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Author Francesca Lia Block has taken her mortgage difficulties public; Amazon temporarily lifted its nondisclosure agreement so authors could reveal Kindle Single earnings; James Pogue scrutinizes the Southern mythology surrounding Pulphead author John Jeremiah Sullivan; and other news.
A breakdown of the potential antitrust lawsuit aimed at Apple and large publishers; Fifty Shades of Grey, a best-selling erotic novel published by a small press in Australia, launched a seven-figure bidding war among the major publishers; poet Charles Bernstein writes that PennSound has made available over one hundred recordings of 1990s-era readings at the Ear Inn in New York City; and other news.
The New York Times has more on the Justice Department's potential lawsuit against Apple and several publishers over e-book pricing; Chris Hughes, a cofounder of Facebook, is the new owner of the venerable magazine the New Republic; Reese Witherspoon has purchased the film rights to Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild; and other news.
The United States Justice Department intends to sue Apple and five of the largest publishers; WNYC features Frank O’Hara’s 1964 collection Lunch Poems; the staff blog of the Los Angeles Review of Books looks at the work of Víctor Terán, a poet attempting to save his endangered Isthmus Zapotec language; and other news.
To mark the birthday of John Updike, Random House will reissue some of the author's books, and make Updike's entire backlist available as e-books; Richard Russo and Andre Dubus III discuss the difficulties of writing memoir, an audio walking tour of poetry associated with New York City's East Village neighborhood has been created, narrated by Jim Jarmusch; and other news.
Evan Hughes writes of the friendship between Saul Bellow and Jack Ludwig, and the betrayal that resulted in an award-winning novel; the Guardian examines the growing popularity of erotica among women writers; author Darin Strauss weighs The Sopranos against Six Feet Under; and other news.
Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser was prevented by Chinese police from attending an awards ceremony in her honor in Beijing, and is now under house arrest; Slate has launched a monthly book review; an opera based on Ann Patchett's novel Bel Canto has been commissioned by Lyric Opera of Chicago, and other news.
Thanks to the accessibility of new digital tools offered by booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, self-publishing is loosing its stigma and holds new promise for writers venturing out on their own.
Administrators offer insight into the mystifying process of applying to a writing retreat by answering some common questions: How do residency juries weigh a work plan? Would your boss make a better reference than a former writing teacher? Is published or unpublished work more desirable in a writing sample?
Sherman Alexie, winner of the other NBA, along with other poets and writers, shows off his jump shot in HooPalousa, a basketball tournament-cum-fund-raiser that aims to help create an endowment at the University of Idaho for a Native American MFA candidate.
