Category: publishing

“A controversial poet said to have been turned down for the Laureateship 10 years ago because of her sexuality is the joint favourite to succeed Andrew Motion in the post.”

The book Hugo Chavez handed to President Obama on Saturday “went from No. 54,295 on Amazon to No. 2 in two days — after four, it remains strong, at No. 7. The implications, it seems, are a) that everything Obama touches turns to gold, and b) if a struggling author wants instant success, the surest route is to stand next to him and press her book into his presidential hands. The real problem here is the ‘stand next to him’ part.”

“‘Endpoint and Other Poems’ is, apparently, the last book that John Updike saw through the press before his death this past January. In these pages he writes with devastating plainness about illness and old age…. If L.E. Sissman, whose witty and civilized poetry Updike admired, hadn’t already taken the title, this slender book could easily have been called: ‘Dying: An Introduction.'”

“Miranda Hill, the moving force behind Project Bookmark Canada, imagines the day when Canadians will be able to read their way from coast to coast, following a trail of plaques containing literary excerpts of some of this country’s most geographically specific works. The first step on that journey will be taken tomorrow with the inaugural Bookmark containing a passage from In the Skin of a Lion, Michael Ondaatje’s iconic novel….”

“Poet Linda Gregg has won the third annual Jackson Poetry Prize, a $50,000 award given to an author who has written at least one book of ‘recognized literary merit,’ but has yet to receive wide attention.”

“Is the point of writing fiction in 2009 to represent, as accurately as possible, the way the world really works? And is there a meaningful distinction to be made between works of fiction that are overtly about actual places during actual moments in history (like Joseph O’Neill’s post-9/11 New York novel Netherland), and novels whose emphasis is elsewhere (like Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances, in which setting is incidental)?”

“Two men today admitted plotting to firebomb the home of the publisher of a controversial novel about the prophet Muhammad. … The building, the home and office of Gibson Square publisher Martin Rynja, suffered minor fire damage after fuel was poured through the letterbox.” Rynja had been “preparing to release The Jewel of Medina,” a novel “focused on Muhammad and the life of Aisha, his child bride.”

The Original of Laura, whose manuscript consists of 138 handwritten index cards, will be released as a Penguin Classics hardback in November. Penguin “will publish all the cards in the book, with a transcript of text [of each card] on the opposite page.” The company plans to republish all of Nabokov’s backlist as well.

“[A]lthough the global downturn has affected exhibitor attendance somewhat, the crowds milling around the entrance and pouring into the aisles seem as busy as ever, and the flood of new book deals struck just before and during the fair as overwhelming.”

“A novel that was today shortlisted for the Orange Prize will be made available as a free download for a day. Burnt Shadows is being offered to anyone who wishes to download it by the publisher Bloomsbury.”