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Bookninja points to an interesting article about just how impossible it is to get a literary agent and how ineffective they are once you do actually procure representation. “The problem is that there are many more writers than the market can bear, and to most publishers writers are about as important as farmers are to Tesco [...]

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Short story author Stuart Dybek is among this year’s recipients of MacArthur Foundation grants. It’s weird. I love short stories. However, I haven’t read much of Dybek’s work. I remember his collection The Coast of Chicago but that’s about it. And of ocurse there’s his great story Death of the Right Fielder. I do recall [...]

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Charles Bukowski’s former home in Los Angeles is one step closer to landmark status. The home has been the focus of an dedicated preservation effort.

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Ernest Hemingway’s home in Ketchum, ID got a much needed makeover, although plans for its future are still evolving.

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Seattle Weekly has an interesting article about Jennifer Worick, an author who has published about 20 books in six years. It’s an intriguing look into the diligent writers who pump out all those books that are frequently displayed around the counter at bookstores. Obviously, this style isn’t for everyone. Some people prefer to labor for years [...]

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To commemorate William Faulkner’s 110 birthday, about 60 readers will gather at Rowan Oak in Oxford, MS to read aloud his novel Go Down Moses. The event is not only celebrating Faulkner’s life and work, but it is also the innagural selection for “Mississippi Reads, a statewide initiative that annually encourages readers to gather around [...]

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This has nothing to do with books, but I gotta say I’m just loving Notre Dame’s struggles. So far this season, the Fighting Irish are 0-3. They haven’t scored an offensive touchdown yet. They’ve accumulated a grand total of negative 14 rushing yards. They’ve given up 23 quarterback sacks. And they’re ranked dead last out [...]

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Amazon says it’s not due to be released until next week. But my local bookstore had a big stack of Nikki Sixxi’s The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star on the shelf last night. My obsession with eighties metal, and Motely Crue in particular, are well known. So I snapped up [...]

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[I wrote this up earlier in the week and held off on posting it since there was a part of me that didn't want to pay any attention to the whole thing. But it's Friday and I figured what the heck, I'll jump into the discussion.]  I’ll openly admit that I frequently complain about our [...]

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Yesterday, Galleycat confirmed that HarperCollins signed a deal for a James Frey novel. Today, there are a number of reports with quotes and insights from all the principals involved with the deal. It will be interesting to see how the novel, Bright Shiny Morning sells when it’s released. The Oprah crowd won’t buy it, but then again, [...]

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Colton Simpson, author of Inside the Crips: Life Inside L.A.’s Most Notorious Gang, was found guilty of robbing a jewelry store on Monday. “With 10 previous convictions for serious crimes, the 41-year-old man could face life behind bars when he is sentenced Sept. 28,” reported the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors used passages from the book [...]

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I’ve never really understood writer’s block. Or, at least not in the middle of a project. Typically my problem is being unable to stop ideas. I seem to have an obsessive-type of focus that comes when I’m really into something. In graduate school, I was writing a collection of short stories for my master’s thesis. [...]

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