SlushPile.net

  With the sensational arrest of John Mark Karr in the near-decade-old murder of JonBenet Ramsey, I’m betting that we’ll start to see book deals on the subject start to appear by this time next week. With the lingering infamy of the child beauty queen’s case, international intrigue, a confession to reporters, and photos like [...]

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Bat Segundo recently turned in a couple of excellent literary podcasts. First, there is a conversation with Summer 2006 Litblog Co-Op finalist Michael Martone about experimental fiction, Dan Quayle, how universities affect writers/professors, mythology, and much more. Second, Bat also posted an interview with David Mitchell, the Booker Prize-nominated author of Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green. In [...]

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  I’ve been a fan of The Kenyon Review for some time now. In addition to publishing the best of contemporary literature, the journal now has it’s own blog. The blog provides reading that is as worthy as the journal and they recently posted an entry that is near and dear to my heart: Notes [...]

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  I’m not the most convivial of travelers even under the best circumstances. But, stuck waiting in Long Island’s Islip Airport, I was pushed to where I wanted to burst through the security doors and run screaming down the runway, happy in whatever fate a landing airplane or rushing policeman might have for me. The fake-Rolex flaunting man [...]

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  My review of T.R. Pearson’s Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting appeared on PopMatters yesterday. Click here to read the review in its entirety because this is an astounding book that details the true story of a single man who sailed a raft from South America to Australia when he was well-past [...]

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  “Tape peeled from the roll just like deer hide coming loose from the meat.” From Roger Alan Skipper’s impressive Tear Down the Mountain: An Appalachian Love Story.

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Kaavya Viswanathan, the college student who cashed a reported $500,000 advance from Little, Brown which was ultimately cancelled due to numerous allegations of plagiarism, will be advising new students at Harvard this fall. Viswanathan was one of 190 students selected from a pool of 500 applicants to be a peer advising fellow. The Harvard Crimson [...]

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  As we progress through August, and the little ones trudge back to school with their pencil boxes and trapper-keepers, this is also an important time for writers. First of all, most literary journals will begin accepting submissions again after their summer breaks. I try to have a barrage of stories ready to mail out [...]

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One of these days, I’m going to ask around and see if one of these book deals offered on eBay has ever actually sold. Right now, there are seven book/movie deals for sale on the auction site. They range from the film and residual rights for a series of 1950′s pulp novels auction with the bidding [...]

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  I’ve long professed my admiration for Daniel Woodrell’s writing. So it’s nice to see him getting some well-deserved attention with the release of his newest novel, Winter’s Bone. Yesterday, a profile of Woodrell appeared in USA Today. Although brief, the article will hopefully introduce new readers to Woodrell’s fascinating work.

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  It’s been a slow week around here as far as Slushpile.net goes. On Tuesday evening, what I thought was going to be just a common everyday flu bug ended up sending me to the emergency room. Wednesday and Thursday consisted of just brief periods of alertness as I slept off the elephant-tranquilizer effects of [...]

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  Maud Newton noticed this unusual bit of writing advice from the late Charles Willeford: “Never allow yourself to take a leak in the morning until you’ve written a page. That way you’re guaranteed a page a day, and at the end of a year you have a novel.”

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