long-awaited Philip Roth biography.

Today, W.W. Norton announced that they would be publishing Blake Bailey’s highly anticipated biography of Philip Roth on April 6, 2021. “Its 880 pages,” Hillel Italie writes, are the finished result of an undertaking that pre-dates not just Roth’s death Read more >

By Emily Temple

Matthew McConaughey is publishin' a book, man. P-U-B-L-I-S-H-I-N.

Matthew McConaughey—whose Publishers Marketplace announcement describes him as an “Academy Award-winning actor, teacher at the University of Texas, and self-proclaimed pickle expert”—has written a book! Sadly, it doesn’t sound like it has anything to do with pickles. Instead, it’s a Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Issa Rae and Jordan Peele purchased the film rights to a short story—for more than $630 per word.

Here are some facts about “Sinkhole,” a short story by Leyna Krow, author of I’m Fine, But You Appear to be Sinking: 1. It is 1,586 words long. 2. It was acquired by Universal Pictures and Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Amid a virus surge and government repression, Hong Kong's oldest bookstore is closing.

I know that fingers can’t “plod,” but that is what they are doing now, delivering upsetting news that encapsulates this shitty year. As Hong Kong teeters on the edge of a serious coronavirus outbreak and democratic institutions continue losing a war Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

SFF authors are protesting Saudi Arabia's cynical bid to host the 2022 WorldCon.

The science fiction world is having a bit of a week. Today, New Zealand, the host of this year’s World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon), virtually kicked off one of the world’s most popular sci-fi events. New Zealanders had been preparing for Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Is a virtual writing retreat worth it?

Yesterday, MacDowell, a prestigious artists’ residency in New Hampshire—who has suspended their regular fellowship program due to the coronavirus pandemic—announced a “pilot program” for a virtual version of its famous retreat. It will certainly look a lot different than usual, Read more >

By Emily Temple

James Patterson named his latest heroine after a very nice Mayo clinic employee.

Have you ever dreamed of being immortalized within the pages of a James Patterson novel? Of living on, long after your bones have turned to dust and your headstone has been weathered into illegibility, as a firecracker love interest or Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

The Oscars of the comic industry have been announced.

The winners for the 32nd Will Eisner Comic Industry Award were announced online on Friday night, despite some controversy over a voting glitch. In lieu of the usual San Diego Comic-Con, the award ceremony featured actor Phil LaMarr (of Pulp Read more >

By Katie Yee

Kaitlyn Greenidge has been named Substack's Senior Fellow, which carries a $100,000 grant.

Substack, the (apparently pretty well-funded) newsletter distribution company, has announced its second round of fellows, led by novelist and essayist Kaitlyn Greenidge. Greenidge is the only Senior Fellow of the ten, a title that carries with it a $100,000 grant. Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

20 new books to keep you company this week.

As you continue to support your local indies, here are 20 new titles to be on the lookout for! This list features the hotly-anticipated new books by the likes of Laura van den Berg, Natasha Trethewey, Yiyun Li, Zadie Smith, Read more >

By Katie Yee

Hilary Mantel is up for her third Booker Prize in a row—and on a longlist dominated by debuts.

This year’s Booker Prize longlist includes some books you expected—and also quite a few books you didn’t, including eight (8) debuts out of the thirteen books. “It is an unusually high proportion, and especially surprising to the judges themselves, who Read more >

By Emily Temple

An adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's next novel is already in the works.

Elizabeth Gabler’s 3000 Pictures—a joint venture between a joint venture with Sony Pictures and Harper Collins—just closed a preemptive deal for Kazuo Ishiguro’s upcoming novel, Klara and the Sun. The highly-anticipated new novel from the 2017 Nobel Prize-winner is the story Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Remembering Frank O'Hara's funeral.

54 years ago today, the iconic mid-century American poet Frank O’Hara was buried in Green River Cemetery, in Springs, New York, two days after being struck down by a jeep on Fire Island at the age of 40—a freakish tragedy Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Irenosen Okojie has won the Caine Prize for a story about a Grace Jones impersonator.

Irenosen Okojie, a Nigerian-British author, is this year’s winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story “Grace Jones.” The story, which appears in her 2019 collection Nudibranch, follows a Grace Jones impersonator in the aftermath of Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Explore Wallabout, where Whitman lived while finishing Leaves of Grass.

What are you up to this summer? Planning an excursion to the woods? Kicking back with some good television and a beer? Alternatively, why don’t you come along with me for the ultimate socially-distanced leisure activity for our times: poring Read more >

By Corinne Segal

Lana Del Rey will release her poetry collection as an audiobook set to Jack Antonoff music. (Same.)

Lana Del Rey is releasing her forthcoming poetry collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, on Tuesday, July 28 in digital form. In case you prefer your celebrity poetry spoken aloud, though, she has also recorded an audio version of Read more >

By Jessie Gaynor

Um, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is playing Andrew Scott’s dæmon in His Dark Materials.

As any and all Philip Pullman stans will undoubtedly already be aware, HBO just released the trailer for the second season of the latest adaptation of His Dark Materials, which features noted hot priest Andrew Scott, who will be portraying Read more >

By Emily Temple