Category: publishing

“The normally vigilant gaze of culture and Islamic guidance ministry officials was averted when a novel by the Nobel prize-winning author innocuously titled Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts was submitted and accordingly authorised for publication.”

Nearly a month after the first edition of celebrated author Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s latest book sold out in Iran, cultural officials have reportedly banned the title.

“Throughout the evening, tales of Norman Mailer continued to surface. Accepting the poetry award, Hass described his first poetry reading. “It was at Norman Mailer’s house,” he said, to surprised laughter, “he had a group of young poets over to read. It was the most terrifying experience of my life.”

An author defends against what she calls “libel tourism,” a “chilling effect” of the English law of libel and its use by wealthy “foreign tourists”. She’s got the support of organisations that represent a majority of the world’s media.

“The result, in what could be the first institution-wide initiative of its kind, will be a savings to students of up to 50 percent, the college estimates, as well as a savings of time to faculty, who often find themselves revising course materials to keep pace with continuously updated editions.”

“While Vonnegut’s passing last April led to a significant jump in sales for his books, the change was far smaller for the works of Mailer and Styron, both of whom, unlike Vonnegut, won Pulitzer Prizes. Books by all three writers are still used in classrooms, but Vonnegut’s are read more both on and off campus.”

“Tree of Smoke, a sweeping novel by Denis Johnson about the Vietnam War that features intersecting stories of an array of American and Vietnamese soldiers and intelligence officers, won the National Book Award for fiction last night.” New York Times reporter Tim Weiner took the non-fiction prize.

Oprah Winfrey went for the big time Wednesday with her latest book club pick, choosing Ken Follett’s 973-page “The Pillars of the Earth,” an announcement that will likely mean hundreds of thousands more sales for an author with a huge, international following.

Richard Ford writes in his “curiously defensive introduction to The New Granta Book of the American Short Story” about “the cold, suffocating hands of the American writing-program industry on our faltering national literary ‘product’. But this is surely a canard, an arthritic kneejerk generalisation…”

“Winners in the four competitive categories — fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature — will each receive $10,000. Other finalists get $1,000. Author-humorist Fran Lebowitz was to host Wednesday night’s ceremony, which also features honorary medals for author Joan Didion and National Public Radio host Terry Gross.”