• Elizabeth McCracken won The Story Prize for her collection Thunderstruck. Also, the LA Times book prize finalists have been announced.
• Harper Lee says “Go Away!” in answer to a persistent journalist. Maybe people should just leave her alone.
• It’s been confirmed: Barnes & Noble’s new NOOK Press, a buffet of self-publishing services, is really just another tentacle of Author Solutions.
• Judging from ISBN output, Author Solutions is fading back as CreateSpace continues to accelerate.
• Maya Angelou stamps are available for preorder.
• Insights into why Jamie McGuire returned to self publishing.
• The harsh reality of nonfiction writing. It’s all gloom and doom in Canada, people. Gloom and doom.
• No boys allowed: author’s school presentations are sometimes attended only by girls. And some writers are sporting mustaches in protest.
• Things Ryan Boudinot can say about MFA writing programs now that he no longer teaches in one. A rebuttal from Adrian Van Young. And a summary of the shitstorm that has followed.
• Nine authors who regretted the success of their work. And an in-depth account of William Powell’s Anarchist Cookbook odyssey.
• Turns out, Conan Doyle did write that story. I knew it all along: I deduced it!
• The Kansas state senate has passed a bill allowing teachers to be prosecuted for distributing materials deemed harmful to minors. One state representative wants Toni Morrison on the list of such materials. Censorship is a slippery slope, people.
• Finally, this gives me a boner: a “map” of literary genres. Now you know what to get me for Christmas.
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