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News, Notes, Talk

Zachary Quinto and Jim Parsons break out their Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote impressions.

I’ve always wanted to be able to do accents, voices, impressions. I’m transfixed by the ability. When done well, accent work is what makes garbage like, say, 95% of SNL, slightly more bearable. Of late, I’ve taken to watching behind-the-scenes Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Louise Glück has won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Congratulations to the great Louise Glück, who was a surprise choice for this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature. Granted, the prize is rarely obvious, but Glück —a former poet laureate of the United States—wasn’t mentioned much in any of this Read more >

By Jonny Diamond

Because there is no morality in capitalism, Fox News is getting its own imprint at HarperCollins.

To mark the 24th anniversary of the Fox News Channel’s debut, HarperCollins and Fox News Media have announced the creation of a new imprint that will publish a stream of books I’m sure you’ll read by Fox News personalities. If Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Karen Russell has recommended reading for you, Joe Biden.

Welcome to the Book Marks Questionnaire, where we ask authors questions about the books that have shaped them. This week, we spoke to Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Sleep Donation, Karen Russell. * Book Marks: First book you remember loving? Read more >

By Book Marks

Here are the bookies’ odds for the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Nobel Prize in Literature has been . . . fairly chaotic in recent years. First, in 2016, there was Bob Dylan (absurd). Then, there was Kazuo Ishiguro (apologetic). Then, there was no prize (sexual misconduct scandal). Then, a dual Read more >

By Emily Temple

Marjane Satrapi's hypnotizing paintings of women are now on view in Paris.

Depending on how familiar you are with her work, you may not be surprised to learn that graphic memoirist Marjane Satrapi, whose Persepolis has become a modern classic, is also a figurative painter. “Painting is about going back to the Read more >

By Emily Temple

It's been a bittersweet week for surf literature.

The last few days have brought two major pieces of surf literature news: one welcome, the other dispiriting. The first is that Barbarian Days—New Yorker staff writer and journalist William Finnegan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning surf memoir and one of the greatest books ever Read more >

By Dan Sheehan

Sarah Hall is the first writer to win the BBC Short Story Award twice.

The BBC Short Story Award, created in 2005 to recognize the short story as an invaluable literary form, is one of the most prestigious prizes for a single short story in the United Kingdom. The honor comes with £15,000, and Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Why now is a great time to read Colson Whitehead's Zone One.

Colson Whitehead’s zombie novel Zone One was published nine years ago today, on what I imagine to have been a chilly and sweeping October day in 2011. I was a teenager when the novel was released, and only got around Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

This year's MacArthur fellows include six literary writers.

Proving that good news is somehow still possible in 2020, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded fellowships (or as they are commonly known, “genius grants”) to a group of writers whose work interrogates structural racism through Read more >

By Corinne Segal

The staff of The New Yorker is celebrating a well-earned union victory.

When the annual New Yorker Festival began online yesterday, there were two notable absences: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who withdrew from the event last week in support of the New Yorker Union’s planned digital picket line. In 2018, Read more >

By Aaron Robertson

Here are the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards.

Today, The Washington Post announced all of the finalists for the 2020 National Book Awards. The twenty-five finalists were selected from fifty longlisted writers across five genres—Young People’s Literature, Translated Literature, Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction—by a distinguished panel of literary experts. Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Make space in your TBR pile: 19 new books coming out today.

You know it’s a good day when you’re greeting with brand-new books from Rumaan Alam, Phil Klay, Tana French, Sayaka Murata, and Alice Hoffman! What’s a few more books on the TBR pile amongst friends? * Rumaan Alam, Leave the World Read more >

By Katie Yee

Read on, if you dare: 20 books that are laced with sinister magic.

Dear reader: the Practical Magic soundtrack is on at full volume as I write this. I’ve got a pumpkin-scented candle going. There are decorative gourds all over the place. (Seriously, I tripped on a stray one just a minute ago.) Read more >

By Katie Yee

Good news break: a new journal, Air/Light, has launched.

Air/Light is a brand new literary magazine—launched today!—helmed by Editor-in-Chief David Ulin, with support from the University of Southern California English department, that aims to “celebrate an inclusive culture, illuminating voices from a diverse array of writers.” According to its Read more >

By Rasheeda Saka

Ethan Hawke's new (autobiographical) novel is full of rage and sex and longing and despair.

Ethan Hawke, the most bookish man in Hollywood, is back on his beautiful bookish bullshit, and I for one could not be happier. Yes, the four-time Oscar-nominated star of Gattaca—as well as many other films which are very good despite Read more >

By Dan Sheehan