Neil Gaiman gave the commencement address at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia last Thursday. “I thought I’d tell you everything I wish I’d known starting out,” he told the imminent graduates. “And that I’d also give you the best piece of advice I…
What is steampunk? Is it important? Does genre have an important role in literary culture? Or is genre troublesome, as Soren Kierkegaard may have unintentionally implied when he wrote that “Once you label me you negate me.” On the eve of his second steampunk festival…
Angelica Garnett, whose book about being born and raised amidst the Bloomsbury set greatly demystified and darkened the reputation of that “charmed circle,” has died at the age of 93. Garnet was the daughter of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, although she long thought…
Carlos Fuentes, perhaps Mexico’s most celebrated writer, died on Tuesday in Mexico City. He was 82. Fuentes influence on Mexican literature was enormous, and along with Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa and Julio Cortazar he brought South American literature to international acclaim in the…
There was a depressing article in the New York Times over the weekend about the rate at which novelists are expected to churn out books these days: two a year is now standard in some genres (mysteries, thrillers, romance), with maybe a few short stories…
The Reading Eagle have announced that the John Updike Society has finalized plans to buy the author’s childhood home in Shillington, Pennsylvania, for $200,000. Updike, who died in 2009, lived in the Philadelphia Ave. home for the first thirteen years of his life. Renowned for…
“Police crackdowns and attacks by religious extremists have attempted to derail the book tour of famed Muslim Canadian author Irshad Manji through Indonesia, a country she previously described as a symbol of ‘meaningful moderation in Islam,’” according to a report in the National Post. Manji…
If you’d had a spare $8,000-odd lying around over the last few days, you could now be the proud owner of Truman Capote’s typewriter. It’s just sold on ebay for $8,281, and, as the Paris Review observed, the lot only drew two bidders! The typewriter —…
This article in the Guardian points to an interesting list of recent grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts—one of which is $40,000 and going to the University of Southern California to develop a computer game based on Henry David Thoreau‘s Walden. According to…
Is it the beginning of the end for author Larry McMurtry’s giant bookstore in Western Texas? The famed author and long-time bookseller has announced he’s hosting a massive book auction this August in his Archer City store, Booked Up. According to the store’s press release:…
