Monthly Archives: June 2006

Gilbert Sorrentino tribute

Guardian Unlimited Books posted an article today discussing the work of Gilbert Sorrentino, “novelist and poet with an idiosyncratic style,” who died on May 18th of this year.

Posted in Authors |

Da Vinci Code accused of plagiarism – again

According to today’s PW Daily, an article on the topic will appear in Vanity Fair’s July issue.

Posted in Authors |

Zadie Smith wins fiction award

It appears that Zadie Smith won the $53,600 Orange Prize for Fiction today with her novel On Beauty.

View the official Orange Prize website here, or read the Associated Press write-up. If you’ve read On Beauty, I’d be interested to know what your opinion of it is – just leave your thoughts in a comment.

Posted in Awards |

Powell's bookstore remains independent

It was recently announced that Portland, Oregon-based Powell’s, one of the largest independent bookstores in the US, will be transfered from owner Michael Powell to his daughter Emily.

The article notes that their website was released before Amazon.com, and that they were one of the first booksellers to shelve used and new books in the same place. Overall, it’s an interesting read – I suggest you take a look for yourself.

Posted in Booksellers, Websites |

John Updike @ BookExpo America

John Updike Terrorist cover art Hillel Italie of the Associated Press wrote an article regarding John Updike, his new novel Terrorist, and BookExpo America.

There is also a longer piece published on May 31st that covers many of the same subjects.

Posted in Authors, Events |

Seventeen's fiction contest

The Seattle Times published an article today on Seventeen magazine’s fiction contest. It was won this year by Annalise Nicholson’s story To Devotion, which will be published in the June issue.

Posted in Authors, Awards |

Philip Pullman criticizes British Waterways

The Oxford boatyard, where a portion of His Dark Materials was set, was sold by British Waterways – and as a result, the people living in boats there were evicted. An excerpt of Philip Pullman’s response: “They are greedy, shifty and dishonest and cannot open their mouths without lying.”

Posted in Authors |

Water for Elephants buzz

Water for Elephants cover artJacqueline Blais of USA Today writes that Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is being received well, despite a mixed Publisher’s Weekly review. The book’s publisher has increased the printing from 15,000 to 70,000 and added another twenty-five events to Sara’s book tour.

There’s also a separate article about it that covers some of the research she did for the book, from the same source and also published today.

Posted in Author Tours, Reading |

From pub to coffee house

The £50,000 Whitbread literary prize (which includes categories for First Novel, Novel and Poetry) is now being sponsored by the Costa Coffee chain, in place of a brewery.

Posted in Awards |

Summer Novel Writing!

SunflowerI’d like to remind everyone that NaNoWriSum (National Novel Writing Summer) begins today.

It’s basically a challenge to write one or more novels over three months, June, July and August. Many are choosing to aim for a comfortable 30,000 per month, or 90,000 over the whole event. Some are increasing that number to a round 100,000. The particularly daring people are doing 50,000 per month.

It should be lots of fun – I’m very much looking forward to getting started on it.

It’s taking place on the NaNoWriMo forums. If you’re planning on participating, come introduce yourself in the thread that started it all, or look for other topics starting with “WriSum:” in the “Reaching 50,000!” forum.

Unfortunately, you’ll need to already have an account on that website to post, and registration is currently closed. If you don’t have one, you could always join me and a couple of other Inkify members who are doing it in the Inkify NaNoWriSum topic, since you’re free to join Inkify at any time.

Photo credit: Thomash Hawk

Posted in Events, Websites |