SlushPile.net

MSNBC has an article about a guy working a job in every state in the nation. Daniel Seddiqui gets a gig in each state’s most famous industry, works there for one week, meets the people, and explores the surrounding area, before moving on. This quest is similar to Sean Aiken’s adventure working a different job [...]

Read the full story

Recently, the New York Observer wondered if there is any glamour left in publishing. The article generated a healthy amount of discussion amongst the book blogs and I didn’t initially think I had anything else to offer on the subject. But some of the ideas expressed in this article have really been festering away for [...]

Read the full story

In a piece about Wallace Stegner’s birthday, Timothy Egan recalls a hilarious interaction between an irritated author and an editor. Here’s the bit: Norman Maclean, the Montana native whose gin-clear prose makes “A River Runs Through It” an American treasure, certainly carried some of the Stegnarian chip on his western shoulder. After the success of [...]

Read the full story

In a move worthy of our country’s best politicians and crisis-management-trained professional athletes, Herman Rosenblat has managed to both apologize and deny fault at the same time. Reuters says Rosenblat apologizes while the Associated Press says he’s not sorry. Meanwhile, since in spite of the men in white coats trying to correct me, I still [...]

Read the full story

My old man was a pretty serious high school football player in south Georgia. Ohio, Texas, and Florida are now hotbeds of high school football player. But back in those days, small rural Georgia towns were as serious about ball as anyone. Naturally, I figured I would follow in my father’s footsteps. But I was [...]

Read the full story

With New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez’s admission to taking performance enhancing drugs, the whole issue of steroids in baseball has entered mainstream discourse again this week. I’m not much of a baseball fan, and frankly, I’m tired of the whole affair. However, there’s one part of the steroid discussion that drives me absolutely crazy. Athletes, [...]

Read the full story

Slushpile.net favorite Stephen Graham Jones has three appearances in Chicago lined up in conjunction with the Association of Writing Programs conference. Just look for the guy with cool western shirts featuring pearl snap buttons. Today at 6pm, he’ll be at the Chiasmus Press Reading and Party at Barbara’s Bookstore, 1218 South Halsted Street. On Thursday [...]

Read the full story

In American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon,, outdoorsman and writer Steven Rinella chronicles his own hunt for a wild buffalo in the Alaskan wilderness. Mixed in with his own adventure is a recounting of the buffalo’s history and its unique place in American culture. The book received acclaim from a number of critics. [...]

Read the full story

Slushpile.net overlord John Biggs was at the press conference today for Amazon’s launch of a new Kindle. Check out his live-blogging of the festivities here.

Read the full story

Last night, Coldplay won the Grammy award for their song “Viva La Vida.” This is the very same song that is the center of a lawsuit by guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani. Satch claims that Coldplay’s tune is follows too closely with his 2004 song, “If I Could Fly.” In fact, there was some speculation that [...]

Read the full story

So, we’re now accepting bets on how long it will be before deals for Super Bowl related books will be announced. I’m guessing we’ll hear news within the next two weeks. Last year, New York Giants wide receiver went from relative football obscurity to national hero with his astounding catch in the Super Bowl when [...]

Read the full story

In The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange, Mark Barrowcliffe describes a life most of us can understand. In this funny and endearing memoir, Barrowcliffe details his life-consuming obsession with the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons. As a child, the writer was a socially awkward, self-described “nerd.” Attending an all-boys school, growing [...]

Read the full story